Wildlife expert claims gorilla dung is critical to containing climate change

Gorilla dung could conceivably be the salvation of the planet. A leading UK wildlife expert yesterday said protecting the large primates he called the "gardeners of the forest" could provide the easy fix for global warming envisaged by international reforestation programmes.

America and other industrialised countries are looking to reforestation programmes in Africa, South-east Asia and South America to help contain the effects of climate change.

But Ian Redmond, the UN ambassador for the year of the gorilla, said the industrialised countries would be making a mistake if they did not commit specific funds to protecting the gorillas as part of the discussion on reforestation efforts at the climate change negotiations at Copenhagen next December.



"If we save the trees and not the animals then we will just see a slow death of the forests," Redmond said. "What I am urging the decisionmakers at Copenhagen to consider is that the gorillas are not a luxury item. If you want a longterm healthy forest you have to take action to protect them."

The gorillas - or "gardeners of the forest" as Redmond called them - were crucial to fighting climate change, he said. Gorillas, which are herbivores, feed on fruid and plants. The digested food, as it passes through their systems, helps seeds to germinate.

The full extent of the gorillas' role in propagation is unclear. But Redmond said a number of plant species could not flourish without them, or wild elephants, the other large mammal crucial in germination.