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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
A
'Critical Time' for Primates
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
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Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
05/09/00
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
Primates
are the highest order of mammals and include apes, monkeys,
prosimians,
as well as humans. New estimates
indicate that 10 percent
of the
world's 608 primate species and sub-species are critically
imperiled,
and 20 percent are likely to be lost in the next 20 years
without
decisive action. Researchers blame
recent losses primarily on
commercial
exploitation of habitats and political unrest (which may be
related). 150 years ago major global ecological
systems were
essentially
intact and operational. Now the fabric
of the global
ecological
system is being ripped apart. Critical
ecological sub-
systems
including forests, oceans, aquatic and climate are being
destroyed
and diminished, along with their outputs and crucial
interactions
(for the whole) with other sub-systems.
There is likely
a
threshold of habitat alteration beyond which the whole cannot be
sustained,
and spiraling decline begins. Loss of
primates may be an
indicator
of the deteriorating prospects for one species--the human
race. Despite its superiority complex, humans are
entirely dependent
upon,
and part of, their environment. It is time
for the age of over-
exploitation
to end, and the age of restoration to commence. This is
indeed
a critical time for primates--ourselves included.
g.b.
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Title: Conservationists warn that many primate
species could vanish
immediately
Source: Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.
Date: May 9, 2000
Dozens
of primate species are teetering on the brink of oblivion in a
new
extinction emergency that has left scientists astonished and
angry.
"It's
all been happening at a time when we knew better," said David
Chivers,
a Cambridge University gibbon expert who has chased the
world's
smallest ape through treetops from the Himalayas to the
islands
of Indochina.
"I've
spent 30 years on this, and now we don't seem to be getting
anywhere,"
Chivers said. "It's ridiculous."
No
primate has gone extinct in the 20th century. It was a remarkable
feat of
endurance for humankind's closest relatives at a time when 100
species
-- especially cats, bats, insects and birds were vanishing
every
day.
But
what had been hailed as a conservation triumph is beginning to
look
like a sad illusion. Leading field biologists, veterinarians and
zoo
curators will meet for four days in suburban Chicago beginning
Wednesday
to devise emergency strategies.
Deforestation,
poaching blamed for decline
New
estimates suggest that 10 percent of the world's 608 primate
species
and subspecies on three continents are critically imperiled.
Renewed
surges of deforestation and poaching in the 1990s, as well as
shrinking
genetic diversity, suddenly are thinning the ranks of many
species
to just a few hundred individuals, or a few dozen. At any
moment,
they could vanish forever.
An
additional 10 percent of primate species might not be in immediate
jeopardy,
but will disappear without vigorous protection, researchers
warn.
In a
few cases, scientists aren't even sure if a species still exists.
A
'critical time' for primates
Take
the Miss Waldron's red colobus. In the Ivory Coast and Ghana in
West
Africa, farming has all but eliminated the obscure monkey's
swampy
habitat.
Or the
golden-headed langur on Vietnam's Cat Ba Island. This rare
leaf-eater
has been a favorite target of hunters who sell its bones,
tissues
and organs as traditional medicines.
"We're
doing surveys to find them. There are some we haven't seen in a
few
years," said Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation
International,
a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.
"We've
arrived at a critical time for the world's primates," said
William
Konstant of the World Conservation Union. "Close to 20 percent
stand a
reasonable chance of disappearing in the next 20 years unless
we take
decisive action."
But
what action will be effective? Some ideas likely to be discussed:
artificial
insemination of females with laboratory-engineered embryos
and the
introduction into the wild of families born in captivity.
Political
unrest, commmercial exploitation compound losses
Primates
are the highest order of mammals. Besides humans, they
include
apes, monkeys and prosimians, a suborder that includes more
primitive
lemurs and tarsiers.
Primates
have been in worsening trouble for decades as the world's
human
population crashed the 6 billion barrier. Many of the world's
foremost
field researchers, including pioneering chimpanzee expert
Jane
Goodall, switched their focus from science to salvation as their
cherished
research subjects began disappearing.
According
to CI's latest census, 92 countries are home to primates;
but
four -- Brazil, Madagascar, Indonesia and Congo account for two-
thirds
of the total.
Researchers
blame recent losses primarily on political unrest and
commercial
exploitation of the creatures' habitats. They say none of
the
four countries consistently enforces timber, mining or wildlife
protection
measures, even in national parks. It's
no coincidence that
endangered
primates live in environments under assault. Researchers
say
they need to secure stronger commitments from governments and the
corporations
using wild lands in those countries.
"There will never
be
enough rangers to protect an area," said George Rabb, director of
the
Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. "The nations have to believe it is in
their
benefit to protect their wildlife resources."
Indonesia,
home to 10 percent of the world's primate species, already
is the
world's largest timber exporter.
Wildcat loggers are illegally
doubling
the nation's timber cutting, and oil palm plantations are
deforesting
millions of additional rain forest acres.
Among
the hardest hit species are orangutans and gibbons.
On the
Indonesian island of Java, perhaps 400 silvery gibbons remain.
On
Sumatra and Borneo, the orangutan population has been reduced by 90
percent.
In the
Brazilian Amazon, loggers cut 11,000 square miles of rain
forest
annually, an area bigger than the state of New Hampshire.
Near
Rio de Janeiro, five species of tamarins, capuchins and muriquis
are
crowded into the remaining scrap of Atlantic Coast rain forest.
Entire
populations slaughtered
In
Africa, the biggest threat is poaching.
Conservationists say
hunters
are slaughtering entire populations to supply urban markets
with
exotic meat. Among their targets are
the drill, Sclater's guenon
and the
white-naped mangabey. "It's disgusting that people are eating
their
closest wild relatives," Chivers said.
"And it's not a matter
of
people just trying to survive. It's the middleman trying to get
richer."
To some
degree, the crisis is a scientific numbers game.
In the
past century scientists discovered 200 new primate species and
subspecies.
In February, scientists expanded the total by another 35.
They
based the reclassifications on fine differences in appearance,
molecular
genetics and behaviors that are passed on between
generations.
For
example, gorillas now are split into two species -- eastern and
western
-- and further divided into five subspecies.
Scientists
declared 200 gorillas living along the Nigeria-Cameroon
border
to belong to a new subspecies named the Cross River gorilla.
Such
smaller groups are much harder to sustain biologically, so they
leap
atop the protection list.
But,
scientists say the reclassifications more accurately reflect
nature's
diversity and add urgency to protection efforts.
"In
the nick of time we have realized these gorillas are distinct,"
said
John F. Oates of Hunter College in New York City, "just before it
is
finally too late to save them."
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