Species At Risk Elsewhere While the documentary mentioned above focused on Cameroon, other places in Africa and around the world also show similar relationships between poverty, consumption, and environmental destruction.

Image source:Wikipedia

The fourth most populous country, Indonesia, houses 10 percent of the earth’s remaining tropical forests. Not only are forests depleting year by year, but species that depend on the forests are also disappearing, and these species are needed to ensure a stable ecosystem.

The “person of the Forest”, or Orangutan, is one such species at risk due to corruption, excessive logging and poaching. Palm oil plantations have recently been increased because of world demand and their use as biofuels. Mining and fragmentation by roads are other problems they face.

Other species at risk in Indonesia include the Sumatran Tiger, Sumatran and Javan Rhino and the Asian Elephant.

See the following for some more information on related issues:

• From this web site:
  • Causes of Poverty
  • Behind Consumption and Consumerism
  • Sustainable Development
  • Loss of Biodiversity, in particular the section on deforestation
• Centre for Science and Environment in India, provides many articles on sustainable development projects recognizing the importance of involving local people in conservation issues. A cartoon of theirs also captures the inter-related aspects vividly:
  

  © Centre for Science and Environment,
  Campaign on Forests
• The African Conservation Foundation is a portal web site with many links and information on all sorts of issues related to conservation in Africa.
• (The links in these above pages, and at the end of this page provide a lot more information too.)