tagged w/ Illegal Logging
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Understanding local human cultures is key to preserving gorillas, elephants and other wildlife in African parks and reserves, according to new research from Purdue University.
"Conservation efforts and the management of protected areas are often designed with the best intentions, but sometimes supporting scientific data is missing or incorrect assumptions are made about a local culture or even the outsiders or trade that plays a role in the area," said Melissa Remis, a professor of anthropology who studies gorillas.
"Conservation isn't just about protecting wildlife, you also need to consider the human dimension such as how local hunting technologies or even migration can change how land is used."
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Researchers found that selective logging opens light gaps in the forest that result in new herbaceous vegetation growth. This food source helps sustain the local antelope, which are called duikers. These antelope, whose populations are declining, are the primary food source for most people in the area, and some local residents have been hunting gorillas as a substitute as for duiker. A stable duiker population would help take the hunting pressure off the protected species, Remis said.
Remis and Rebecca Hardin, an associate professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources have studied the cultures and the animals, specifically elephants and gorillas, in this area since the 1990s.
In addition to regular animal censuses, the researchers interviewed park guards, tourists, local residents and others. Findings from this research, which includes data up to 2005, appeared in last month's Conservation Biology. The research team also is evaluating additional data from 2005 to 2008.
These recent animal censuses show that the local gorilla and elephant populations are declining even in the heart of the protected area.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100113172140.htmUnderstanding local human cultures is key to preserving gorillas, elephants and other... more
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Avatar, the new Cameron's film mirrors our times and environmental crisis more than ever.
This is happening right now in the Amazon forest. It has always happened but may be, just may be something is changing, something is different.
Not only people's environmental consciousness has grown powerful but action is taking place as we speak and we can only fully support them.
They are not the only one to be threatened, the whole world is at risk, we lose the Amazon, we lose the Earth.
The indigenous people have gotten together to fight against the illegal logging and a system that doesn't protect them.
It gets worse. The leaders of these groups are being imprisoned and are being labelled "criminals".
Two excerpts from:
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-01-12-battle-brazil-rainforest/
"The Jaurú logging company attempted to bribe the community members to let wood pass down the river. When their offer was rejected, the company hired gunmen to accompany their barges to market. In the early morning of Jan. 3, five log-laden barges set forth, accompanied by 40 armed men. When they reached the encampment, they opened fire on the sleeping, unarmed protestors. Two people were shot. The victims were rushed to the hospital; they survived."
"The demonstration at Renascer was in part inspired by action taken a month earlier and 100 miles to the west, in an area called Gleba Nova Olinda at the source of the Arapiuns River. On Nov. 12, people from over 40 indigenous and traditional communities—frustrated after more than a decade of failed negotiations with the state for territorial rights, and increasingly suffering threats and attacks against their leaders—closed the Arapiuns River to logging traffic and sequestered two barges full of timber. The protestors camped on the river’s edge for a month as they waited, to no avail, for state and federal governments to arrive and address the problem. Finally, they set fire to the 2,000 cubic meters of wood on the barges. The fires blazed on for three days."
Avatar, the fight against the corporate domination, greed and ignorance.
They control us.
When somebody steps out of the sheeple gets labelled as a criminal or terrorist immediately. There is no need for police intervention to stop this individual(s), they made it so that we police each other.
Step out of the fiction world, this is REALITY!
Join Organic:
http://current.com/groups/organicgreen/Avatar, the new Cameron's film mirrors our times and environmental crisis more... more
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXVBb87wnkQ
Armed bands are decimating rain-forest reserves in northeastern Madagascar, killing lemurs and intimidating conservation workers, despite widespread condemnation by international environmental groups.
Several local sources report large-scale logging of valuable hardwoods in Mananara-Nord Biosphere Reserve, Masoala National Park, and Makira.
"The terrestrial part of Mananara biosphere has been devastated," a Malagasy source told mongabay.com. "[Villagers] have been threatened with beheading if they continue to embarrass the bolabolists [illegal timber-cutters]. The message came from the timber barons of Antalaha.
