The Price of Energy Consumption - The Renaissance of Renewable Energy - page 208

clear more than 1,600 hectares of rainforest for palm oil plantations. Part of the jungle
was razed by fire, destroying an ecosystem that had taken centuries to develop and further
shrinking the habitat of the Sumatran orang-utan. In September 2012, under pressure from
environmental groups, the governor revoked the permit.
The Tripa forest is a small part of a global palm oil-driven deforestation crisis. The palm
oil industry is also expanding into wild forests in western and central Africa, threatening
important tropical ecosystems ( Scientific American 2012). However, not all of Africa's
forest destruction is driven by powerful industrial interests. A rapidly growing human
population is putting intolerable pressure on the continent's forests and wildlife. 11 One
of the main causes of deforestation in Africa mirrors the deforestation of Europe a few
centuries ago: the demand for charcoal. In Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda, charcoal is not
only the primary local fuel forheating and cooking; it is also a valuable means ofsterilising
water. As the richer countries have seen with the drug trade, it is impossible to stem supply
if demand is strong enough. Until the people of Africa's Great Lakes region have access to
an affordable alternative to charcoal, illegal felling will continue, and those who get in the
way of this lucrative trade, whether a park ranger or one of the last few hundred mountain
gorillas, are likely to pay with their lives (Platt 2009 ).