Palm Oil--A Growing Concern for African Apes

The tropical forests of the northern Republic of Congo are perfect habitat for two of the world’s endangered great apes: western lowland gorillas and chimpanzees. The region’s climate and soil are also ideal for growing oil palm. These conflicting priorities for the lush landscape sow the seeds for a potential conservation conflict.

Endangered gorillas in the Republic of Congo rely on landscapes that are in danger of being clearcut for palm oil plantations.

Demand is increasing globally for palm oil, which is used in products ranging from packaged crackers and breads to chocolate, lotions and cosmetics. The ingredient has as many as 25 different names on product labels, so even consumers looking out for this oil can find it hard to detect and difficult to avoid.

Nearly 4 million acres in central Africa have been designated new development areas for palm oil. A substantial concern is that nearly 40 percent of great ape habitat on unprotected lands overlaps with suitable palm-oil areas, according to a recent scientific report in Current Biology. This is a growing concern for conservationists, as the development of the palm-oil industry in Asia has resulted in widespread deforestation and devastation to plants and animals that rely on tropical forests for their survival.

“Right now we are on the cusp of a period of development,” says Mark Gately, the Wildlife Conservation Society country director for Congo. “If that development is well planned, there’s no reason to immediately think it’s going to be disaster, but it is a question of finding a balance. Countries have to develop, and yet at the same time we want to help them successfully conserve their wildlife.”

Some palm oil plantations are already in place. I passed several of these expansive plantations while leading a team of journalists from Al Jazeera English to the northern Congo’s Goualougo Triangle, a pristine landscape where Lincoln Park Zoo scientists have studied local chimpanzees and gorillas for more than a decade.

Palm oil plantations are already appearing in the Republic of Congo--and they lack the diverse natural resources needed to support endangered chimpanzees and gorillas.

“We know that oil palm has devastated tropical forests in places like West Africa and Asia,” says Lincoln Park Zoo Research Fellow Dave Morgan, Ph.D., the co-director of the Goualougo Triangle Ape Project. “It’s replaced them with monoculture forest that can’t meet the resource needs of gorillas and chimpanzees.”

While conservationists concede that oil palm is not an immediate concern in the region, there is the potential for it to become a problem if it goes unchecked. “Asia is probably 10 to 20 years down the line in terms of palm oil compared to Africa,” says Gately. “Many of the things we’ve seen there—big fires in Indonesia, lots and lots of land clearance in Cambodia—is very much a risk for Africa, and Congo in particular, in the next few years if it isn’t well managed.”

Al Jazeera English correspondent John Hendren highlights how the clearcutting of tropical rainforest for palm oil plantations can threaten the region's endangered apes, which Lincoln Park Zoo scientists have been studying for decades.

The challenge is meeting the need for food agriculture and economic development for local people while carefully balancing the desire to preserve habitat needed to sustain endangered apes. Non-governmental organizations, and individuals like Morgan and Gately, are working with people who live near the tropical forests to develop sustainable food crops that can be harvested without totally clearing forest land, such as cacao.

“It’s also about providing knowledge about crop rotation and other techniques so that agricultural areas can be managed well for years instead of being depleted of nutrients, requiring further forest degradation for agriculture,” says Morgan. By studying the needs of apes—and working with local partners to promote sustainable development—the Goualougo Triangle Ape Project is trying to find the best path to benefit people and wildlife alike.

Sharon Dewar

Sharon Dewar is director of public relations at Lincoln Park Zoo. She's currently in the Goualougo Triangle, helping a crew from Al Jazeera English share stories about Lincoln Park Zoo's work to study and conserve endangered gorillas and chimpanzees.

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