Several hundreds of cutters are now in the Biosphere of Mananara carrying official forms with all necessary signatures."
The timber mafia is also threatening and intimidating park authorities. According to National Radio Maroantsetra a park ranger from ANGAP (Madagascar's protected areas agency) had both of his feet broken by representatives of timber barons of Mananara.
Loggers are reportedly hunting lemurs and birds for immediate consumption as well as for sale in commercial markets in towns. The news comes just hours after Conservation International released troubling pictures showing piles of lemurs killed for the restaurant trade in northeastern Madagascar.
*The critically endangered lemurs are being poached have an approximate 'value' of $0.50 each... FIFTY-CENTS FOR EACH LEMUR SLAUGHTERED. http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0820-lemurs.html
THESE SMALLL & DEFENCELESS CREATURES ARE BEING 'SMOKED' & SOLD AS A "LUXURY" IN RESTURANTS.
http://ecoworldly.com/2009/08/21/endangered-lemurs-slaughtered-smoked-and-sold-to-restaurants/#more-3720
Besides hunting, threats include logging, gold mining, slash-and-burn agriculture and uncontrolled fires.
According to a recent press release, Dr. Russ Mittermeier, president of CI, said, “What is happening to the biodiversity of Madagascar is truly appalling, and the slaughter for these delightful, gentle, and unique animals is simply unacceptable.
This brutal slaughter is not for subsistence, but rather to serve what is certainly a “luxury” market in restaurants of larger towns in the region.” Mittermeier went on to say that an entire population could be destroyed within weeks!
The killing of these amazing creatures threatens their very existence. The lemurs are on the IUCN Red List http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/8199/0
http://www.wildmadagascar.org/wildlife/lemurs.html
The problems are worsening. "New people are arriving every day," said a source. "There are no gendarme [police] in the area."
"Things are very bad inside the Masoala, around Maroantsetra and Mananara. The rosewood cutters are more numerous than ever, the logging area is spreading toward the South.
Sources say the situation has improved in Marojejy National Park, where logging first broke out during the turmoil following the March coup. Widespread reporting of problems in Marojejy apparently persuaded the government to send police to patrol the area.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXVBb87wnkQ
Armed bands are decimating rain-forest... more
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A Brazilian federal prosecutor is leading an investigation into charges that illegal timber from the state of Pará is being laundered as "eco-certified" wood and exported to markets in the United States, Europe, and Asia, reports Sunday's edition of O Globo.
Prosecutor Bruno Valente Soares has found evidence to suggest that timber companies are doctoring paperwork and using other methods to disguise timber that is being illegally cut from reserves and indigenous lands. International buyers pay a premium for certified timber, which they can market as being more sustainable than other wood. The timber goes to furniture makers and construction companies abroad.
The scheme allegedly involves up to 3,000 companies across Pará's timber sector, writes Liana Mello.
In recent years Pará has emerged as a major timber supplier and producer of agricultural products. It has had the highest deforestation rate of any state in the Brazilian Amazon since 2006, account for 43 percent of total forest loss.A Brazilian federal prosecutor is leading an investigation into charges that illegal... more
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PHOTO: A mountain gorilla is having a snare removed. Illegal logging/deforestation has created access for illegal hunting and illegal wildlife-trade. The snares are used to catch "bushmeat" (anything that ends up in the trap).
Large numbers of endangered animals have been killed by armed groups at Africa's oldest national park in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the start of the year, park officials and environmental groups said Tuesday.
Chimpanzees, elephants, antelopes, birds and hippos have been slaughtered after Virunga National Park became the scene of intense fighting.
The park, on the frontier with Uganda, was made a world heritage site by the UN's cultural body UNESCO, and is home to endangered species such as the mountain gorilla.
"Four chimpanzees were killed last week in the central zone and 11 elephants since the start of the year," park director Emmanuel de Merode told AFP.
He added "a large number of game animals", including antelopes, had also been slaughtered.
