Gorillas

[Guest guest]

This is the official press statement fromTHE DIAN FOSSEY GORILLA

FUND.

Also check out:

hometown.aol.com/Bodhimind8

and

www.leonardodicaprio.org/Gorilla/

and

www.gorillas.org

 

 

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, led by its foremost patron Sir Arthur C

Clarke (see quote below), has launched a $1.25 million campaign to

mitigate the impact coltan mining is having on Kahuzi Biega National

Park in eastern Congo and establish the means to achieve the long-

term survival of the eastern lowland gorilla within its native

habitat.

 

At this moment, the eastern lowland gorilla is highly endangered. " If

we do not act quickly, " said Clarke, " these gentle creatures could

become victims of our progress. Ironically, the ubiquitous computer

chip, which has transformed human culture is now threatening

their's. "

 

Eastern lowland gorillas are found exclusively in the wild (only 3

are in captivity) in Kahuzi Biega National Park - half a million

hectares of thick afro-montane forests on the western shores of Lake

Kivu in eastern Congo. In recent years the park, a World Heritage

Site, has come under siege: first by rebels, then by poachers and

finally by miners of a rare and valuable ore, known locally as

coltan.

 

Coltan or columbite/tantalite is one of the ores from which tantalum

powder - used in the manufacture of tiny tantalum capacitors, which

withstand the heat of ever-faster computers and ever-smaller mobile

phones - is made.

 

Tantalum is only found in a handful of places in the world. Kahuzi

Biega National Park holds some of the world's most valuable tantalum -

it is unusually low in radioactive isotopes - and as much as 15% of

the world's total deposits. The worldwide market for tantalum

capacitors has been increasing rapidly. In 1988 5 billion units were

manufactured. In 1998 15 billion units were manufactured. In 2000 25

billion units were manufactured. Nearly 10,000 tantalum-related

patents have been registered in the US - 1,000 in the last year.

 

Last year increased global demand for mobile phones and rumours of a

tantalum shortage sent the price of coltan in Congo rocketing from

$10 per pound to $80 per pound. As a result, peasant miners and

mining companies have now taken over Kahuzi Biega and their presence

threatens to finally exterminate the few remaining gorillas and

elephant that have managed to survive years of war and an escalating

bushmeat trade. Their prospects do not look good. The gorilla

population has been reduced from 8,000 to less than 1,000 since war

engulfed the region And now, as Kahuzi Biega succumbs to an onslaught

fed by the global demand for faster and smaller technology, it would

seem the demise of the eastern lowland gorilla is imminent.

 

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund is confident, however, it can turn this

situation around for Kahuzi Biega. " For the past five years we have

managed a cutting-edge conservation programme in the midst of war in

central Africa, " said DFGF director, Jillian Miller, " providing rapid

emergency support for rangers, making micro-credit available to

otherwise inaccessible communities, working with local partners and

helping to build a local environmental movement. " At Mt. Tshiaberimu,

in north-eastern Congo, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund has managed a

conservation project since 1997 for a very small, isolated group of

gorillas whose population is now growing. Regular and better-equipped

ranger patrols have prevented any further encroachment – including

panning for gold - of this once overrun mountain forest.

 

The Fund has prepared a four-point action plan to save the eastern

lowland gorilla:

 

1. An emergency package of salaries, equipment and organisational

support for the Institute Congolese pour la Conservation du la Nature

(ICCN) park rangers at Kahuzi Biega.

 

2. An independent study to determine first-hand the nature and extent

of the coltan trade.

 

3. A global campaign to raise the awareness – of local governments,

the mining and technology industries and the public – of the impact

minerals from central Africa, in particular tantalum (for which there

are many alternative sources), is having.

 

4. A $1 million endowment fund for community conservation at Kahuzi

Biega – specifically for creating one, self-sustaining, micro-credit

fund each year.

 

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These shy apes and their Afro-montane habitat form a unique part of

our Planet's bio-diversity. But more than that, they are almost

literarily our cousins. Anyone who can look into a gorilla's eyes

without feeling a sense of kinship, is to me less human than the

gorilla itself.

 

Yet if we do not act quickly, these gentle creatures could become

victims of our progress. Ironically, the ubiquitous computer chip,

which has transformed human culture is now threatening their's. (Yes,

I use the word " culture " deliberately: recent studies have confirmed

what many have long suspected - that the great apes do have a

culture, only quantitatively different from our own.)

 

A vital component of the microchip is tantalum, and this is now found

in the same area of the Congo as the gorillas, so both mining and

warfare are combining to destroy their environment. It is perhaps

appropriate that I am using my computer - which doubtless contains a

few micrograms of tantalum - to draw attention to this new threat to

our endangered relatives.

 

- Sir Arthur C Clarke

April 2001, Colombo, Sri Lanka

 

A hyperlink version of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund's campaign

strategy is available at:

http://www.topicdrift.com/pdf/KAHUZI2C.PDF