At least 361 people dead following series of landslides in Kerala State, India.

At least 361 people have lost their lives, with another 206 still missing and more than 273 having suffered injuries, following a series of landslides in the Wayanad District of Kerala State on 30 July 2024. The landslides occurred when heavy rains associated with the onset of the onset of the annual monsoon. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall. The landslides have affected the villages of Punjri Matom, Mundakkai, Chooralmala, Attamala, Meppadi and Kunhome.

Rescue workers searching for survivors following a landslide in Wayanad District, Kerala, on 30 July 2024. Times of India.

Monsoons are tropical sea breezes triggered by heating of the land during the warmer part of the year (summer). Both the land and sea are warmed by the Sun, but the land has a lower ability to absorb heat, radiating it back so that the air above landmasses becomes significantly warmer than that over the sea, causing the air above the land to rise and drawing in water from over the sea; since this has also been warmed it carries a high evaporated water content, and brings with it heavy rainfall. In the tropical dry season, the situation is reversed, as the air over the land cools more rapidly with the seasons, leading to warmer air over the sea, and thus breezes moving from the shore to the sea (where air is rising more rapidly) and a drying of the climate.

Diagrammatic representation of wind and rainfall patterns in a tropical monsoon climate. Geosciences/University of Arizona.

Wayanad District is thought likely to have become more vulnerable to landslides due to the extensive deforestation it has suffered in recent years. Tree roots can help to hold soft sediments together on slopes, and deforestation is often associated with landslides. According to a 2022 study led by Kakoli Saha of the School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, between 1950 and 2018 Wayanad District lost around 62% of its forest cover, mostly being replaced with tea plantations, which have much shallower root systems, failing to stabilise steep slopes.

Land use land cover change of Wayanad District from 1950 to 2012; (A) land use land cover till 1950; (B) land use land cover till 1982; and (C) land use land cover till 2012. Saha et al. (2022).

See also...

The South East Africa Montane Archipelago.

The continent of Africa was once largely covered by tropical forests. During the Oligocene and Miocene, the climate slowly cooled, and the forests began to fragment. The forests that covered the plains of East Africa withdrew, leaving fragments of montane forest isolated on mountains where the rainfall remained higher. These isolated forest fragments became refugia in which species unable to survive on the new arid grassy plains became trapped, in pockets of stable moist climate. During the climate fluctuations of the Late Cainozoic these refugia grew and shrank, sometimes permitting species to move between areas and sometimes cutting them off, driving speciation and leading to the appearance of a unique flora and fauna.

Effective conservation efforts for these environments requires the identification of mountain ranges shared geology, evolutionary history, and characteristic species assemblages as distinct ecoregions. For example, the Eastern Arc Ecoregion includes mountain ranges across Kenya and Tanzania, and which has long been seen as a global conservation priority. 

Another set of apparently linked mountain ranges is round across southern Malawi and northern Mozambique. In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports on 12 March 2024, a team of scientists led by Julian Bayliss of the Department of Biological and Medical Sciences at Oxford Brookes University, the African Butterfly Research Institute, and the Rede Para Gestão Comunitária de Recursos Naturais, propose that these mountains be seen as a distinct ecoregion of their own, which they term the South East Africa Montane Archipelago.

Numerous ecological surveys have taken place in southern Malawi over the past century, and have identified the mountains of the country as being of ecological distinctiveness. Mount Mulanje, the second highest free-standing mountain in Southern Africa, at 3002 m, has been identified as being an area of high endemism for both Animals and Plants, and is home to the Mulanje Cedar, Widdringtonia whytei, which is the national tree of Malawi. Mozambique, on the other hand endured a prolonged was for independence from 1964 to 1974, then a long civil conflict between 1977 and 1992. Consequently, the mountain ranges in the northern portion of the country were surveyed between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth century, then largely ignored by science until the last twenty years. Twenty first century visits to the region began with a series of short visits by ornithologists and herpetologists, which led to a realisation that there was a biological connection between these mountains and those of southern Malawi, followed by a series of targetted expeditions to high mountains and inselbergs in the region, which have discovered many new species unique to the region, and led to an understanding of the importance of these sites.

The name 'South East Africa Montane Archipelago'  was first suggested in 2019 at the Annual General Meeting of the Transglobe Expedition Trust of  the Royal Geographical Society in London, and  formally proposed in 2022 at the 1st Southern African Mountain Conference in Bloemfontein. Bayliss et al. present a formal definition of the region based upon endemic species, geology, topography and climate, and place this in context through comparison with surrounding ecoregions. In doing this they present a synthesis of previous research on the endemic Plants, Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, Crabs, and Butterflies of the region, as well as identifying other groups in need of assessment, and identify the threats to the region's biological distinctiveness and the potential for conservation projects which could protect this.

Bayliss et al. recognise 30 distinct sites within the South East Africa Montane Archipelago, nine of which are in Malawi and 21 within Mozambique. Each has an elevation of at least 800 m above sealevel, with the highest point being Mount Mulanje at 3002 m. All of the sites have high humidity, and at least remnants of humid evergreen forests and upland grasslands, combined with ancient soils, similar climates, and a high rate of endemic species, either unique to a single site or shared between several of them but not found in the lowlands between.  

