The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[gregory nahas <lettherebemonkeys AT yahoo.com>]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3237726.stmp

The clock now stands at one minute to midnight for the
world's four great ape species, the United Nations
says. 

It is launching an appeal for $25m, the minimum it
says is needed to avert their extinction within a few
decades. 

All the apes - gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos (pygmy
chimps), and orang-utans - face a very high risk of
extinction within 50 years at most, the UN says. 

It hopes to establish areas where ape populations can
stabilise or even grow, if it manages to raise enough
money. 

The appeal is being launched at a meeting in the
French capital, Paris, on 26 November. It has been
called by Unesco (the UN Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation) and Unep, the UN Environment
Programme. 

Shared inheritance 

The two agencies, the co-ordinators of Grasp, the
Great Apes Survival Project, have invited delegates
from the 23 African and south-east Asian states where
the apes live, and from possible donor countries. 

Dr Klaus Toepfer, Unep's executive director, said:
"$25 million is the bare minimum we need, the
equivalent of providing a dying man with bread and
water. 

"The great apes share more than 96% of their DNA with
humans. If we lose any great ape species we will be
destroying a bridge to our own origins, and with it
part of our own humanity." 

Unesco's director-general, Koichiro Matsuura, said:
"Great apes form a unique bridge to the natural world.
The forests they inhabit are a vital resource for
humans everywhere. 

"Saving the great apes and the ecosystems they inhabit
is not just a conservation issue, but a key action in
the fight against poverty." 

Contending with humans 

Unesco says research suggests the western chimpanzee
has already disappeared from Benin, Togo and Gambia,
and could soon vanish from another west African
country, Senegal. 
  
There are only about 2-400 chimpanzees left there,
slightly more in Ghana, and fewer than 200 in
Guinea-Bissau. 

The main threats to all the apes are of human origin:
war, poaching, and the live animal trade. 

Human encroachment into the forests is increasing, and
outright forest destruction leaves them no hiding
place. 

If road-building, construction of mining camps and
other development continues at present levels, Unep
says, less than 10% of the remaining forest where the
African apes live will be left relatively undisturbed
by 2030. 

Checking forest loss 

By then, it says, there will be almost no habitat left
intact in south-east Asia, raising acute fears for the
orang-utan's survival. 

Chimps are in retreat in west Africa 
Because many great apes live in remote and
inaccessible areas, Unesco is working with the
European Space Agency to use satellites or remote
sensing to monitor how fast ape habitat is
disappearing. 

The project is initially mapping the habitat of the
mountain gorilla. Only about 600 survive in Uganda,
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

It will also compare satellite image archives to
assess changes in gorilla habitat since 1992 in the
Virunga National Park (DRC) and Bwindi Impenetrable
National Park (Uganda). 

Natural foresters 

Unesco is working with local rangers on improving law
enforcement and monitoring in all five of the DRC's
world heritage sites, which are home to several great
ape species. 

But Samy Mankoto of Unesco said: "Law enforcement is
an essential but single element in any conservation
effort. 

"We cannot just put up fences to try and separate the
apes from people. The apes play a key role in
maintaining the health and diversity of tropical
forests, which people depend upon. 

"They disperse seeds throughout the forests, for
example, and create light gaps in the forest canopy
which allow seedlings to grow and replenish the
ecosystem." 


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