UN calls emergency meeting on great apes

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Wednesday Nov 5 2003

 

UN calls emergency meeting on great apes

By Jo Johnson in Paris

 

Published: November 4 2003 4:00 | Last Updated:

November 4 2003 4:00

 

The United Nations has asked 23 African and south-east

Asian states to an emergency meeting in Paris to draw

up a strategy to rescue the great apes, man's closest

living relatives, from imminent extinction.

 

" The clock is standing at one minute to midnight for

the great apes, " said Dr Klaus Toepfer, Executive of the UN Environment Programme, the agency

which, with Unesco, is sponsoring the meeting at the

end of the month.

 

Environmentalists say the survival of the great apes,

who share more than 96 per cent of their DNA with

humans, has great symbolic importance for mankind's

ability to develop a more sustainable future.

 

Great apes act as key indicator species for endangered

ecosystems and play an important part in maintaining

the health and diversity of tropical forests. Yet

almost all great ape populations are now classified as

" endangered " or " critically endangered " .

 

The UN-led meeting, which will take place between

November 26 and 28, will draw up a conservation

strategy to reverse declines in the population of

gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees in 96 per cent of

their natural habitats.

 

The conservation strategy will call for survival plans

to be adopted in the 21 African and two south-east

Asian states with great ape populations. It will also

require rich countries to help fund conservation

efforts. It is hoped that Japan and the US will join

Britain in taking the lead among potential donor

countries.

 

After discussion by experts at Unesco's Paris

head-quarters, the document will be sent for

consideration to a ministerial meeting on great apes

to be convened before the end of next year.

 

The meeting could be held in the Democratic Republic

of Congo, which has important populations of gorillas,

chimpanzees and (uniquely) bonobos, a pygmy

chimpanzee. Other possibilities include Nigeria,

Senegal, Gabon, Cameroon or Uganda.

 

Road construction, which increases opportunities for

mining and oil extraction, bushmeat hunting and the

conversion of forest to agriculture, is a key factor

threatening the remaining habitats of the great apes.

 

Recent estimates suggest that African gorillas will

lose 2.1 per cent of their current habitat every year.

The figure rises to 5 per cent for Malaysian and

Indonesian orangutans.

 

While there remain an estimated 94,500 western lowland

gorillas, three sub-species - the mountain gorilla,

the cross-river gorilla and the Bwindi gorilla - face

" a very high risk of extinction in the wild in the

immediate future, " according to UNEP.

 

A recent estimate suggests there are only 150-200

Cross river gorillas left in the Nigeria-Cameroon

region. They are split into five populations, each

isolated on a separate hill area.

 

The populations of mountain and Bwindi gorillas have

each dropped to around 300.

 

International trade in live gorillas and gorilla

products, formerly a significant threat to the

species, has greatly decreased since the animal was

listed under the Convention on the Internation Trade

in Endangered Species (Cites) in 1977.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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