Gorilla among 200 endangered species threatened by conflict: Conservationists

Civil unrest and military exercises pose heightened risks to more than 200 threatened species, including elephant populations and the critically endangered Eastern gorilla, conservationists have warned.

A report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature examined the close interplay between the environment and armed conflict, warning that human violence and unrest were taking a devastating toll on nature.

The report stressed that sustainable management of natural resources should be seen as a tool to help preserve peace.

"Degradation of nature increases the likelihood of conflict, while wars devastate not only lives, but also the natural environment," IUCN director general Bruno Oberle said in a statement.

The report found that armed conflicts were particularly prevalent in some of the world's more bio-diverse regions.
IUCN said 219 endangered species were facing threats from "war, civil unrest and military exercises", including the direct killing of wildlife, degradation of ecosystems and the disruption of conservation efforts.

While this is only a fraction of the more than 30,000 animal and plant species listed as threatened on IUCN's Red List, the report stressed it included "iconic species".

Among them is the critically endangered Eastern gorilla, found in the conflict-prone Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda.

One of the threats to the world's largest living primate, according to IUCN chief scientist Thomas Brooks, is "direct killing, sometimes for target practice, sometimes for food."

But the bigger threat conflicts posed to the species, he told AFP, was the "undermining of conservation efforts".

The report pointed to the dramatic impact on a range of species...