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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Increase in African Poaching Linked to Logging

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

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1/28/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

Activists are linking increased poaching of gorillas and chimps for

bush meat to increased accessibility to Africa's rainforest remnants

through logging road access, by mostly European companies. Wholesale

clearing of remaining rainforests and their species can no longer be

tolerated if they and we are to survive.

g.b.

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Title: Poachers killing gorillas, chimps for bush meat delicacy

Source: CNN

Status: Copyright 1998

Date: December 30, 1998

Byline: From Correspondent Gary Streiker

EASTERN CAMEROON (CNN) -- In Central Africa, some of man's closest

relatives are being pushed close to extinction by two disturbing

trends -- civilization's appetite for luxury foods and virgin timber.

Here, in the space of two days, an entire family of gorillas was shot

and killed -- three adult females, two babies and the father, a big

silverback. The gorillas were killed to be butchered, smoked and sold

in the markets of Cameroon as "bush meat," an increasingly popular

food.

"The slaughter of chimpanzees and gorillas, our closest relatives, is

absolutely diabolical. I can't imagine that this can go on much longer

before these animals are extinct," warns Richard Leakey with the Kenya

Wildlife Service. But in Central Africa, the commercial trade in bush

meat continues to grow. Markets teem with meat from many forest

animals, including endangered chimpanzees, gorillas and elephants --

not as necessary protein sources but as delicacies.

Unrestrained logging, mostly by European companies driving new access

roads into old-growth forests, makes the proliferation possible. Roads

now penetrate deep into areas once inaccessible to hunters.

"It's the logging that's at the core of the problem. We would not have

this dramatic increase in bush meat death and destruction if it

weren't for the commercial logging," says Randy Hayes of the

Rainforest Action Network.

Some logging companies do more than build the roads; they take a role

in the bush meat trade. They hire employees to buy the meat, supply

hunters with guns and ammunition, and transport them and their catch

between forests and markets.

Central African governments say logging companies have the right to

expel poachers from their concessions. But many companies say that's

not possible. Poachers are armed and dangerous, and only the

governments have the power to solve the problem, they say.

"You need the collaboration of many authorities to be able to close

the market," environmental activist Roger Ngoufo says.

But governments fail to enforce laws against illegal guns and the

poaching of protected animals, environmentalists charge.

Worldwide attention needed

Photographer Karl Amman, who has spent years documenting the killings,

believes only international action can stop the developing disaster.

"It will need political will. To generate political will, you need a

major international outcry," he says.

Yet unless action takes place, the carnage will remain commonplace in

Central Africa. Leaving the main road and heading down a hunting

trail, Amman identifies one such gruesome scene: except for the

youngest, an entire family of chimpanzees has been cut into pieces.

"There should be concern expressed at every possible venue to bring

pressure on both the African governments and on the international

bodies to do something about this," Leakey says. "Unless this is

stopped, these species could become extinct, and it would be a

terrible loss to humanity."

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