In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the biggest primate on Earth, Gorillas, are endangered with some sub-species on the verge of extinction, like the Mountain Gorilla which has a declining population of 880 left in the wild and none in zoos.
As of January 2018, Grauer’s gorillas had declined to fewer than 3800 from an estimated figure of 17,000 in 1995. This marks an all-time low in recent years from the original flourishing number of the species.
These gorillas are endangered due to mining activities of Columbite Tantalite (Coltan) and other natural resources that are native to DRC. Coltan is a useful resource in the production of electronic gadgets, like cell phones and laptops. The population of Grauer’s gorillas keeps declining due to these activities causing a chain of changes in their environment.
All mining set-ups, legal or illegal, involves not only the destruction of the land for mineral mining but also a large number of people to helm the entire operation. Feeding this many people means hunting the surrounding wildlife which includes the gorillas and other species.
There are about 5.13 billion mobile phone users in the world today and the number keeps increasing every day, an average person in the U.S buys a new cellphone every 18 months. The top two cellphone manufacturers are Samsung and Apple, holding a firm 18% of the total market shares which means most individuals out there make use of either an Apple or Samsung cellphone.
With this high number of users, the best thing would be to recycle old cellphones for materials that can be used to make new ones. This will help reduce the impact of mining in wilderness areas and help save the dwindling number of Gorillas.
You can sell your Samsung phone today to support the movement against the extinction of the Gorillas.