FWD Probonobo: Great apes in peril

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Sunday, 20 May, 2001, 23:52 GMT 00:52 UK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1341000/1341609.stm

 

Most great apes could be extinct in as little as five years' time By BBC

News Online's environment correspondent Alex Kirby

 

The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) has launched a programme to

save the world's remaining great apes.

 

It says time is running out, with predictions that some species could

virtually disappear within a decade.

 

Unep hopes to involve every part of the UN in the effort to arrest the apes'

slide towards extinction.

 

It puts the cost of its initiative at more than $1m.

 

Our closest relatives

 

The programme is called Grasp (the Great Apes Survival Project). Launching

it in Washington DC, Unep's executive director, Dr Klaus Toepfer, said: " A

global effort is now needed to combat this disaster.

 

" The clock is standing at one minute to midnight for the great apes. Some

estimates expect that in as little as five to 10 years they will be extinct

across most of their range.

 

" Local extinctions are happening rapidly, and each one is a loss to

humanity, a loss to a local community, and a hole torn in the ecology of our

planet.

 

" We can no longer stand by and watch these wondrous creatures, some of whom

share over 98% of the DNA found in humans, die out. "

 

'Goodwill is not enough'

 

Urging business and industry to support the project, which is being started

with $150,000 from Unep, Dr Toepfer said: " Goodwill is not enough. We need

funding and support from all sectors of society. "

 

Robert Hepworth, a Unep biodiversity specialist, said " To get the project

really up and running will require well over $1m.

 

" But the world has a special duty to save the great apes, and by saving them

we will also be saving a whole raft of animal and plant species. "

 

Grasp will work in key areas in Africa and South East Asia which are home to

the apes - gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos (pygmy chimps) and orang-utans.

 

A need for education

 

The main threats to their survival include war, the bushmeat trade, loss of

habitat, and poaching for trophies and souvenirs.

 

Heather Eves, of the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, one of the groups working

with Unep, called for better education.

 

She said: " Where great ape tourism has been developed, for instance in

Uganda's Bwindi and Kibale Forest national parks, the animals have become to

local communities an important source of revenue worth more alive than dead.

 

But too few people are aware of the role gorillas play in regenerating

woodlands by dispersing seeds and pruning trees. Along with elephants, the

great apes are the gardeners of the African and South East Asian forests. "

 

Other groups working with Grasp are the Ape Alliance, the International Fund

for Animal Welfare, the Born Free Foundation, Fauna and Flora International,

and WWF, the global environment campaign.

 

Ian Redmond, of the Ape Alliance, said: " During this year thousands more

orang-utans have been killed or driven from their forests by illegal

loggers. Thousands more gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos have been killed

for bushmeat.

 

" Thousands of rangers and wardens have lacked the means to do their job to

protect even those apes living in national parks.

 

New threats

 

" And new threats are emerging. In the Democratic Republic of Congo miners

seeking the highly prized mineral tantalite, or coltan, have been pouring

into the Biega national park and Okapi wildlife reserve. "

 

Robert Hepworth said the UN's World Health Organisation should be concerned

about the apes' fate because of their importance in medical research.

 

And the UN Development Programme had a potential interest because of

eco-tourism.

 

Grasp funding will include equipping rangers, linking fragmented patches of

habitat, and telling people how valuable the apes are to their communities.