I got a phone call from the World Wildlife Fund last week asking for a donation. The gentleman focused on the plight of the gorilla and told me that 2009 is the Year of the Gorilla. I wanted to get off the phone because I knew I wouldn’t be able to make a donation at this time (I have made donations to WWF in the past), but decided to stay on the line and listen to his message.
He conveyed some very disconcerting facts about why gorillas are endangered and just how precarious their situation is. According to WWF, the main reasons for their plight are:
* Hunt for bushmeat: The commercial trade in bushmeat, which occurs throughout west and central Africa, is today the biggest threat to African gorillas.
* Habitat loss: Forests are rapidly being destroyed by commercial logging interests, for subsistence agriculture and road building activities. This makes it harder for gorillas to sustain their lives.
* Hunting: Gorillas are also sought after as pets or trophies and for their body parts, which are used in medicine and as magical charms.
* Infectuous diseases: Since the early 1990s, outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever have caused large-scale die-offs of great apes. The 1994 outbreak in Minkébé (northern Gabon) wiped out the entire population of what used to be the second largest protected population of gorillas and chimpanzees in the world. Between 2002 and 2003 the virus claimed many human lives in the north of the Republic of Congo and at two study sites in and around Odzala National Park, 95 percent of the 600 identified gorillas died likely as a result of Ebola.
So why focus on the gorilla? Well, you don’t have to. What is happening to the gorilla is representative of what is happening to so many endangered species–habitat destruction and hunting are two of the biggest factors threatening their continued existence. Our over-consumption of resources threatens both the places where the animals live and the animals themselves. So pick any animal or any region that speaks to your heart–any focus anywhere is better than no focus at all!
After I got off the phone, I wondered if, in my own life in the U.S., I was contributing to the gorilla’s (or other animals’) predicament. On WWF’s website, I took a survey to see what my family’s ecological footprint is (the way we use the planet’s resources). Based on my answers, our family’s footprint is about 2.7 hectares (27,000 sq. meters–the amount of the Earth’s area needed every year to support our lifestyle). This is a little more than the average footprint for an African (1.4 hectares). The average footprint for a European is 4.7 hectares–for an American, it is 9.2!
As Americans, my family’s footprint is “soft”–however, based on my answers, I know there is more we can do to live a greener lifestyle. Directly related to the gorilla, we can make sure that any timber products we buy carry the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) label. Without the FSC label, timber may well stem from illegal or controversial sources in central Africa.
I challenge you to go to the link at the bottom of this blog and see what your own family’s footprint is. Once you do so, you also have the opportunity to decide what changes you can make and how they will change your footprint. For instance, if, in our home, we reduce our showers by just 3 minutes, our family will be sparing the equivalent of 660 square meters of land per year.
It is imperative that we all look at how we can live a greener lifestyle. WWF’s website lists many suggestions for all aspects of our lives. In the weeks to come, I plan to share much of this information on my blog. In the meantime, the more we, as consumers, can begin to pay attention to what and how much we buy–as well as where it comes from–we’re beginning to do something.
DID YOU KNOW…According to WWF:
The Cross River gorilla is currently the world’s rarest great ape, no more then 300 individuals are living.
The Ebola virus wiped 90% of western lowland gorillas in the Congo and Gabon.
The DNA of gorillas is 98%–99% identical to ours.
By 2030, less than 10% of Gorilla habitat could be left undisturbed!
FOR TODAY…I will continue to study WWF’s website, focusing on WWF’s suggestions for living a greener lifestyle. I recognize that everything and everyone in our world is interrelated–what I do does contribute to the wellness (or ill health) of our planet and its inhabitants.
