Save gorillas in Nigeria, petition

This 2012 video is called Cross River Gorillas, Endangered, Caught on Camera.

At any minute, bulldozers could plow through one of the last rainforests in Nigeria.

As the heavy machinery tears its way through thousands of acres of lush, ancient forest, they will demolish some of the only remaining habitat of the highly endangered Cross River gorilla.

There are just 300 Cross River gorillas left in the wild – they might not survive a blow like this.

Help protect the last Cross River gorillas: sign the petition to stop destructive superhighway construction.

For thousands of years, the Ekuri people have lived in and worked cooperatively to maintain this beautiful rainforest – one of the last remaining in densely populated Nigeria. But now Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade has plans to build a massive superhighway that would destroy this precious wild place.

Cutting through the heart of Cross River State, it would destroy a national park, adjoining forest reserves, indigenous communities, and vulnerable wildlife. What’s worse, the plans call for approximately 6 miles of “buffer” on either side.

To put this in perspective, the average Nigerian interstate highway has approximately 300 feet of buffer on either side. That means that a 12-mile swath of ancient forest, extending the entire length of the 160-mile highway – 100 times the usual area – will be bulldozed for absolutely no reason.

Governor Ayade is pushing hard for construction to start immediately but Nigeria’s federal government has the power to protect this land. Please, sign the petition to Nigeria’s President Buhari and help stop the Cross River State superhighway before it’s too late for this precious rainforest, the Ekuri people, and wildlife like gorillas, elephants , and chimpanzees.

I know you care about wildlife and wild places, which is why I’m writing you about this urgent crisis.

The superhighway would annihilate the habitat of hundreds of endangered and vulnerable species, including many found nowhere else on earth. And the livelihood of 180 indigenous communities will be completely destroyed. A powerful movement is building to stop it. The Ekuri Initiative has already organized the support of 253,000 people to take action to protect their forests – will you add your voice before it’s too late?

Thank you for all that you do to protect wildlife and wild places around the world.

Sincerely,

John F. Calvelli
Executive Vice President, Public Affairs
Wildlife Conservation Society

Irreplaceable – Cross River National Park, Nigeria. By BirdLife News, 8 Nov 2016: here.

Ray of hope for endangered Cross River Gorilla in West Africa Forest: here.

Rare Cross River gorilla still faces serious threat: here.

The link between hoarding disused mobile phones and the decimation of Grauer gorilla habitats is explored in a new paper: here.

The critically endangered Grauer’s gorilla has recently lost genetic diversity and has experienced an increase in harmful mutations, according to researchers who sequenced 11 genomes from eastern gorilla specimens collected up to 100 years ago, and compared these with genomes from present-day individuals: here.