Location and extent of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago showing core sites in red, and an outline boundary of the convex hull of the ecoregion. Bayliss et al. (2024).

The mountains of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago formed between 600 and 125 million years ago, as a result of the intrusion of granitic batholiths into softer metamorphic rock formations, most of which have subsequently eroded away. These batholiths are low in ferromagnesian minerals, with high quartz and feldspar contents, and have a reasonably homogeneous composition, with crystals orientated in a random fashion, all of which makes them resistant to erosion and jointing,

This distinctive weather patterns of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago further contribute to its distinctiveness. The region has a humid climate with high rainfall, fuelled by the southeastern trade winds, which are funnelled up through the Mozambique Channel. Mountains further to the north are in the rain shadow of Madagascar, and have climates driven more by Lake Malawi than the Indian Ocean, while mountains to the south have a drier climate, typically with an arid dry season. Thus the South East Africa Montane Archipelago has a more humid climate that the surrounding regions, with higher rainfall year-round, but particularly in the dry season. This spares the Animals and Plants living their the stresses of seasonal aridity which organisms in the surrounding areas are subject to, enabling evergreen forests to thrive. Within this area, the mountains serve as a trap for orographic rain, so that upland ecosystems receive more moisture than the surrounding lowlands.

Contemporary macro-climatology of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago. Also labelled is the Eastern Arc Mountains (EAM) ecoregion to the north, and the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe to the southwest (EHZ). Annual rainfall (a) is measured in mm. Rainfall seasonality (b) is the coefficient of variation across months. Aridity index (c) is the ratio of annual rainfall to potential evapo-transpiration with values above 0.65, considered humid. Maximum water deficit (d) is a measure of water stress defined across the most arid months of the year, with lower values conducive of potentially dense, evergreen canopy structure. Bayliss et al. (2024).

The region is defined by the furthest extent of mountain ecosystems which fit the criteria for inclusion, plus some other peaks at the fringes of the area which reach the height to qualify (i..e. over 800 m) but have drier climates. It includes the drier, cooler lowlands between the peaks, which are thought to connect the peaks during times of warmer, wetter climate, as well as other peaks within the region which are either too low for montane forest to form, or have already been completely cleared by Human activities.

The whole ecoregion has an area of over 100 000 km² with a core of 3362 km² on the 30 peaks included. This makes it smaller in size than some neighbouring defined ecoregions, such as the Eastern Arc Montane Forests, Southern Rift Montane Forest-grassland Mosaic, or East African Montane Forest ecoregions, but comparable to other mountain ecoregions such as the East African Montane Moorlands and the Knysna-Amatole Montane Forests. It incorporates two previously described ecoregions in southern Malawi, the South Malawi Montane Forest-grassland Mosaic and the Mulanje-Namuli-Ribáuè sub-Centre of Plant Endemism, as well as nine Important Bird Areas and eight Important Plant Areas in Mozambique, and 12 Key Biodiversity Areas across the two countries, and in turn forms part of the Africa-wide Afromontane Archipelago botanical Centre of Endemism. 

Currently 192 species and 25 subspecies of Animal and Plant are considered to be strictly endemic to the South East Africa Montane Archipelago, with more endemic Plants than Animals. This is very high for such a limited geographical area, but nevertheless is thought likely to rise significantly as more surveys are carried out. Rates of endemism are particularly high among Reptiles, Amphibians, Mammals, Crabs, and Butterflies. The majority of endemic Animals are forest-dwelling, while the majority of the endemic Plants are grassland and rock-dwelling species. The fauna and flora show some similarities to all the surrounding regions, but are probably most similar to those of Tanzania to the north, suggesting a former belt of humid rainforest stretching along the eastern coast of Africa from the equator to the Mozambique Channel.

Examples of South East Africa Montane Archipelago endemics. (a) Rhinolophus mabuensis, (b) Chamaetylas choloensis, (c) Nothophryne inagoensis, (d) Atheris mabuensis, (e) Epamera malaikae, (f)  Rhampholeon maspictus, (g) Nadzikambia baylissi, (h) Maritonautes namuliensis, (i) Euphorbia mlanjeana, (j) Widdringtonia whytei, (k) Encephalartos gratus. Bayliss et al. (2024).

Many of the Plants of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago have their closest relatives within the Southern Afromontane Region, which stretches from southern Tanzania to the Western Cape, rather than East Africa. For Animals, however, the closest relationships are often with East Africa. Most organisms within both groups appear to have diversified from their closest relatives in the Plio-Pleistocene, with the oldest lineages having diversified in the Middle Miocene. This suggests that the forets first began to contract during the Middle Miocene, with subsequent episodes of connection and isolation across the Plio-Pleistocene.

The forests of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago are threatened by slash and burn agriculture and charcoal production, both subsistence activities for local communities. The high fertility of the soil within the forests is highly desirable for the growing of crops such as Maize, Cassava, and Irish Potatoes. The plots upon which these are grown tend to be quite small, but the way in which they are cleared typically affects a much larger area of woodland, both due to the effects of fire, and the subsequent drying of out of areas on the new forest margin (all forests  tend  to  trap moisture in  their interiors, with the effect that forest margins are drier environments than forest interiors, and support different species). As more of the forest edge is lost to agriculture the forest interior becomes drier and begins to degrade. Fires also threaten the upland grasslands, in particular the custom of using fires to flush Animals into traps. Thus, any conservation efforts within the South East Africa Montane Archipelago will need to place a strong emphasis on the promotion of more sustainable agricultural practices.

