Gorillas face extinction in Congo Basin, UN

Doha, 25 March-(ANA)-Gorillas may become near-extinct in Africa's Greater Congo Basin by the mid-2020s unless action is taken to prevent poaching and to protect their habitat, a U.N.-backed report has said.

The situation is particularly critical in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where activity by local militias has hit local gorilla populations, according to the report by the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) and Interpol.

Illegal logging, mining, charcoal production and escalating demand for bushmeat, or meat for food, an increasing portion of which is ape meat, have also taken their toll.

Logging and mining camps, believed to have links to militias, are hiring poachers to supply refugees and markets in towns across the region with bushmeat, UNEP said.

Trade in smuggled minerals and timber drives the militias' activities, generating between $14 million and $50 million annually.

"Gorillas may have largely disappeared from large parts of the Greater Congo Basin by the mid 2020s unless urgent action is taken," the report said.

The study was bleaker than a 2002 U.N. forecast that only 10 percent of the original gorilla ranges would remain by 2030.

"The gorillas are yet another victim of the contempt shown by organised criminal gangs for national and international laws aimed at defending wildlife," said David Higgins, manager of the Interpol Environmental Crime Programme. (ANA)

FA/ANA/25 March 2010-------