Planned
Koukoutamba dam to be built in reserve established to protect chimps from
mining
Thu 28 Feb
2019 06.00 GMT
Up to 1,500
chimpanzees could be killed by a new Chinese dam that will swamp a crucial sanctuary
for the endangered primate in Guinea, experts have warned.
The 294MW
Koukoutamba dam will be built by Sinohydro, the world’s biggest hydroelectric
power plant construction company, in the middle of a newly declared protected
area called the Moyen-Bafing National park.
The Chinese
company is already facing similar criticism for building a dam in Indonesia
that threatens the only known habitat of a newly
discovered species
of orangutan.
Its
executives signed a
contract this week with local representatives eager to secure a power project
that will bring energy and funds to one of Africa’s poorest countries.
The flooding
of swathes of the park is expected to force the displacement of 8,700 people.
It will also increase the pressure on western chimpanzees, which have declined
by 80% in the past 20 years, and are now considered critically endangered – the
highest level of risk – by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The
highlands of Guinea are home to Africa’s healthiest remaining population of
about 16,500 western chimpanzees. In most other countries, this subspecies is
either extinct or perilously threatened in populations of less than 100
individuals.
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