GORILLAS IN THE CROSSFIRE
To date, the greatest threats to Western lowland gorillas are to be butchered for bush meat, loss of their forest habitat to logging and the spread of human diseases – especially outbreaks of Ebola, which in 2008 tipped their conservation status on the IUCN Red List from Endangered to Critically Endangered.
The outlook continues to be gloomy. Africa, particularly the Congo basin, has become the new frontier for palm oil plantations and the best areas for palm growing coincide with gorilla habitat.
Then there’s the world’s insatiable hunger for coltan – a contraction of columbite-tantalite – the valuable metallic ore from which tantalum and niobium are refined.
Niobium and tantalum are both regarded as technology-critical elements. Tantalum is used to make capacitors for electronic equipment such as mobile phones, DVD players, computers and cameras. Niobium – along with titanium and tin – is used in various superconducting alloys, which are widely used in the magnets of MRI scanners. Niobium’s other uses include welding, electronics and optics.
Not only does mining clear forests, it finances armed conflicts, placing gorillas in the crossfire. Especially at risk are the mountain gorillas studied by Dian Fossey on the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.