Bantu Lukamba, from local environmental NGO Innovation, said: "At least 31 animals, including 11 migratory birds and three hippos were killed over 21 days."
They died between May 25 and June 16, he said.
Armed groups have overrun the park since violence flared up last year.
It became the theatre of intense fighting, mainly between government forces or their proxies and rebels of the National Congress for the Defence of the People.
"It is impossible to get control the situation in the park, given the huge number of armed men who exploit its resources," Merode said.
The park is also home to Lake Edward, which in 1980 was the world's most important hippopotamus sanctuary with 27,000 of the animals.
There are now less than 300, according to Merode.
Created in 1925, Virunga National Park is the oldest in Africa.PHOTO: A mountain gorilla is having a snare removed. Illegal logging/deforestation has... more
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KINIGI, Rwanda (AFP) — Rwanda "baptised" 18 rare baby mountain gorillas at what has become an annual event to highlight the plight of the endangered species.
The baby gorillas, however, were not physically present at the colourful ceremony at the edge of a national park where the primates live.
Eighteen masked people represented the gorillas at the event, which included songs and dances, attended by senior government officials including Prime Minister Bernard Makuza.
Tourism Minister Monique Nsanzabaganwa said government was expanding the the size of the volcanic park by 10 percent by the end of the year in a bid to promote the conservation of the gorillas.
"This campaign is to encourage gorilla conservation initiatives and to promote the local tourism industry," she said.
"Tourism remains one of Rwanda's key sectors," she added.
The ceremony was the fifth of its kind in Rwanda in as many years. A total of 103 gorillas have been baptised and officially received a name so far, according to AFP count.
The world's last mountain gorillas are concentrated in the mountains straddling the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.
They number around 700 in all, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).KINIGI, Rwanda (AFP) — Rwanda "baptised" 18 rare baby mountain... more
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Has the recent violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo threatened the populations of lowland gorillas? How many are left?
The short answer is yes, dramatically.
Not to be confused with Western Lowland Gorillas, which are thriving in significant numbers in neighboring Congo (a recent census counted 125,000).
Today fewer than 5,000 Eastern Lowland Gorillas are estimated to remain in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly known as Zaire. Some 17,000 inhabited the region as recently as 1994, but today habitat loss, hunting ('bushmeat'), and war and violence are combining to push them over the edge.
Following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, an influx of refugees, along with bloodthirsty militias, moved across the border into the neighboring DRC. These militias set up training grounds in the very forests the gorillas call home, making conservation work impractical to say the least. Park rangers, game wardens and wildlife researchers either fled their wooded beats or were removed at gunpoint.
In the wake of this, civilian populations in the affected areas still had to make ends meet somehow. So hunting for so-called “bushmeat,” and cutting down the forest for firewood, charcoal and space for agricultural plots became the means for day-to-day survival, and continue to this day.
Some 91 percent of the human population in the region practice subsistence agriculture. This means that large swaths of gorilla habitat throughout the region have been converted to farms. At the same time, 96 percent of the locals rely on firewood as their main supply of energy for warmth and cooking. “Forested parks are for many of them the last remaining source of fuel,” reports the Year of the Gorilla website.
*please follow link for the rest of this story*Has the recent violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo threatened the populations... more
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Illegal logging in Indonesia has wiped out up millions of hectares of forest and driven the Sumatran tiger to the brink of extinction.
The recent spate of killings in Sumatra's Jambi's province shows that loggers and tigers are now locked in battle over a fast-dwindling area.
Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen reports.Illegal logging in Indonesia has wiped out up millions of hectares of forest and... more
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Canadian government plays divide and conquer with Algonquin indigenous people over logging.
The indigenous Algonquin community of Barriere Lake has been fighting with the provincial government of Quebec and the federal government of Canada for nearly twenty years over their land. Blockades they have set up in the late 1980s stopped illegal logging on their land and led them to sign a Trilateral Agreement with the two governments. Today, the community claims the agreement and all others that followed have not been honored, while logging companies plan to resume operations. In an effort to exert pressure on the government and the logging industry, the community has set up several blockades in protest. In response, the community’s spokespeople and leaders have been arrested. Benjamin Nottoway, Barriere Lake’s customary chief has been arrested at the last blockade and sentenced to two months in jail.
