Ecologists urge more vigorous efforts to protect apes

By Henry Wasswa Jul 1, 2006, 12:24 GMT

Entebbe - Governments around the world should employ more vigorous measures to stem the on-going wanton destruction of forests, the natural habitat for primates and the Great Apes, some of which are on the verge of extinction, conservationists told an international primate protection conference in Uganda.

Ironically however, the conservationists and researchers noted that the destruction of forests in Africa, Asia and South America, has led to the discovery of 54 new primate species previously unknown to science.

The comments were coming at the conclusion of the nearly week-long 21st congress of the International Primatological Society.

'All over the world, the message of conservation is important. Our generation has made a mess, we need a new generation to push for more vigorous conservation awareness,' world-famous chimpanzee and gorilla conservationist, Jane Goodall, told reporters Saturday.

'What we expect to achieve in the future depends on what we do now. We have to create a voting public which will vote politicians who will make tough decisions to protect the environment.

'That is why we need to inspire the people on the issue of the environment protection. If we continue to destroy the forests, the future of primates will not be there,' Goodall warned.

Goodall and over 700 other scientists and reseachers who had gathered at a beach hotel on the shores of Lake Victoria for the conference that takes place every two years, have been examining the progress of conservation and the dangers faced by the apes, some of which are have been classfied as endangered.

According to Russel Mittermeier, president of the Washington-based Conservation International, 'primates in Madagascar, Indonesia and some west African states are facing the danger of extinction.

'We haven't lost a primate in a 100 years but the Red Colobus monkey has not been seen in the last 25 years in Ivory Coast. The reasons are habitat destruction and bush meat eating,' he said.

Only about 240 individuals of the primate, Perrier's sifaka (Propithecus perrieri), one of the most endangered and least-studied lemurs, remains in only a small and fragmented dry forest in northern Madagascar.

But the primates are 'threatened by hunting, selective logging, habitat destruction as well as mining for gemstones,' the ecologists said.

Scientists say that the destruction of forests and the subsequent depletion of the apes is particulary severe in eastern Asia in general and Vietnam and Indonesia in particular due to Asia's high populations and the high rates of economic growth.

'We have come up with 25 most endangered primates, those that need urgent protection,' ecologist Anthony Rylands, also from Conservational International told the news conference.

'Asian primates are heavy on the list of the endangered. In Asia, the animals are in serious trobule and the state of primates in Vietnam is in very serious trouble,' he said.

'We need to mobilize efforts to bring the plight of primates to attention in Vietnam. We need to bring it to the attention of the Vietnamese government. Maybe UNESCO can do something. We urge high class people who have access to the Vietnamese government to help,' Rylands said.

He added that 18 per cent of the Amazon Forest in Brazil which equals the size of France and Greece had been cut down and another 18 per cent has been destroyed by logging and cattle ranching.

However, the felling of forests in the primate habitats has, over the past 15 years, exposed 54 new primate species. Scientists are researching on them for conservation purposes, ecologists say.

'Since 1990, 54 new species have been 'described'. About 16 were found in Madagascar and 14 others in other parts of the world in 2005,' Russel said.

'These species which are new to science comprise about 10 per cent of all existing primates and are mostly found in Madagascar and others in Brazil, Indonesia and the DR Congo. We have to do genetical analysis on them,' he added.

The destruction of forests exposed the new primates in the areas which had not been originally accessible to humans and most of the discovered primates have also been found to be endangered, the scientists said.

'I would relate the new discoveries to forest destruction. The primates which had not been known became exposed. The new primates have been seen after the cutting down of trees,' Rylands said.

'Some of them are endangered like the Highland Mangabey in Tanzania which occurs in only one location. Its on the list of the 25 most endangered primates,' he added.