AN award-winning author and environmentalist is calling on Cirencester schoolchildren to help save the gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by recycling mobile phones.

In her new book, Gorilla Dawn, Gill Lewis discusses how mobile phones, and many electronic devices use rare minerals in their components that are extracted from Coltan, a process which hugely impacts on the rainforests in the DRC.

Mrs Lewis will visit Powell's C of E Primary School and Cirencester Primary School later this month, to talk about her book and ways to stop Coltan extraction, such as recycling mobile phones.

The author believes that by donating old phones, which can be refurbished for resale or recycled into parts it reduces demand for mining more raw materials.

Mrs Lewis said: “In an increasingly technological age, we are stuck in a cycle of renewing devices every couple of years. Many people forget the real world impact our consumerism has.

“With such a high demand for the raw materials even protected forest areas, the habitat of the gorillas, are under threat. As a result, eastern lowland gorillas are now thought to occupy just 13 per cent of their historical range and their population estimated to have decreased by over 50 per cent in the past twenty years.

“I want to highlight our responsibility as consumers of electronic goods; responsibility to insist on fair trade and conflict free minerals, and to actively protect our natural world.”

Gorilla Dawn explores the difficulties of life in a war-torn area, highlighting how the demands of Western consumerism cast a dark shadow over the rainforest’s precious and unique wildlife.