See also http://www.storyofstuff.com/Canadian government plays divide and conquer with Algonquin indigenous people over... more
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Extinction Blog
United Nations declares 2009 'Year of the Gorilla'
Poaching, deforestation and the dreaded Ebola virus have taken a terrible toll on populations of the four remaining gorilla species. Now, in an effort to help save our primate cousins from extinction, the United Nations Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals has declared 2009 the "Year of the Gorilla."
Three of the four species of gorilla are considered critically endangered, with just 700 mountain gorillas, 300 Cross River gorillas, and 5,000 eastern lowland gorillas left. The fourth species, the Western lowland gorilla, is critically endangered in some of its home countries, although the total population is much higher, at around 150,000.
All four species face declining populations, with threats ranging from the bushmeat trade, poaching for traditional medicine, habitat destruction from logging or the charcoal trade (an important source of fuel in Africa), and disease.
Luckily, the Year of the Gorilla is already off to a good start. This week, the 10 nations with gorilla populations agreed to examine the effectiveness of their anti-poaching laws and, hopefully, improve their implementation. Some of the money pledged for the Year of the Gorilla campaign will go toward educating judges so they understand the need to strictly enforce current anti-poaching laws.
Other actions to be funded by the YoG campaign include training park rangers, supporting scientific research, raising awareness of the gorillas' threats, and developing alternative sources of income (such as eco-tourism) for people living near gorilla populations. The UN hopes to raise more than $600,000 to support these efforts.Extinction Blog
United Nations declares 2009 'Year of the Gorilla'... more
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NEW SPECIES OF LIVING MANATEE!
'A New Species, the Dwarf Manatee, Amazon Association for the Preservation of Nature'
Discovered in AAPN Manus-Amazonas, Brazil.
Shallow clear-water adapted dwarf manatee is already on the edge of extinction due to rainforest deforestation, hunting...
THERE ARE NO LAWS TO PROTECT THIS CRITICALLY ENDANGERED DWARF MANATEE.
http://www.care2.com/news/member/785844898/889616
http://www.marcvanroosmalen.org/dwarfmanatee.htm
CRITICALLY ENDANGERED!
NEW SPECIES OF LIVING MANATEE!
'A New Species, the Dwarf Manatee, Amazon... more
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Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) withalong with the Mountain Gorillas Veterinary Project (MVGP) .
Up close & personal with the highly endangered mountain gorilla made famous by the late Dian Fossey. There are less than 700 of these incredible, gentle giants.
This video is a web exclusive.Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) withalong with the Mountain Gorillas Veterinary Project... more
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Elephants, gorillas and other large forest mammals may become extinct in central Africa within 50 years if hunting meat to feed starving populations continues at the current pace. Each year, rural peoples consume some 2.2 billion pounds (one million metric tons) of so-called bushmeat from wildlife, the equivalent of four million cattle; the flesh accounts for 80 percent of the protein and fat in their diet.
"If current levels of hunting persist in central Africa, the most vulnerable species will become extinct in the near future," cautions Nathalie Van Vliet, a researcher at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) based in Indonesia. The problem is, she adds, that "if the people that currently rely on bushmeat as a source of protein in central Africa had to rely on livestock, we would see the same catastrophe that is destroying the Amazon Basin: deforestation for pasture land and livestock raising."
In fact, there is no simple solution to this problem. CIFOR, in a report released today, argues that a hunting ban would not work, as evidenced by the failure of antipoaching programs, among other things. But it also says that forest species such as elephants, buffalo and apes that are slow to reproduce need to be protected or they will disappear entirely. Already, roughly 40 percent of jungle species are killed in greater numbers than can be regained through reproduction, according to the report "The Bushmeat Crisis."
