By Alison Walkley
30 May 2009, [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) have launched the 2009 Year of the Gorilla (YoG) initiative to combat the destruction of the species’ East African mountain range habitat. By encouraging more efficient fuel alternatives, YoG intends to reverse the land loss caused by charcoal production in places such as Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
According to yog2009.org, among multiple goals, the YoG initiative strives to “encourage strategic approaches to gorilla conservation that are practical, easily manageable and accessible; create awareness among people of ecosystem services; provide income opportunities alternative to poaching, logging, and mining through capacity building; [and] promote the concept that sustainable development must be compatible with gorilla survival across the species range, even outside of protected areas.”
Gorilla range states have been known to engage in land deals with foreign companies in exchange for agriculture and bio-fuel production. The result is deforestation, a loss of habitat, and an intensification of climate change factors. In a statement released last week, UNEP explained how tropical trees in these forests, if left undisturbed, absorb “nearly 20 percent of the carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels, or some 4.8 billion tons each year.”
The Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) is an innovative and ambitious project of the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization with an immediate challenge – to lift the threat of imminent extinction faced by gorillas across equatorial Africa and south-east Asia. (Photo courtesy UNEP)
Daniel Karr, the UNEP/CMS YoG spokesperson, told MediaGlobal, “The profits from bio-fuel production are short term, hand to mouth. Existing agriculture can be made more efficient, as can use of fuel from forests… The economic value of intact forest ecosystems and live gorillas are much larger.”
One such value is that of ecotourism. Karr expanded on this idea, saying, “Ecotourism can be an important source of revenue, as demonstrated by Uganda’s and Rwanda’s healthy (and economically vital) ecotourism sectors. Communities living close to protected areas are actually doing better than others…because a benefit-sharing scheme grants them part of the ecotourism revenue for developmental projects.”
Karr said, “A similar future would be possible in DRC, if stability allowed, and for the western species range states. Take into account the essential services provided by intact forest ecosystems and it becomes quite clear that intact forest and live gorillas (dispersing seeds for the next generation of trees, quite literally acting as gardeners of the forests) are worth far more than the alternatives.”
On top of land loss, a recent boom in the bushmeat trade, diseases, mining, and armed conflict in the region are also threatening the gorilla population.
Currently, according to Karr, there are around 700 Mountain Gorillas remaining in two populations of eastern species in Africa. Both species, Karr says, are “very rare.” Eastern Lowland Gorillas (ELGs), on the other hand, are more difficult to quantify. Karr explained, “surveys have been impossible for the last 10-15 years due to war and militia rule. In 1996, there were [around] 17,000 ELGs, but this number has shrunk dramatically due to bushmeat hunting to feed militias and coltan [colombo-tantalite ore] miners. It is estimated that [around] 5,000 remain.”
Karr assured, “Two YoG projects focus on the ELGs, which is the species hit hardest by mining and its effects (increase in hunting, habitat loss, displacement). The YoG raises funds for these projects,” which include a drive to exclude DRC coltan from the main production pathways and a mobile phone recycling campaign.
The Rights and Resources Initiative, a global coalition working to advance forest tenure in developing countries, estimates that Africa’s deforestation rate is about four times the global average, with less than 2 percent of the land under community control. Without ensuring land rights for Africa’s people, efforts to halt and reverse deforestation practices, as well as save the remaining gorilla population, will be difficult if not impossible to achieve.