The current protection accorded to the forests of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago differs between the two countries. All of the core sites in Malawi are currently classified as National Forest Reserves, under the administration of the Department of Forestry, though this appears to mean little in terms of actual protection afforded, with forests subjected to both regulated and unregulated timber extraction and charcoal production. Thus, all of the forests on Thyolo Mountain, the type locality for a number of species endemic to the South East Africa Montane Archipelago, has been almost completely cleared, with a remaining area of 2700 m² all on private land. The forests were cleared on Ndirande Mountain in the 1990s, on Soche Mountain in the 2010s, with very little remaining on also most of Chiradzulu Mountain and the Malawi Hills. In Mozambique, only a single site, Mount Ribáuè, is a protected forest reserve, and thisl like other forest reserves in Mozambique, was established to regulate timber harvesting rather than for conservation purposes. There are currently plans for a community conservation projects on Mount Mabu, which the forests are still in reasonably good condition, due to the spiritual status afforded to the area by the local community. A similar spiritual status appears to have protected the also-reasonably-intact forests on Mount Pewé, while other sites, such as Mount Lico, gain some protection from their remote and inaccessible locations. 

The degree to which organisms in the core zones of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago are threatened is closely linked to their dependence on montane forests of upland grasslands. The majority of the small Mammal, Bird, Reptile, and Amphibian species are dependent on the presence of forests, and thus most of these are classified as Near Threatened or Threatened (a broad category which includes Vulnerable, Endangered, and Critically Endangered) under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. The majority of Plants endemic to the region are grassland and rock-dwelling species, which are still under pressure but at less immediate risk than forest-dwelling species, although endemic forest plants are still considered to at high risk levels.

The greatest threats to the endemic organisms of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago are deforestation and the burning of grasslands. Between the years 2000 and 2022, 18% of the primary montane forest in the core areas of the Archipelago was lost, a far higher proportion than in any other African montane ecoregion. Over the same interval, areas such as the Eastern Arc, Cameroonian Highlands, and Mt Cameroon and Bioko montane forests lost less than 5% of their forest cover, while the Albertine Rift and Guinean montane forest lost about 10%. The extent of this loss varies considerably between these sites, with sites such as Chiradzulu, Ndirande, and Thyolo Mountains in Malawi having lost all of their forest cover before 2000, the Malawi Hills having lost 80% of their forest cover since the 1980s, and other sites having suffered high losses over the 2000-2022 interval, such as mounts Nállume 43%, Inago 39%, Ribáuè 35%, Namuli 30%, Socone 18% and Chiperone 14%. Other sites lost less cover over the same period, with mounts Meluli and Mabu having lost about 3% each and Mount Lico having lost less than 2%. Bayliss et al. note that all of the areas with high primary montane forest loss have also lost secondary forests (woodland which has regrown after a major disturbance) and woodland on their lower slopes, leading to an even greater loss of overall forest habitat than the figures suggest.

Bayliss et al. conclude that the South East Africa Montane Archipelago ecoregion can be distinguished form its surrounding areas by a series of biological and abiotic features, including a distinct climate envelope. The area is home to a high number of endemic species, with more likely to be discovered as survey methods imrove. The area is Africa's newest defined ecoregion, but also one of its most threatened, with one of the highest deforestation rates on the continent.

See also...

Understanding the threats faced by Grauer’s Gorillas in Maiko National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Many, if not all, of the world's biodiversity hotspots are under threats from Human activities such as farming, overgrazing, mining, bush burning, hunting, poaching, and timber harvesting. Tropical forests in particular are under threat from habitat disturbance and modification, leading many Animals which live there to modify their ecology and behaviour. It has been estimated that over 90% of the habitats utilised by Great Apes in Africa will be moderately-to-highly impacted by Human activity by 2030.

The Eastern Lowland Gorilla, or Grauer’s Gorilla, Gorilla beringei graueri, is a Critically Endangered subspecies of Gorilla found in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with a population known to have fallen to about 250 adult individuals in the 1990s, and thought to have suffered a drop in population size since this time of between 60% and 90% (which if correct, would indicate a current population of between 25and 150 adult individuals surviving in the wild. Like all Gorillas within the Democratic Republic of Congo, they are threatened by civil conflict within the country, roads being cut through the forest, forest clearance for agriculture, new refugee camps and other Human settlements springing up, mining, both legal and illegal, poaching for bushmeat and other purposes, and exposure to Human diseases. Grauer's Gorillas are considered particularly sensitive to even low levels of hunting, due to their slow reproductive cycle, with females first giving birth at about 10 years of age, then producing about one baby every four years.

Grauer’s Gorillas in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Wikimedia Commons.

Attempts to protect both the Grauer's Gorillas and the forests in which they dwell have taken place amidst a series of civil conflicts and a fragile economic situation, resulting in high levels of poaching and habitat clearance. Many people in the region are dependent on subsistence agriculture, resulting in areas of the forest being constantly cleared to provide access to fertile soil. Furthermore, most people living in rural areas in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are dependent on wood gathered in the forest for heating and cooking. The area is further threatened by the effects of global warming, leading to droughts, floods, and wildfires raging through the region.