The report calls for local agreements that allow hunting of species that can rebound quickly (such as various species of duikers, a type of forest antelope) while nixing kills of species with long gestation periods (such as elephants who give birth after 22 months). This is "hunting that can satisfy the demand from the poorest in future generations as well as ensure the stability in the long-term of hunted animal populations," Van Vliet says. But she notes the "success" of such pacts will depend on local communities' willingness to abide by them.
The only examples of such sustainable hunting, however, are either among people who have almost no contact with other human beings, such as the indigenous Aché people in the forests of eastern Paraguay, or those who have already killed off local populations of slow-breeding animals as is evidenced in the bushmeat market in Takoradi, Ghana.
Further exacerbating the problem: illegal and even legal activities in central African forests, such as logging and mining, that carve out new access as well as attract new people who also crave meat. And laws against the wildlife trade have failed to prevent supplies of everything from rhinoceros horns to tiger bones from reaching the estimated $3.9-billion global market.
That suggests that even granting ownership of the common resource represented by a duikers herd might not solve the problem, as some experts suggest. But it also shows that blanket bans are not working either. "In the tropics, they have genuine needs," says entomologist Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University's Center for Conservation Biology, who was not involved with this study but has been assessing the problems presented by expanding human population since the 1960s. "There are desperately poor people surrounding reserves. If I was there, I would shoot the hippo and eat it, too."Elephants, gorillas and other large forest mammals may become extinct in central... more
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Endangered Mountain Gorillas Featured on Morris Animal Foundation Web Exclusive, MAF Responded to Dian Fossey's Request for Veterinary Care--
DENVER, Sept 15, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) has posted a Web exclusive, http://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/gorilla/index.html, featuring an up close and personal visit with the magnificent, though highly endangered, mountain gorillas of Rwanda. In the exclusive video, MAF visits the site of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP), an innovative gorilla health initiative first established in 1985 when Dian Fossey asked MAF for help in response to a crisis situation for these gorillas. Their very survival was at stake. MAF accepted the daunting challenge and established veterinary care and health resources in the Rwanda jungles. Thousands of loyal MAF donors and friends also stepped up to answer the call for help. The MGVP is a testament to the kindness, generosity and commitment of people to saving a species.
MAF Chief Operating Officer John Taylor takes viewers to the MGVP headquarters and into the mountains where these gorillas live, explains how the project came about and allows the audience to enjoy these inspiring creatures at very close range. In fact, in one segment Taylor explains how one of the gorillas harmlessly reached out and grabbed one of the human members of the group.
In recent years the program was transitioned from MAF to MGVP, Inc., but MAF remains the primary funding source. Today, ecotourism plays a crucial role in the gorillas' survival and protection, inasmuch as they represent an important economic asset to the nation's economy. Information on how to visit the gorillas is provided as well as some good tips on making the trip.
About Morris Animal Foundation:
Morris Animal Foundation, established in 1948, is dedicated to funding animal health research that protects, treats and cures companion animals and wildlife. MAF has been at the forefront of funding breakthrough research studies benefiting animals in some 100 countries, spanning all seven continents. MAF has its headquarters in Denver. The Foundation has funded more than 1,500 humane animal health studies. Charity Navigator ranks MAF as a four-star charity, the highest rating.
For more information, call 800.243.2345, or visit http://www.MorrisAnimalFoundation.org.
SOURCE Morris Animal Foundation
http://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org
Endangered Mountain Gorillas Featured on Morris Animal Foundation Web Exclusive, MAF... more
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The average man living in forest-prone areas and who depends on meat from endangered apes and other wildlife for his proteins plays the role of a carrying agent for the hundreds of infectious diseases that humanity is suffering from.
Now experts are warning of the danger to humanity this lifestyle may be posing. Most of these diseases, identified in medical terms as zoonotic because of their ability to jump from animal to man, have been labeled as “emerging infectious diseases” or EIDs.
Over 60 percent of the 1,415 infectious diseases currently known to modern medicine are capable of infecting both humans and animals. Most of these diseases originated in animals and now infect people and include viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa and helminths, with 175 pathogenic species associated with diseases considered to be ‘emerging’.
