Climate Change Concerns: Gorillas under threat = climate concern?

When I read the title (Congo Basin gorillas under mounting threat) and three short paragraphs re a recent report in yesterday’s London Free Press I related the matter to climate change.

Because of two words really. Can you see which ones?

Gorillas may become near-extinct in Africa's Greater Congo Basin by the mid-2020s unless action is taken to prevent poaching and to protect their habitat, a UN-backed report said on Wednesday.

The situation is particularly critical in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where activity by local militias has hit local gorilla populations, according to the report by the UN Environment Programme and Interpol.

Illegal logging, mining, and escalating demand for bushmeat, or meat for food, an increasing portion of which is ape meat, have also taken their toll.

If you said illegal logging you are correct.

Not because I know tonnes about illegal logging. (Yes, I rescue lumber for birdhouses from an area landfill site but that’s only slightly dodgy).

I know some things re illegal logging and its connection to climate change because I’ve been reading Saving Planet Earth by Tony Jupider recently and came across the following:


[Congo Basin gorilla: photo link]

In addition to being cleared to free land for agriculture, the tropical rain forests are also being plundered to supply the world with wood... the loggers are targeting the large blocks of natural forest that remain in Amazonia, New Guinea and Central Africa... including the Democratic Republic of Congo. (pg. 192)

The growing demand for exotic woods and beef from North American, European and Asia drive deforestation tactics that lead to wasteful, fossil-fuel dependent agricultural practices (e.g., soy production for cattle feed), the emissions of more climate-changing gases and biodiversity loss.

Not only are natives driven off their land, but as ape habitat is lost the animal’s often end up on dinner plates - and visa versa (for apes).

“An expanding trade in so-called bushmeat, now driven by demand from urban centers where animals caught from the rain forest, including gorillas, are considered as delicacies, is one of the main reasons for the loss of biodiversity across the central African forests.” (pg. 193)

I think Joni Mitchell got it right when she sang, we won’t know what we’re missing ‘til it’s gone.

Please click here to read about other climate change concerns.

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