In a paper published in the journal Diversity on 16 April 2024, Kahindo Tulizo Consolee and Xiaofeng Luan of the School of Ecology and Nature Conservation at Beijing Forestry University, and Li Cong of the School of Landscape and Architecture at Beijing Forestry University, present a review of the anthropogenic pressures threatening the survival of Grauer’s Gorillas and their habitats, particularly in the vicinity of the Maiko National Park, and consider ways in which the local population can be made more aware of the threars faced by the species and engaged with the conservation process.

Much of the pressure on the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo comes as a result of wealth distribution within the communities of the country, and the wider world. Human behaviour can lead to environmental degradation, through the expansion of agricultural production areas, overgrazing, deforestation, leading to the destruction of ecosystems, water shortages, and contamination of water sources, all of which is further exacerbated by global climate change. Rural populations close to the forests are dependent on them for a wide range of products and services, including wild Animal products, honey and timber, and traditional medicine, as well as land for subsistence agriculture. Urban populations also depent upon the forests to provide economic resources such as meat, palm oil, coffee, soybeans, and chocolate, which are produced on large farms and plantations on the forest edges or on areas of cleared forest.

Consolee et al. note that people living closest to the forests tend to use forest resources in traditional ways which tend to be sustainable, urban dwellers, while further away, are responsible for the extraction of greater amounts of resources such as timber, charcoal, and food, a pattern which has also been observed in other countries with rain forests, such as Madagascar, Indonesia, and Brazil. In all of these countries forests are threatened by agricultural activities and farm expansion, illegal logging, mining, hunting, poaching, and local and international trade demands for food and non-food commodities such as tropical timber. Illegal mining, for gemstones and rare metals is a significant cause of habitat destruction, deforestation, and pollution of surface and groundwater. It also serves as a driver of Human migration into forests, leading to the building of roads and settlements, deforestation, poaching, and pollution. 

The expansion of agriculture remains a threat to forests across the globe. Land clearance to provide land for plantation farming and livestock ranching is a major cause of natural forest loss, with plantations providing only a very limited proportion of the serviced offered by natural forests. In addition, the management of plantation farms requires the construction of new road networks into forests, facilitating Human access deeper into the forest, and leading to further degradation of uncleared areas. 

The Democratic Republic of Congo is home to two thirds of the Congo Basin Tropical Forest, the second largest area of tropical forests in the world, after the Amazon Basin. This is about 2.4 million km² of forest, or about 18% of the world's total tropical forests.  The Congo Basin is home to about 400 species of Mammals and over 1000 species of Birds, as well as over 10 000 species of Plants, about 3000 of which are endemic to the basin. Mammals found  only in the Congo Basin include Graur's Gorillas, as well as the Eastern Chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii, and the Bonobo, Pan pansiscus, both of which have been classified as Endangered. This forest is not just a vast area of incredible biodiversity, but also a crucial carbon sink playing a vital role in managing the Earth's climate, yet the economic pressure to develop the basin is placing the forest under threat across nearly its entire extent.

The Maiko National Park covers an area of 10 885 km² in the eastern Democratic of Congo. It has an altitude of between 605 and 1033 m above sealevel, and is covered by lowland tropical forest.  Animals endemic to the park include Graur's Gorillas, Okapi, Africa Forest Elephants, and Congo Peafowl. As well as the forests, the Oso and Lindi rivers provide significant aquatic ecosystems. The Plants and Animals of this forest provide the main source of food, traditional medicine, and income for the communities which surround it.

Many of the pressures which threaten this forest come from outside the immediate area, including rising populations in urban areas, a scarcity of land, demand for firewood and charcoal, as well as plantation-grown forest products, and conflicts which drive people from other areas into Maiko and other protected areas.

Maiko National Park. Consolee et al. (2024).

About 32% of the Democratic Republic of Congo's forest cover is thought to have been lost, much of it from mountainous areas, making it one of the world's most threatened ecosystems and a global conservation priority. Human population growth within the country occurs mostly within towns and cities within the lowland forests, presenting a challenge for conservation efforts in these areas, where many species have already been declared extinct or are considered to be very close to it. Without urgent action, it is thought that the Graur's Gorilla will become extinct within the next few decades.

Schematic representation of the effects of anthropogenic activities on natural resources, forests, and Gorillas habitats in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Consolee et al. (2024).

Graur's Gorillas are thought to be more threatened by Human activities than any other Primate. Large tracts of the forests that form their home have been destroyed, and the remaining forest is highly fragmented. The Human population of the area has risen rapidly in recent decades, with significant impact on all natural resources, as well as the loss of habitat to agriculture, urbanization, and pollution. Such disturbances are particularly threatening to large, slow breeding species such as Gorillas. To make matters worse, as habitat is lost to forest fragmentation, there are less opportunities for Gorilla-Gorilla interactions, leading to a loss of social skills and a lower mating success. This has led to a sharp decline in both the number of sexually mature adult Graur's Gorillas, and an equal drop in the area of forest inhabited by the species. This includes the Gorillas in protected areas such as the Maiko National Park. Thus, if Graur's Gorrilas are to survive, there needs to be a concerted effort to understand both the current status of the species, and to develop effective communication and conservation methods among all stakeholders in the conservation process.

