Africa's apes face extinction

2006-06-30 15:42

Entebbe, Uganda - Poaching to satisfy demand for bush meat and destruction of their habitats are threatening Africa's apes with extinction, a top primate conservationist warned on Thursday, despite efforts by governments to protect the species.

Jane Goodall, a world primate expert said the population of apes in the continent, particularly the Congo basin, had been strained by a thriving bush meat market and a rapid destruction of forests that provide habitat.

"The bush meat crisis is very, very serious. Animals are being eaten into extinction and the problem is all over in Asia, South America and Africa," Goodall told reporters on the sidelines of the 21st congress of the International Primatological Society, taking place at a hotel on the shores of Lake Victoria.

"The problem is that hundreds and hundreds of people have lived on bush meat for years. It used to be simple hunting for food and for superstitions, but now it is commercial hunting," added Goodall, a specialist in primates.

"My concern is with the Great Apes in the Congo Basin," she added. Human behaviour has pushed the apes to the brink of extinction in the region.

Experts have warned that large numbers of gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans in the Congo Basin have been wiped out by poaching for bush meat, trafficking in live animals, exploitation of forests and rapidly-growing human populations to the point where they face extinction.

"There are problems with foreign logging companies which go deep into the forests that were previously inaccessible and this gives access to hunters.

"The problem has also been the destruction of their habitat as the human population grew ... But the setting up of wire snares and now the bush-meat trade, has taken over as the greatest factor," Goodall explained.

Other African countries where trade in bush meat is booming include Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

The European Union, notably Belgium and France, as well as Japan and the United States are among the countries backing the UN's Great Apes Survival Project Partnership (GRASP), which is working with governments and conservation groups to shield the apes from extinction.

- AFP