Great ape populations such as gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans are at risk of going extinct within 50 years due to habitat loss and human activities like poaching, according to United Nations delegates. At a meeting held by UNESCO, representatives called for $25 million in immediate funding for conservation efforts. Experts warned that without at least 10% of undisturbed forest remaining, great apes will be unable to survive and reproduce effectively.

1. Great Apes on the brink of
extinction.
Gorillas, chimpanzees and orang-utans
could be extinct in as little as 50
years, United Nations Delegates
warned this week. At a crisis
meeting held
at the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural
Organisations
(UNESCO) headquarters in Paris,
leaders appealed for $25 million
(£15m) to
begin an immediate ape conservation
programme. Representatives from
23
African and Asian states met with
scientific experts from the Great
Apes
Survival Project (GRASP) to develop
a Global Great Ape Conservation
Strategy.
“$25 million is the bare minimum we
need,” stressed Klaus Toepfer, United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Executive Director. “The clock is
standing at one minute to midnight
for the great apes. They share more
than 96 percent of their DNA with
humans; if we lose any of the great
ape species, we would be destroying a
bridge to our own origins and with it a
part of our humanity.”
The UN first became concerned about
the diminishing number of apes in 2001
and founded GRASP to raise
awareness and attempt to impede the

2. growing problem. Since then,
research has revealed that great
ape populations in Africa have
decreased dramatically as a direct
result of various human activities.
Civil war, poaching and human disease
have all had an effect on the
decline in their population.
In addition, a recent increase in
logging is destroying the ape’s
natural habitat, whilst the human
presence in the jungles is increasing
the risk of infectious diseases
“jumping” between apes and humans.
Chimpanzees and gorillas are highly
susceptible to many human conditions
such as influenza, measles,
tuberculosis, mumps and even the
common cold. This is proving to be a
greater risk than first anticipated, in
one population studied, 137 gorillas
died after becoming infected with the
Ebola virus- just 4 survived.
In order to survive and procreate
effectively, apes need relatively
undisturbed forest. According to a
recent UNEP report – “The Great Apes-
the road ahead,” less than 10 percent
of the remaining habitat of the
African great apes will be left
undisturbed by 2030 if human
construction developments continue
at current levels.
Research conducted about the orang-
utans of South Eastern Asia is even
bleaker. The report indicates that in
28 years time there will be almost

3. no habitat left that can be
considered “relatively undisturbed.”
Other countries where the western
ape is threatened include Ghana,
Guinea Bissau, Benin Gambia and Togo.
The premier aim of the Paris meeting
was to bring together UN agencies,
conservationists and country
officials in order to plan a survival
strategy, the results of which will
be published next week. It will also
prepare for an inter-governmental
ministerial conference to be held
late next year.
“ I doubt if there is any challenge of
greater importance than that
presented by the current status of
the great ape,” stated Richard Leakey,
famous conservationist and
paleoanthropologist. “
Conservationists and governments
must come together to put the
necessary measures in place to
ensure that the great apes are
saved from extinction.”
For further information contact The
Great Ape Project at
www.greatapeproject.org,
alternatively contact the UN at
www.unep.org/grasp.