The attitude towards conservation of local communities depends not just on the people of those communities, but also upon the efforts of conservation project managers to involve those people in a positive way. Most people in the Democratic Republic of Congo show little interest in conservation efforts or the protection of the environment, probably due to the ongoing conflict situation in the area, and presence of numerous armed groups. Furthermore, many people in the area report feeling that parks promote the looting of natural resources, cultural wealth, and traditional knowledge. Use of forest resources is often abusive and irrational, which fuels conflict between Humans and Gorillas.

More than 20 million people in the Congo Basin are directly reliant on forest resources for subsistence. The savannahs and forests of the Congo Basin provide food, water, and resources to both the people and Animals of the basin, as well as playing a key role in global carbon storage. The Human population of the basin has lived in harmony with the natural environment for millennia, however, in the modern world this relationship has largely broken down.

The major driver of habitat loss within the range of Graur's Gorillas is the destruction of forests to provide agricultural land, both for subsistance farming and commercial plantations. Overgrazing of livestock, illegal mining, road building, and the harvesting of trees for timber and charcoal all add to the fragmentation of the forest. As well as directly fragmenting the forests, road building encourages hunting and the establishment of new communities (principally by refugees from the regions many conflicts) deeper into the forests, leading to further forest clearance, and making previously inaccessible areas available to poachers, who can threaten both wildlife and local communities. 

Illegal mining site in the Maiko National Park. Consolee et al. (2024).

The pressures faced by the Gorillas and the forests they live in are ultimately driven by economic factors, and the distribution of wealth within the Democratic Republic of Congo. A very large number of people are dependent on subsistence agriculture, as well as other extractive practices such as charcoal and timber harvesting.  However, a greater proportion of the forest's resources are probably consumed by the urban middle classes, who rely on farms, plantations, and forest extraction industries to provide them with commodities such as meat, palm oil, coffee, soybeans, chocolate, timber, and fuel. Plantations and commercial forestry projects opened in response to these demands lead to the construction of new roads, further opening the forest to other Human activities. All the pressures on the forests are predicted to grow over the next 20-30 years, due to a rising Human population combined with virtually non-existent social development, hight unemployment, low incomes, and a lack of affordable alternative energy sources. More than 90% of households in the Democratic Republic of Congo are engaged in agriculture, and the population is rising by 2-3% per year, driving the demand for forest land to be cleared, as well as for forestry products such as timber. The felling of trees releases large amounts of carbon dioxide, fuelling global warming which affects the whole world, including the Congo Basin. Globally, deforestation is thought to be responsible for about 18-25% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

Forest encroachment and deforestation; anthropogenic pressure to Gorillas and Gorillas’ habitat. Consolee et al. (2024).

The numerous conflicts which have plagued the Democratic Republic of Congo have had a significant negative impact on Graur's Gorillas, and other wildlife, by driving poaching and habitat loss. The hunting, killing, capturing, and consuming Gorillas are all in theory illegal, but this cannot be enforced in any meaningful way in parts of the country dominated by armed groups reliant on artisanal mining, where a scarcity of farmed Animals has led to bushmeat, including Gorilla, becoming the major source of protein. Armed groups living within the forest provide a direct threat not just to Gorillas but to the staff of national parks in the Democratic Republic of Congo. For example, an attack by an armed rebel group on 24 April 2020 killed twelve rangers, a driver, and four civilians working in conservation roles in the Virungu National Park, also part of the home range of the Graur's Gorilla. This was by no means an isolated event, with more than 200 park employees being killed in clashes with poachers and rebel groups while on duty in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the past thirty years, about 10% of the total number of employees. These conflicts have also effectively ended tourism to the region, removing a major potential source of income for the parks.

Spent remains of gun bullet cartridges within the Maiko National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. Consolee et al. (2024).

The forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo have become home to large numbers of illegal miners, extracting valuable minerals such as gold, diamonds, and cobalt. These miners are another significant source of deforestation and habitat loss, and are heavily reliant on bushmeat for food, presenting a threat to all Animals within the forests. Furthermore, pollution from illegal mines has had a huge impact on aquatic water systems, with rivers such as the Oso and Lindi in the Maiko National Park to have lost most of their Fish. Interviews with illegal miners suggest that they prize the meat of Gorillas, and find these Animals easy to hunt with modern firearms, as well as a source of large amounts of meat per individual. In addition to the meat value of adult Gorillas, infants have a value on the black market, where they are traded as exotic pets or exhibits for unscrupulous zoos. In addition to the direct decline in numbers caused by these events, violent encounters with Humans disrupts the natural behaviour of Gorillas, reducing their ability to survive.

An increased Human presence in the forests can also cause Gorillas to lose their fear of Humans, leading them into further conflict. Human-habituated Gorillas may raid farmland for crops, possibly even attacking people working in fields, or gathering wood in forests. They may also fail to avoid poachers, with lethal consequences.

