- Gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orang-utans - the
closest living relatives of humanity - could vanish from the wild within
50 years, say United Nations leaders meeting today in Paris. They have
appealed for $25m to save the world's great apes from extinction.
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- "The clock is standing at one minute to midnight
for the great apes, animals that share more than 96% of their DNA with
humans," said Klaus Tpfer, the head of the UN environment programme.
"If we lose any great ape species we will be destroying a bridge to
our own origins, and with it part of our own humanity." He called
the $25m (£15m) "the bare minimum we need, the equivalent of
providing a dying man with bread and water".
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- The UN first sounded an alarm about the rapidly dwindling
numbers of great apes in 2001 and appealed for funds. But by last year,
researchers on the ground had begun to reveal an even more ominous pattern
of loss. They found that ape numbers in Africa had been slashed by logging,
hunting and disease.
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- In one population studied, researchers knew of 140 gorillas.
After an outbreak of the Ebola virus, they could only find seven alive.
"The stark truth is that if we do not act decisively, our children
may live in a world without wild apes," they reported.
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- To survive and breed, great apes need undisturbed forest.
The western chimpanzee has vanished from Benin, Gambia and Togo. Fewer
than 400 remain in Senegal and 300 to 500 in Ghana. The population of chimps
in Guinea-Bissau is below 200. Only about 600 mountain gorillas survive
in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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- By 2030, less than 10% of Africa's remaining forest is
likely to remain undisturbed. The picture from south-east Asia is also
bleak: by 2030, there will be almost no habitat that could be described
as "relatively undisturbed".
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- UN agencies, conservation organisations, donor countries
and officials from 23 African and south-east Asian nations have been meeting
in Paris to work on survival strategies. Researchers have begun to use
European satellite studies to measure forest destruction, and Unesco officials
are working to improve law enforcement in African national parks.
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- "We cannot just put up fences to try and separate
the apes from people," said Samy Mankoto of Unesco. "Great apes
play a key role in maintaining the health and diversity of tropical forests,
which people depend on. They disperse seeds throughout the forests, for
example, and create light gaps in the forest canopy which allow seedlings
to grow and replenish the forest ecosystem."
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- Rob Hepworth of Unep said "It's basic arithmetic:
the multiplication of threats to the great apes, the division of their
habitats, the subtraction of overall ape numbers."
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- To get the sums right, he added, would take the combined
efforts of two UN agencies, four wildlife conventions, and 18 non-governmental
organisations to raise awareness, funds and "our conservation game
to stop the great apes becoming history".
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- Our closest relatives in danger
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- Gorilla Lowland and mountain gorillas range through nine
African countries. There are no reliable figures - but one estimate suggests
80%to 90% of the population may have been lost in just five years, as new
roads have opened up inaccessible forest to poachers, loggers and bushmeat
hunters.
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- Chimpanzee Two species, Pan troglodytes and Pan paniscus
(the bonobo or pigmy chimpanzee) range through 21 African countries. There
could be 105,000 Pan troglodytes, and fewer than 20,000 bonobos left. Chimpanzee
DNA is so close to human DNA that one scientist has proposed that they
should be reclassified as genus Homo.
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- Orang-utan Pongo pygmaeus, found in Sumatra, Borneo and
Sarawak. Total numbers are unknown - but the species is at "extremely
high risk" of extinction in Sumatra where a population put at 6,000
three years ago has been falling by 1,000 a year. It is also endangered
in Borneo. Greatest threats: logging and forest fire.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,13369,1093123,00.html
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