Almost half the worlds monkeys and apes (menneskeaber) are facing a worsening threat of extinction, an international report showed Tuesday.
– We have solid data to show that the situation is far more severe than we imagined, said Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and head of the International Union for Conservation of Natures (IUCN) primate specialist group.
An assessment for an IUCN “Red List” of endangered species found that 48 percent of the 634 known species and sub-species of primates, mankinds closest relatives such as chimpanzees, orangutans, gibbons and lemurs, were at risk of extinction.
In a previous report five years ago, using different yardsticks, just 39 percent of primates were judged at risk. The IUCN (Verdensunionen for Naturbevarelse), based in Switzerland, includes governments, scientists and conservation groups.
Habitat destruction, led by burning and clearing of tropical forests for farmland, and the hunting of monkeys and apes for their meat were the main threats. Some species were “literally being eaten into extinction,” a statement said.
Chimpanzees, the species most like humans, stayed “endangered”, the middle of a three-stage scale of risk between critically endangered and “vulnerable”. The mountain gorilla, found in jungles in Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo, stayed critically endangered despite a rise in numbers.
Mittermeier said that the outlook was not all gloom. In Brazil, the black lion tamarin and the golden lion tamarin were downlisted to endangered from critically endangered after conservation efforts. – There is no question that we can win the battle, he stressed.
Mittermeier would like to see more than 100 million US dollar a year going to conserve primates in five years time, up from less than 10 million (!) now.
Læs mere på Verdensunionen for Naturbevarelses website www.iucn.org og på miljøorganisationen Conservation Internationals website www.conservation.org
