Coltan Exploration in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC) 173
vicinity, comprising future timber trees and many other valuable species, are
damaged or destroyed. More trees are being used for making firewood and
shelters in the forest. Separating minerals is another environmentally dam-
aging process. Debarking of large indigenous trees occurs as the bark is used
to separate minerals of different weight. Some of the tree species affected are
of importance for conservation and their regeneration is slow or delicate.
Earth trenches are made to capture water used to separate minerals from raw
ore, leading to soil erosion and degradation of water catchments.
In mining areas with no food supply, wildlife has become a targeted source
of proteins and professional hunters decimate the animals while poachers
acquire illegal firearms to increase their daily catch and contribute to biodi-
versity depletion and decline.
For instance, the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, a World Heritage site and bio-
diversity sanctuary located in South Kivu, has been adversely affected by
coltan exploitation. This same park saw an influx of thousands of Rwandan
refugees in 1994 who caused havoc by deforesting and encroaching upon its
natural resources. According to David Sheppard, IUCN's Head of Programme
on Protected Areas, "mining, together with the presence of so many people
looking for food, is severely impacting on the ecology of protected sites, as in
flagrant violation of World Heritage principles. It is feared that a large propor-
tion of the elephant population in Kahuzi-Biega National Park has been killed
as well as a significant number of gorillas, leaving the population at a danger-
ous low level." In a period of five years, the population of Gorilla gorilla gmueii
and other large mammals lie elephants has dramatically declined. Indeed, of
the 8 000 gorillas living in Kahuzi-Biega National Park in 1996, only a 1 000
remained by May 2001 and of over 3 600 elephants inventoried in 1996, only
500 were still alive by May 2001.'8 All this contravenes the DRC's existing laws
regulating the "conservation of nature" and the statute of the parkI9.
Due to insecurity and coltan mining, the largest part of the Kahuzi-Biega
Park (about 90%) is out of the control of park authorities and wildlife hunt-
ed down, especially in the lowland areas where at least 20 mining sites have
been established. Conservation activities in and around the park initiated and
supported by the German Development Agency [GTZ) are adversely affected
and restricted to a few sites in the highland sector.
By 2002 an estimated 15 000 people were exploiting the coltan, gold and
cassiterite deposits on 48 sites throughout the park. Since the drop of the
coltan price from US$ 100/kg to US$ lO/kg a few years ago, most of these
people have settled in the park and have started farming, mining and hunt-
ing. This destruction in the eastern DRC and particularly in the Kahuzi Park
has concerned Congolese and international ecologists, who have described
the process as 'ecocide:
In many mining camps within protected or conservation areas, coltan
has become the currency and is being exchanged for a variety of basic items