The consumption of bushmeat is a cultural norm for rural communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as in many other parts of Africa. A rising population in and around the forests where Gorillas dwell places a higher pressure on all species hunted there, including the Gorillas themselves, which are hunted for meat for both subsistence and to trade. A variety of guns and snares are used to hunt, and spent shotgun cartridges are often found in the forest. It has been estimated that about 5% of the Gorilla population of the Maiko National Park is killed by poachers each year. This is particularly devestating due to the slow breeding rate of Gorillas.

Historically, Gorillas have been hunted for meat, as well as for their heads, hands, and feet, which have been used in traditional medicine and sold to westerners as souveniers. Live Gorillas have been sold to zoos, researchers, and people who wanted exotic pets. The capturing of infant Gorillas for trade is particularly damaging to the species, as adults in a group will typically fight to the death to protect their young, with the effect that the capture of one infant typically requires at least two adults to be killed. Furthermore, the mortality rate for juvenile Gorillas in captivity is about 80%, so that each live Gorilla that reaches a zoo probably represents 15 Gorillas killed in the wild.

A Graur's Gorilla. Flora & Fauna International.

In addition to the direct threats caused by Human encroachment, the forests of the Congo Basin are threatened by anthropogenic global warming. It is estimated that this alone could destroy 75% of the remaining Gorilla habitat by 2050. Warming brings with it not just higher temperatures, but also an increased risk of extreme weather events such as flooding or droughts, which in turn bring a higher risk of forest fires. The loss and fragmentation of habitat in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where almost all of the montane forests favoured by Gorillas have vanished, means that Gorillas have to range over wider areas to find food resources, something which is hampered by flooding. Higher temperatures lead to Gorillas needing to drink more water; if this is combined with a drought event then the ability of Gorillas to forage widely is restricted, as they need to stay close to a more limited number of sources of drinking water. Furthermore, the low breeding rate and limited genetic variability of Gorillas means that they have little hope of evolving to cope with a changing climate.

Within the Maiko National Park rising temperatures have been associated with a prolonged dry season and lower rainfall, leading to a reduced seasonal moisture within the forests. This has led to a degradation of the forest vegetation, negatively affecting the Gorillas behaviour.

Zoonotic diseases are infections capable of jumping between Human and Animal hosts. Such diseases are an increasing threat to global healthcare systems, as Humans encroach further into former wild spaces and encounter new pathogens, for example the COVID-19 pandemic is thought to have originated from the consumption of the meat of wild Animals. Zoonotic diseases present a particular challenge for Great Apes, which can catch a range of Human pathogens. Gorilla populations which frequently interact with Humans are known to suffer a higher rate of respiratory infections than Gorillas which do not, frequently showing symptoms such as sneezing, coughing, running nose, and open-mouth breathing. Increased bushmeat hunting in the forests of the Congo basin has led to an increased rate of infections jumping between Animals and Humans, most notably in the form of frequent and deadly epidemics of Ebola Virus Disease, which can have devastating effects upon Gorillas as well as Humans.

There are is no established system of domestic water treatment and supply in the area around the Maiko National Park. This means that local people are reliant on river water for drinking and other domestic purposes, leading to frequent outbreaks of waterborne diseases, including Cholera, Typhoid, Bilharzia, and Amoebiasis. Gorillas, which are reliant on the same sources of water, are therefore potentially being exposed to all of these pathogens.

The most common cause of serious illness and death in Gorillas are respiratory infections, which they appear to be poorly adapted to cope with; infections which cause very minor symptoms in Humans have been known to kill Gorillas. Gorillas are known to be prone to Ebola, Common Cold Virus, Pneumonia, Smallpox, Chickenpox, Tuberculosis, Measles, Rubella, and Yellow Fever, and appear to be able to catch a wide range of respiratory diseases from Humans.

As elsewhere around the globe, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo the lowest-income households were the most adversely effected by the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This led to an upsurge in bushmeat hunting, with species such as Gorillas targeted for both meat and use in traditional medicinal practices. The pandemic also led to a withdrawal of both government workers and international researchers from forests and parks, and the vanishing of tourism-generated income, all of which tend to act at least as a partial buffer against Gorilla poaching. It is likely that Gorillas were adversely affected by both hunting and disease transmission during this interval, although data on this was not collected.

Recent Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo are known to have affected Gorillas as well as Humans. The disease is considered particularly lethal in Humans, killing about 80% of people who contract it, but is even more dangerous for Gorillas, with a mortality rate of between 90% and 95%. It has been estimated that the 2018-20 Ebola outbreak killed about a third of the surviving Gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The threat presented by Ebola to Gorillas is also considered a problem for the populations in Uganda and Rwanda.

Monkeypox Virus is another zoonotic infection spread by respiratory droplets or direct contact with infected individuals, which was first recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1996-97. The disease, which is again known to be able to infect Gorillas, re-emerged in multiple countries in May 2022, with over 250 cases reported around the globe.

Although the picture for the future of Grauer's Gorillas that Consolee et al. paint is particularly bleak, they do present some suggestions to reduce the threats faced by the species in and around the Maiko National Park. 