Between 1972 and 1999, 35 new agents of disease were discovered and since then many more have re-emerged with renewed vengeance after long periods of inactivity, or are expanding into areas where they have not previously been reported, according to World Health Organization (WHO). These include tuberculosis, malaria, and cholera.
Public health professionals from across the globe met in Atlanta in March for the sixth International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases, to discuss these and other emerging pathogens and current work on surveillance, epidemiology, research, bioterrorism and more.
Wildlife Conservation Society reports that as humans progress ever further into the forest, the risk of disease transmission between humans and wildlife becomes greater. Many diseases can move back and forth between species, mutating into more virulent, resistant forms.
Myths aside, it has been claimed that the HIV/ AIDS virus may be such a case, as it is thought that it entered human populations through the consumption of non-human primates. The origin of HIV has been found in wild chimpanzees living in southern Cameroon.
Dr William Karesh, a WCS veterinary expert, believes the threat of potential pandemics such as Ebola, SARS, and avian influenza demands a more holistic approach to disease control, one that prevents diseases from crossing the divide between humans, their livestock, and wildlife.
But this may not be good news to a good number of Africans necessitated by poverty and high food prices to rely on bush meat, including gorilla and other great apes meat, and who may be courting, among others, various new encephalitis and hemorrhagic viruses, Lassa fever, and Ebola virus.
A recent WCS survey in a remote village on the border between Gabon and Congo revealed that about 18 tons of bush meat were sold and consumed in a particular period of time. As wildlife conservationists and medical experts bite their teeth, an average 17 species are killed per day, corresponding to a biomass of 65kg per day.
The average man living in forest-prone areas and who depends on meat from endangered... more
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Conservationists were thrilled last month that thousands of African Western Lowland gorillas - 125,000 by head count estimates - may have found a safe haven in a mud swamp and probably escaped predators.
This could have doubled the number of the endangered primates thought to survive worldwide.
But it never dimmed the fact that the great apes are still heading toward extinction if the activities of mad rebel groups operating with abandon in the forests and mountainous regions of Africa continue unchecked.
Mountain gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei) are the worst hit among the three subspecies according to their habitant in different parts of Africa. Others are the Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and the Eastern
The Congolese government has consented to remove its forces from the Virunga National Park, an enclave of about 72 mountain gorillas out of a total of 700 worldwide, in spite of an ongoing conflict to help protect the park’s valuable natural resources.
Yet gorillas still have more enemies. They are food to many communities within Equatorial Africa despite the inherent heath risks.
The Ebola virus, among other diseases, is also bearing its toll on them. Conservationists think the disease that causes massive hemorrhaging and organ failure resulting in death in a number of species, including humans, has killed up to 95% of the gorillas in some areas.
Human commercial activity that endanger these animals are the timber trade and the bush meat trade, both of which feed markets in Europe and other parts of the world. But habitat loss due to land clearance for subsistence farming that drives the gorillas further to areas where they are susceptible to numerous physical risks is also to blame.
Ironically, researchers who found the gorillas in their swamp haven were tipped off to their sight by hunters and trekked through mud for three days to reach them.
This does not, however, change the bad news that almost 50% of the world’s primates, including colobus and bonobo monkeys, chimpanzees and orangutans, are in danger of extinction.
Conservationists were thrilled last month that thousands of African Western Lowland... more
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Gorilla Silverback Filmed at Gatovu!
"This is Innocent. Yesterday I got a call from our rangers at the Gatovu Patrol Post. They told me that they had seen a solitary gorilla in the forest nearby. I immediately went over there to identify which individual it was.
We found the gorilla at about 10 minutes from the patrol post. I was amazed to see that it was Buhanga, the solitary silverback that had once belonged to the group now led by Kabirizi.
It was fantastic to once again see a gorilla in the wild- it was the first time since last year when the rebels took over the Mikeno Sector of the park. As you can see from the video, Buhanga has grown a lot bigger since last time I saw him!"
