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.
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