Palm oil plantations could threaten Africa’s biodiversity

The large palm oil plantations have already caused huge environmental destruction in Indonesia, mostly in form of massive deforestation. The same scenario could soon happen in Africa after a New York-based agricultural firm Herakles Farms announced its plan for a massive palm oil plantation (148,000 acres) in Cameroon.

This big palm oil plantation should be built in one of the Africa's most biodiverse areas, amid four protected areas, including Korup National Park, Rumpi Hills Forest Reserve, Bakossi National Park, and Banyang Mbo Wildlife Sanctuary.

An expected massive deforestation in this area will create irreparable damage to wildlife in this area and many animals will find it very hard to survive. This area already gives home to some of the endangered species including red-eared guenon, Preuss’s red colobus, the drill, and the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee.

The conservationists also fear that the increased economic activity in this area will cause more people to migrate to this region, causing rapid boom in population, meaning that there won't be enough available space for both people and wildlife.

The bushmeat trade is already a big issue in this area and with more workers coming to this area this problem could become even worse.

If this plantation gets the final go ahead by Cameroon government it will disrupt important wildlife migration routes and isolate wildlife populations by preventing their interconnection. The Herakles did however say that it is considering creating wildlife corridors but with more people coming in this area something it will be almost impossible to achieve this.

There is no doubt that this huge oil plantation would cause significant economic benefits in this area, particularly in form of new jobs for poor African people. The Heracles already mentioned the number of 9.000 new jobs.

However, even the positive economic prospect isn't enough for many people in this area to support this new palm oil plantation because they (rightfully) fear that this could mean losing their forests, not to mention being surrounded by oil palms or in some cases even being forced to relocate.

Developing a sustainable and environmentally friendly oil industry in Africa isn't as easy to do as Bruce Wrobel, president & CEO of Herakles Capital thinks it is. Even the positive social ambitions for better economic prosperity aren't enough to justify potentially irreparable damage to Africa's rich biodiversity.

Gorillas more important than oil in Congo

When it comes to animals vs oil exploration and drilling the winners are usually oil companies but luckily not always. The positive example comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa where country's environmental minister Jose Endundo has rejected the bid by the UK's Soco International to search for oil in the Virunga National Park.

Virunga national park is the largest habitat for mountain gorillas in the world, with more than 200 of the world's remaining 700 mountain gorillas living here. Not only that, this area also belongs to the areas with the richest biodiversity on our planet.

You don't have to be a scientist to realize that oil exploration and drilling would cause huge damage to animals living in this area, especially when you consider the history of this area covered with bloody civil wars.

In fact, there are still some armed groups of rebels operating in this area, attracted by the richness of mineral resources, and oil exploration would therefore likely add even more tensions and unrest into already extremely sensitive area.

This area is also rich with fish, in fact it is estimated that fish stocks in nearby Lake Edward are a vital food supply for around 500,000 families.

The last thing this area needs is oil exploration and oil drilling. Some politicians claim that oil drilling would boost Congo's economy by creating many new jobs. But at what cost? Destroying such a beautiful nature?

The decision about the oil exploration could sadly still change because Endundo already announced that the government is about to conduct its own environmental assessment into oil exploration in Virunga.

The animals such as mountain gorillas have already suffered enough from frequent military conflicts in the park. The last thing they need right now is oil drilling.

Poaching still exist in Africa

Poaching is unfortunately still happening in many parts of the Africa and illegal wildlife trade is still Africa's sad reality. This was clearly shown in the latest undercover investigation coordinated by Interpol which led to the seizure of about a ton of ivory along with hippo teeth and cheetah, leopard and python skins, and in which 57 people were arrested.

U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species banned the ivory trade in 1989 but that still hasn't prevented elephant hunting, though it has to be said that it did help recover elephant population in some African countries, for instance in Kenya elephant population has grown from 16,000 to 27,000, though this is very small number compared to 1970s when there were more than 150,000.

Elephants are most common targets of animal poachers because of valuable ivory, and illegal ivory trade still remains major problem in Africa. These actions should really come more often, if not for anything else than at least to strike fear in poachers that kill these beautiful animals only because of valuable ivory.

There are still many elephants that live in fear in Africa. Yes they live in fear because they can feel the danger, fear drives them away, forcing them to to settle into smaller and smaller habitat areas. Poaching is serious crime, and poachers should be severely punished. Hopefully this undercover investigation is only a beginning of fight against poaching in Africa.

Deforestation is worst in Africa

Deforestation is the conversion of forested areas to non-forest land for use such as arable land and cattle pasture. And although the word deforestation is most often spoken in context with Amazon rainforest, current data shows that deforestation has the worst impact in Africa. According to a U.N. atlas "Africa is losing more than 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) of forest every year - twice the world's average deforestation rate."

This is very alarming because 4 million hectares is very large area, for instance bigger than the U.S. state of Maryland. This rapid deforestation rate is major concern in 35 African countries, especially in Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Nigeria and Rwanda. This rapid deforestation will have serious impact on global warming as forests play important role in fight against global warming because of their ability to act as a carbon sink that can slow down increase of CO2 emission into the atmosphere.

African population is constantly growing and there is not enough food which of course causes higher demand for more arable land and pastures. And the ones that pay the price are forests. What many people don't know is that deforestation has also lowered the chance of getting rain, which is already low, and without enough rain there is also not enough water.

With current overpopulation and food shortage problem deforestation is very likely to continue in the upcoming years as well which could end in a real catastrophe. African governments are really helpless without the help of rich West countries that should provide necessary funds to ensure enough food for African population. Another problem that will have to be solved is the low education of African population. Last thing that low educated people think of is deforestation and this is something that needs quick change.

All these necessary changes are only possible with the help of rich West countries and they still haven't showed enough sympathy for Africa and its poor population.