Good governance could potentially reduce poverty in the communities around the park, as well as increasing food security and enabling the population to contribute to managing the forests and the wildlife that lives in them. If local communities become beneficiaries of conservation efforts, then they are likely to become far more invested in the success of those projects. This would require village-level engagement becoming part of ecology and conservation projects. Consolee et al. note that projects imposed upon communities from outside, no matter how viable they appear on paper, are seldom productive if they do not inspire the participation of local communities. The involvement of local communities in conservation projects also enables the robust monitoring of the success of those projects from ground-level, something which is almost impossible when projects are directed from remote, overseas locations. Making local communities stakeholding beneficiaries can motivate them to maintain the biodiversity of the Gorilla's habitat, improving the viability of projects through the input of local knowledge.

Successful management of national parks requires significant political and economic support. Properly funded national parks can offer employment to local people, as well as building infrastructure which benefits nearby communities. If the Maiko National Park can be properly funded then local communities could be encouraged to take a more active role in the conservation of Grauer's Gorillas and the forests they need to survive. Thus, the action plan for the park needs to involve plans to work with the government to improve services and infrastructure for communities in the region. If the strategic plan includes steps to provide local communities with alternative fuels for cooking, then they would become less dependent on harvesting wood from the forests. Working with local communities would potentially identify other ways in which the park could provide useful infrastructure to those communities. An education campaign would also help local people to understand the impacts of deforestation and poaching, further involving them as stakeholders in the project. Consolee et al., however, emphasise that all of this must be built upon a foundation of poverty-alleviation in communities around the park, improve agricultural productivity, and provide people with sufficient financial needs that the consideration of biodiversity as an asset becomes an option.

The protection of local cultures, languages, land-use practices, and knowledge of ecosystems, should be a key part of conservation programs aimed at protecting forests and wild Primates, if these projects are to have a chance of success. The definition of the term 'poaching' used by park authorities needs to be examined closely, to keep a clear definition between subsistence activities and large-scale extractive practices. Defining subsistence practices which have long formed a part of local community practice as 'poaching' is likely to alienate those communities, whereas incorporating the knowledge upon which such practices are based into conservation plans may improve the prospects of projects. Consolee et al. believe that the co-production of knowledge with local communities should be a dynamic process, able to draw on local knowledge to help to respond to changing circumstances. Conservationists should pay attention to local taboos, which are often built around indigenous ways of protecting the environment and managing scarce resources. Such practices can potentially align with Gorilla-conservation projects, building a conservation framework in which the values of local peoples are built into the parks governance, building trust in the wider goals of conservationists. Anthropologists can play a useful role in helping organizations to become more aware of local knowledge and practices, and sometimes to help local peoples to develop specific taboos around protected species.  If Gorillas could become protected by both government policy and local taboo then government policy would be seen as upholding local values and vice versa, enabling conservationists to work with local traditional and other local leaders, to establish the cultural and biodiversity value of sites which should be prioritised for conservation, enabling conservationists and local populations to develop common goals.

The role of bridging organizations and traditional knowledge in co-management of natural resources and forest conservation. Consolee et al. (2024).

Natural habitats offer services to both the local and global community which are far more valuable than destructive consumption, both in financial and non-financial terms. Despite this, forests in areas such as the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo continue to be lost, at least in part because of a lack of meaningful involvement of local communities in conservation initiatives. The development of a global market in carbon sinks has the potential to provide finances for projects such as the Maiko National Park, which have global value in terms of atmospheric services as well as being crucial to the survival of species such as the Gruaer's Gorilla. Carbon credits could potentially be used to plant forests of indigenous trees, rather than commercially useful alien species, maintaining the biodiversity of the region.

Thus, the current degradation of nature could potentially be followed by a Green Anthropocene, with a world still dominated by Human influences, but with conservation and the preservation of biodiversity being driving motivations in Human activity. Consolee et al. envisage a brighter future for biodiversity as being possible if people can learn to live with nature and prioritise ecological preservation and restoration, even though the consequences of current Human actions on the natural world may take centuries or even millennia to manifest. Achieving such a Green Anthropocene will require extra-ordinary efforts, and the development of much more productive agricultural methods for countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, to reduce the Human need to encroach upon forests and clear bush. This will require great effort by both Congolese and global institutions, significant international co-operation, and targeted investment in conservation projects over the next 20-50 years, the timeline which will also determine whether the Graur's Gorilla will survive. 

The first step in creating such a future should be the involvement of local peoples in the management of projects such as the Maiko National Park, creating systems of co-management between local peoples and governments which share responsibility for the future of the park. Such co-operation should make local people feel empowered, and give them a sense that the projects are run in an equitable and just way. Power-sharing is inherently more equitable than top-down directives issued by governments, and produces decisions and policies which reflect local values and culture, as well as giving the local population the power to manage their environment. Promoting the preservation of Grauer's Gorillas and their environment will require the engagement of local people through educatation programs and the promotion of an awareness of the benefits of a functioning ecosystem, and the development of ways of managing the environment which take into account the concerns of the people who live there.

Well-managed ecotourism projects can be a driver of community engagement with conservation projects, bringing immediate financial benefits to the local community which can be clearlry associated with the presence of charismatic species such as Gorillas. Gorilla-related ecotourism projects already operate in Rwanda and Uganda, providing a model which could be adapted to the Maiko National Park. If done well, ecotourism projects use wildlife and natural resources sparingly, and the visitors attracted by such projects tend to have a commitment to self-improvement and ecological sustainability, likely to financially contribute to supporting a sustainable local economy. 

