The mining of coltan, a black mineral used in cell phones and other electronics, has killed hundreds of rare eastern lowland gorillas in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Knight Ridder News Service reported yesterday. The coltan, also called columbite-tantalite, is found mostly in the D.R.C. and Australia. In the D.R.C., the mineral is usually illegally extracted from the forest and sold by warlords or rebel armies, who in return buy weapons.

In search of the mineral, miners destroy the gorillas' habitat and their source of food. In many cases, the hunters slaughter the apes for the bush meat trade.

According to gorilla conservationists, of the 258 gorillas counted in the highland areas of the park in 1998, 130 are left, while in the lowland areas the number is down from 8,000 to 1,000 gorillas.

In an effort to avoid more ape deaths, conservationists are trying to persuade U.S. and European companies to stop buying coltan from the D.R.C. Cell phone companies such as Motorola and Nokia have already pledged not to buy the mineral from the country, although many others have said they cannot control where the coltan is coming from because they use subcontractors.

"If we do not act quickly, these gentle creatures could become victims of our own progress," science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke wrote on the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund Web site. "Ironically, the ubiquitous computer chip, which has transformed human culture, is now threatening theirs" (Sudarsan Raghavan, Knight Ridder News Service/The Miami Herald, Dec. 9).

Last month, experts meeting at UNESCO headquarters in Paris concluded that at least $25 million is urgently needed to save the great apes from extinction in African and Asian countries. They were expected to develop a conservation strategy for the apes, to be further discussed during an intergovernmental ministerial meeting late next year (U.N. Wire, Nov. 26).
Copyright, National Journal Group, Year.