*Innocent & Diddy are Congolese rangers that protect the Mountain Gorillas. They monitor and carry out protection activities on the ground. Congolese rangers risk their lives to save mountain gorillas of the Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
To see how you can help, please visit: http://gorilla.wildlifedirect.org/2008/08/21/gorilla-silverback-filmed-at-gatovu/
GorillaProtection.org
Gorilla Silverback Filmed at Gatovu!
"This is Innocent. Yesterday I got a call... more
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PLEASE sign, forward & X-POST this petition.
Protect Gorillas From Deforestation - The Petition Site:
Target: Congo's Ministry of Environment
Sponsored by: Care2.com
Great news for one of the world's most endangered animals: researchers have discovered some 125,000 western lowland gorillas that were previously uncounted in the Congo Basin. Until now, scientists believed there were only about 50,000 of these endangered gorillas left.
But this exciting new population estimate does not mean gorilla numbers in the wild are now safe. The western lowland gorilla continues to come under threat as timber companies move into the Congo Basin, home to more than a quarter of the world's tropical forest. Without careful management of the forest resources, western lowland gorillas and other gorilla subspecies will remain severely endangered.
Now more than ever authorities need to stem rampant deforestation, to preserve the habitats of the great apes and to support long-term sustainability of the region's natural resources.
Please urge Congo's Ministry of Environment to deny all deals that were signed illegally under the country's moratorium on new logging contracts.
ACTUAL PETITION:
"We are happy about recent news that researchers have discovered some 125,000 western lowland gorillas that were previously uncounted in the Congo basin. Until now, scientists believed there were only about 50,000 of these endangered gorillas left.
But this exciting new population estimate does not mean gorilla numbers in the wild are now safe. The western lowland gorilla continues to come under threat as timber companies move into the region. Logging and land clearance for farming are eating away the Congo Basin, home to more than a quarter of the world's tropical forest. Without careful management of the forest resources and strict enforcement of protected areas, the western lowland gorillas and other subspecies of gorillas will remain severely endangered.
Now more than ever it is essential to preserve the habitats of the great apes and support reforestation.
In 2002, with the Democratic Republic of Congo partially under the control of rebels, the country issued a five-year moratorium on new logging contracts to try and stem rampant deforestation. But the measure went largely unheeded and companies continued to sign new deals.
We ask that officials review the government-sponsored working group's recommendation on August 6, 2008 to cancel more than three quarters of its logging deals for not meeting necessary standards. But we are concerned that these recommendations did not go far enough. Sixteen of the 29 titles received a favorable opinion from the working group, despite being obtained in clear violation of the five-year moratorium on new logging contracts.
We urge you to comply with the five-year moratorium, and deny all logging contracts that were signed under moratorium.
Thank you for protecting the future of endangered gorillas and the biological diversity of the Congo basin."
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/844698
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/269086042PLEASE sign, forward & X-POST this petition.
Protect Gorillas From... more
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Great news for one of the world's most endangered animals: researchers have discovered some 125,000 western lowland gorillas that were previously uncounted in the Congo Basin. Until now, scientists believed there were only about 50,000 of these endangered gorillas left.
But this exciting new population estimate does not mean gorilla numbers in the wild are now safe. The western lowland gorilla continues to come under threat as timber companies move into the Congo Basin, home to more than a quarter of the world's tropical forest. Without careful management of the forest resources, western lowland gorillas and other gorilla subspecies will remain severely endangered.
Now more than ever authorities need to stem rampant deforestation, to preserve the habitats of the great apes and to support long-term sustainability of the region's natural resources.
Please urge Congo's Ministry of Environment to deny all deals that were signed illegally under the country's moratorium on new logging contracts.
Please Note:
It is bittersweet that this Great Ape population was found ...because now, they can be found by the poachers as well. Deforestation allows for easier access to the gorillas for poachers.
PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION ASKING FOR PROTECTION OF THE GORILLAS HABITAT!http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/269086042
Great news for one of the world's most endangered animals: researchers have... more
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