Great apes in danger of being wiped out

Key points

• UN believes countries' poverty will kill most of the apes within fifty years

• UN reports that growing development is destroying apes' natural habitat

• UN survey concludes as few as 350,000 apes in total remain in wild

Key quote

"We have a duty to rescue our closest living relatives as part of our wider responsibilities to conserve the ecosystems they inhabit" - Klaus Toepfer, United Nations Environment Programme executive director

Story in full MAN'S closest cousins could become extinct within a generation due to poverty, disease, hunting and logging, according to the first-ever World Atlas of Great Apes.

An unprecedented survey by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) has resulted in a conservation map of the six remaining species and how their habitats are at risk.

As few as 350,000 great apes, which include chimpanzees, bonobos, eastern and western gorillas and Sumatran and Bornean orangutans, could now remain in the wild, the survey shows.

The rarest surviving species is thought to be the Cross River gorilla, which lives in Cameroon and Nigeria, with an estimated population of only 250 to 280 animals.

Scientists behind the mapping project said that by exposing the extent of threats to the apes they hope to prompt more conservation efforts.

Solving poverty would be the most significant step in halting the decline of the world's primates, biologists believe, as the country-by-country assessment of the 23 range states where the great apes live reveals they are among the poorest in the world, and 16 have a per capita income of less than 440 each year.

Information from the atlas will be used to raise international interest for an 11th-hour conservation effort aimed at saving humankind's closest living relative from extinction.

If current trends continue, by 2032 the experts who compiled the report believe 99 per cent of the orangutan range will suffer medium to high impacts from human development, as will 90 per cent of the gorilla range, 92 per cent of chimpanzee range and 96 per cent of bonobo range.

The growing bushmeat crisis, where great ape meat is traded for food, is also a significant threat to the survival of the species, as is the sale of orphaned apes to expatriates who want to "rescue" them. Entire groups of adults may be killed to capture one orphan for sale, and, in Central Africa, a single chimpanzee carcass can fetch the equivalent of 14 - a sum which many living in poverty find difficult to resist.

By comparison, gorilla tourism generated between 32,800 and 287,000 in annual revenue for each participating park between 1985 and 1996.

The urgency of the problem should not be underestimated, the survey suggests, with 47 per cent of orangutan habitat in Malaysia expected to disappear within just five years if current development trends persist, while at least 24 per cent of the bonobo's range in the Democratic Republic of Congo is under logging concessions.

Disease is also playing a major part in the great apes' decline, with the study revealing that the Ebola haemorrhagic fever has played a major part in ape deaths in recent years. Primatologists have called for more research into such diseases along with stronger efforts to limit disease transmission.

Klaus Toepfer, the executive director of the UNEP who launched the map, said: "We have a duty to rescue our closest living relatives as part of our wider responsibilities to conserve the ecosystems they inhabit.

"You only have to look at the tropical forests, home of the great apes. Economists now calculate that they are worth $60 billion a year as a result of their ability to remove and store global warming gases from the atmosphere alone.

"Along with other ecosystems, such forests are also invaluable sources of genetic material. These are forming the basis of a new industrial revolution in areas from food and agriculture to pharmaceuticals and chemicals. It is a moral issue of the highest importance. By conserving the habitats of the great apes, we are helping to overcome poverty and to conserve the natural wealth upon which current and future human generations depend. It seems a small price to pay."

Dr Ian Singleton, the scientific director of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme, said: "Fifty years from now only seven of the current 13 orangutan populations are expected to remain. Of these, six will consist of fewer than 20 individuals. This would mean a total world population of just 234 wild Sumatran orangutans by the year 2054.

"In contrast, if logging and removal of orangutans through hunting could be halted today, we could expect to have about 6,570 remaining in 50 years."

Charlotte Uhlenbroek, primate researcher and BBC wildlife programme presenter, said: "The international community needs to invest in long-term conservation projects which form positive partnerships. Local people's attitudes are critical to the survival of the apes in any given area, so projects that help to develop sustainable livelihoods in tandem with ape protection will be most successful."