The survival of the Grauer's Gorilla requires the preservation of the tropical forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which are currently being lost rapidly to Human encroachment. These forests are essential for the continued survival of a wide range of other wildlife, as well as acting as a water-store and buffer against erosion. They are also one of the world's major carbon sinks, helping to stabilize the global climate. At the moment, the forests of the Congo Basin, including those in protected areas such as the Maiko National Park, are threatened by agricultural expansion, urbanization, logging, mining, poaching, and the extraction of wood for fuel. 

Protecting the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo is likely to require significant international effort, but also needs to reflect the needs and cultural values of the people that live in the area. A more organised approach to studying the wildlife of forests such as those of the Congo basin will also improve our ability to predict and react to the emergence of zoonotic diseases with the potential to become global pandemics.

See also...

Authorities in Kelantan State, Malaysia, begin capturing wild Tigers after a spate of attacks.

Authorities in Kelantan State, Peninsula Malaysia have begun capturing wild Malaysian Tigers, Panthera tigris jacksoni, following a series of attacks on workers and others on Rubber plantations in the northeast of the country. Traps have been set in forests close to plantations, with two Tigers captured to date, both of which have been sent to a wildlife sanctuary.

A Tiger captured in a trap set by wildlife rangers in Gua Musang, Kelantan. Wildlife Protection and National Parks Department.

The first death occurred on 9 May 2023, when Halim Asin, a member of the Orang Asli indigenous community, was attacked while fishing on the Sg Aring River with his nephew, and later found dead. On 5 October, when another Orang Asli man, Pisie Amud, 25, was attacked and killed why on a fishing trip in the Pos Pasik Forest. On 10 November, Lalu Sukarya Yahya, 42, an Indonesian migrant worker employed as a rubber tapper on a rubber plantation in Kuala Wok near Pos Pasik. The following day, another migrant worker, Ahka Soe Ya, 22, from Myanmar, was attacked by a Tiger while working on Rubber plantation in Kampung Meranto alongside his wife. He was taken to hospital by four Myanmar nationals, thought to be his wife and their friends, but died of injuries to his head and neck. Between 2017 and 2022 only four Tiger attacks were recorded in the state, two of which were fatal.

Police officers recovering the body of Lalu Sukarya Yahya, 42, who was killed in an apparent Tiger attack on a Rubber plantation in Kuala Wok. New Straits Times/Royal Malaysian Police.

The attacks have been blamed upon male Tigers roaming in search of and mates, or else young Tigers learning to hunt and looking for territories of their own. However, it is likely that a change in forest use by Humans in the region is as much to blame. Since the 1980s logging in Malaysian forest reserves has been selective, with loggers only allowed to remove certain trees, leaving the essential structure of the forest unchanged. This changed in 2007 when a new government policy has allowed for the clearing of areas of natural forest for plantation forestry, in which trees are grown on a cycle of felling and replanting. These plantations typically comprise monocultures of trees such as Rubber, Acacia and Eucalyptus, which support far less wildlife than natural forests, providing less food for Tigers, and causing them to roam further afield, and consider non-preferred food items, such as Humans.

Newly planted trees on a plantation in Kelantan, following a cycle of clearing. Malaysialand.

The status of Malaysian Tigers is subject to some dispute. The population in Peninsula Malaysia, which comprises about 200 adult individuals, has been considered to be a separate subspecies, Panthera tigris jacksoni (sometimes Panthera tigris malayensis) since 2004, with that subspecies regarded as Critically Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. However, it is also argued that Malaysian Tigers are not sufficiently distinct to merit this status and that they should be regarded as a population of the Asian Tiger, Panthera tigris tigris, which is regarded as Endangered, a lower threat of extinction, with a much larger population, found from Malaysia to Siberia.

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Twitter.

Two confirmed deaths following landslide in Paraz Province, northern Peru.

Two people have confirmed dead and at eight more are missing following a landslide in the town of Retamas in Paraz Province in La Libertad Department, Peru, on Tuesday 15 March 2022. The deceased are described as an adult man and a one month old girl, with rescue workers believing the man died trying to protect the infant. Three of the missing persons are also reported to be children. The landslide is reported to have occurred following heavy rains in the area. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall.

 

Area of the town of Retamas in Paraz Province, Peru, that was hit by a landslide on Tuesday 15 March 2022. Said Velasques/AFP.

The town of Retamas is a mining community, and the area hit is reported to be one of unplanned housing, where poor mineworkers had cleared available land on the side of a hill in order to build their own homes. Such deforestation leaves soil exposed to heavy tropical rainfall, and therefore more vulnerable to landslips following heavy rainfall events. 

 

The path cleared by a landslide which swept through a residential area on a steep slope in the town of Retamas in Paraz Province, on 15 March 2022. Larry Campos/Reuters.

Landslips are a common problem in the Peruvian Andes during the rainy season, which lasts from September till May, with peak rainfall between January and March. The climate is highly variable across this region, with some areas receiving in excess of 10 000 mm of rainfall per year.

See also...

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.

Follow Sciency Thoughts on Twitter.