Posted on 5-9-2002

Future Grim for World's Great Apes

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, September 3, 2002 - Less than 10 percent of the
habitat now inhabited by the great apes of Africa will be left undisturbed
by 2030 if road building, mining camps and other infrastructure
developments continue at current levels says a new report to the World
Summit on Sustainable Development.

Findings for the orangutans of Southeast Asia appear even bleaker. The
report indicates that in 28 years there will be almost no habitat left that
can be considered "relatively undisturbed." The study from the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), coordinator of the Great Apes
Survival Project partnership (GRASP), includes findings by scientists from
Norway and the United States.

Releasing the report in Johannesburg, UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer
warned, "Roads are being built in the few remaining pristine forests of
Africa and South East Asia to extract timber, minerals and oil.
Uncontrolled road construction in these areas is fragmenting and destroying
the great apes' last homes and making it easier for poachers to slaughter
them for meat and their young more vulnerable to capture for the illegal
pet trade. "Saving the great apes is also about saving people," said
Toepfer. "By conserving the great apes, we will also protect the
livelihoods of the many people that rely on forests for food, medicine and
clean water. Indeed the fate of the Great Apes has great symbolic
implications for humankind's ability to develop a more sustainable future."

A new method of evaluating the wider impacts of infrastructure development
on key species was used in this study. The key species studied are the
chimpanzee, the bonobo or pygmy chimpanzee, the gorilla and the orangutan.
The scientists looked in detail at each of these four species to assess the
current, remaining, habitat deemed relatively undisturbed and able to
support viable populations of apes. The experts then mapped the likely
impact at current levels of infrastructure growth, and the area of healthy
habitat that would be left to the apes in 2030.

While most studies focus on the actual area of land taken by a new road,
mining camp or infrastructure development, the new method also factors in
the wider impacts such as habitat fragmentation and noise disturbance. "It
is not too late to stop uncontrolled exploitation of these forests. By
doing so, we may save not only the great apes, but thousands of other
species," said Toepfer. Toepfer called on all nations at the summit, on all
sectors of society, to join our Great Apes Survival Project partnership.
Toepfer said, "Here, near the close of WSSD, we have an agreement to
significantly reduce biodiversity loss by 2010. This is an important
agreement. The Great Apes, our closest living relatives will be the litmus
test of whether the world succeeds in this important goal or not". The
study estimates that around 28 per cent, or some 204,900 square kilometres
of remaining gorilla habitat, can be classed as relatively undisturbed.

If infrastructure growth continues at current levels, the area left by 2030
is estimated to be 69,900 square kilometres or just 10 percent. It amounts
to a 2.1 per cent, or 4,500 square kilometre, annual loss of low-impacted
gorilla habitat in countries including Nigeria, Gabon, Rwanda and Burundi.

Chimpanzee

The study estimates that around 26 percent, or some 390,840 square
kilometres of remaining chimpanzee habitat, can be classed as relatively
undisturbed. If infrastructure growth continues at current levels, the area
left by 2030 is estimated to be 118,618 square kilometres or just eight
percent. It amounts to a 2.3 percent, or 9,070 square kilometre, annual
loss of low-impacted chimpanzee habitat from countries including Guinea,
Cote D'Ivoire and Gabon.

Bonobo

The study estimates that around 23 percent, or some 96,483 square
kilometres, of remaining bonobo habitat, can be classed as relatively
undisturbed. If infrastructure growth continues at current levels, the area
left by 2030 is estimated to be 17,750 square kilometres or just four
percent. It amounts to a 2.8 percent, or 2,624 square kilometre, annual
loss of low-impacted bonobo habitat from the Democratic Republic of the
Congo - the only country in which they are found.

Orangutan

The study estimates that around 36 percent, or some 92,332 square
kilometres, of remaining orangutan habitat, can be classed as relatively
undisturbed. If infrastructure growth continues at current levels, the area
left by 2030 is estimated to be 424 square kilometres or less than one
percent. It amounts to a five percent, or 4,697 square kilometre, annual
loss of low-impacted orangutan habitat from areas such as Sumatara,
Indonesia, and Borneo which includes Kalimantan, Indonesia, Brunei
Darussalam and Sarawak and Sabah, Malaysia. The report, "The Great Apes -
The Road Ahead," is edited by Dr. Christian Nellemann of UNEP Grid-Arendal
in Norway and Dr. Adrian Newton of UNEP World Conservation Monitoring
Centre in Cambridge, UK.

As the study was launched at the summit, supporters of GRASP announced more
cash backing for the project. More funding was announced from the
Government of the United Kingdom, and new money from the United Nations
Foundation (UNF) and the wildlife charity the International Fund for Animal
Welfare (IFAW) was earmarked for great ape survival.

Biodiversity expert Robert Hepworth, deputy director of the UNEP Division
of Environmental Conventions, unveiled the organization's GRASP strategy
document which will build on the work carried out by partners since the
project was launched in 2001. The strategy aims to cover all of the two
dozen range states of the great apes and draw up national recovery action
plans in collaboration with the governments concerned, wildlife groups and
local people. A key feature of the strategy is the role of the specially
appointed ape envoys in raising the profile of the cause. GRASP has three
special ape envoys who are Jane Goodall, the celebrated primate
conservationist, Russ Mittermeier of Conservation International and
Toshisasa Nishida of Kyoto University. Goodall and Mittermeier spoke
personally about the unique partnership at today's event at the IUCN Centre
in Johannesburg.

Hepworth announced other new GRASP partners including the Dian Fossey
Gorilla Foundation of Europe, the World Conservation Society, the Institute
of Tropical Forest Conservation and the Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance.