Illegal demand for bushmeat has fuelled the decline of gorillas

Illegal demand for bushmeat has fuelled the decline of gorillas

Grauer gorillas, the lowland cousins to the more famous mountain gorillas, are in a downward spiral.

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James Fair

Published: May 24, 2016 at 5:56 am

Eastern lowland – or Grauer’s – gorillas have declined by 77–93 per cent in the past 20 years, according to a new report.

There are now thought to be just 3,800 Grauer’s gorillas in the only region where they are found, the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Artesanal mining operations, controlled by militia groups, are largely blamed for causing the decline through the increased demand for bushmeat.

“Since 1996, the entire range of the Grauer’s gorilla has been consumed in conflict,” the report from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Fauna & Flora International (FFI) states. “This has resulted in a complete breakdown of government control, including wildlife protection activities.”

The demand for tantalum – a mineral used to make capacitors for mobile phones and game consoles – has helped fuel the instability, though some groups say that the situation in the DRC is improving.

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James Fair

Wildlife journalist

James Fair writes about wildlife conservation and broader environmental issues for a wide range of publications, including BBC Wildlife and BBC Countryfile magazines. James started his career as a journalist in the early 1990s, then spent a number of years working on conservation projects in South America, including an ultimately doomed effort to reintroduce an orphaned Andean bear cub into the wild in Bolivia. In 1999, James joined BBC Wildlife as a commissioning editor, while later filling the roles of staff writer, environment editor and keyboard destroyer-in-chief. In 2018, he went freelance, and now takes on a range of news, feature and report writing assignments, and is also the editor of the membership magazine of the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES). In 2019, he published his second book, 100 Great Wildlife Experiences: What to see and where.

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