Mountain gorilla predators1/20/2024 ![]() ![]() However, these social, peaceful, and mostly vegetarian creatures are gentle giants. We predict that in most of those sites we could lose gorillas in the next five to ten years.Mountain gorillas are one of the largest and strongest living primates. “At other sites, where there is no protecting going on, it’s unlikely the rate of decline is going to change. But Plumptre has a stark warning for areas that fail to protect gorilla populations. The WCS is currently lobbying to create two new protected areas in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, which could be run by local communities as an alternative form of employment. While gorilla numbers have been steadily increasing in protected areas, populations elsewhere continue to decline at a rate of about five per cent every year. Even with a certification scheme, which is one of the things we’re proposing, it’s difficult to control because other minerals from other sites can be slipped into the chain.” “They can get hidden in whatever exports are going out through those two countries. ![]() “There’s still an international demand for these minerals and many of them are flowing out through Uganda and Rwanda,” added Plumptre. In 2014 the British Geological Survey estimated Central African mines contributed nine per cent of global coltan supply. More stringent and sophisticated risk mitigation systems would lower the risk of “poaching-related minerals” ending up in supply chains.Ĭoncern over conflict minerals in the DRC has seen a lot of coltan mining shift to Australia, but business in Africa is still booming. “Now, there are systems to track material from validated conflict-free mines all the way through the supply chain.” More than 95 per cent of known tantalum smelters, she continued, are now verified as conflict-free through independent third party audits.Ĭompanies that use such minerals must also be more willing to act on emerging or previously unknown threats to their due diligence processes, Peyser added. “Six years ago, it was virtually impossible to trace minerals further upstream of the refiner, smelter or metals processor,” said Peyser. She added that great strides had been made to ensure the global supply chain was conflict free, offering some hope to those striving to save the local gorilla population from hungry miners. Jennifer Peyser, senior mediator at Washington, DC-based environmental organisation Resolve, pointed to aerospace, automotive and jewellery as other “very important” sectors. Such minerals are often linked exclusively to the technology sector, but their use is widespread. The most commonly-mined conflict minerals in the area make up the 3TG group: tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold ore. The mines are mainly producing columbite-tantalite, also known as tantalite or coltan, a mineral used in almost every kind of electronic device. The mines are usually controlled by armed rebels who work where government forces struggle to reach.Īccording to the WCS, artisanal mining is one of the “primary causes” of the decline in numbers. Its hunting for bushmeat has been driven by the proliferation of small mineral mines deep in the forest, according to Andrew Plumptre, director of the organisation’s Albertine Rift Program, which operates in the DRC, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia. According to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), its numbers have fallen 77 per cent in the last two decades, with fewer than 4,000 now remaining. The Grauer’s gorilla, the world’s largest primate, is only found in the eastern DRC, but decades of illegal hunting and mining, coupled with civil unrest and habitat loss, have pushed it to the brink.Ĭonservationists are now calling for ‘bushmeat free’ to be included alongside ‘conflict free’ as a way of ensuring minerals used in the global supply chain are sourced from mines that don’t kill endangered animals. Concerns have now been raised that the global technology supply chain may be accelerating its demise. An endangered gorilla subspecies is being pushed towards extinction as mineral miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) hunt it for bushmeat. ![]()
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