Great Ape Trust a partner in UN-backed ape conservation, survival effort

Des Moines, Iowa – March 31, 2009 – Great Ape Trust has been accepted as an international partner in the Great Ape Survival Project (GRASP), an international conservation effort to reduce the loss of tropical rainforest by 2010 and secure the future of endangered great apes by 2015.

GRASP is a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) initiative responding to experts’ warnings that unless action is taken, all four types of great ape – bonobo, chimpanzee, gorilla and orangutan – could disappear within a generation.

As a fully recognized partner in GRASP, Great Ape Trust joins some of the world’s most influential players in great ape conservation – including those from great ape range states and donor governments, non-governmental organizations committed to great ape conservation – scientists from around the world and private sector groups, in addressing the threat to the world’s last remaining populations of great ape.

The alliance’s acceptance of Great Ape Trust’s application for membership is a recognition of its strong commitment to in-situ conservation, said Dr. Benjamin Beck, The Trust’s director of conservation and an internationally respected ape conservation expert. Over four years, Great Ape Trust has invested some $540,000 to conserve wild great apes and their habitats. That includes more than $380,000 in direct conservation aid to about two dozen international organizations, and $160,000 in support of the Gishwati Area Conservation Program, a reforestation effort in Rwanda.

“Partner organizations have to apply and show a record of commitment to and accomplishment in great ape conservation,” Beck said. “In five years, Great Ape Trust has made significant contributions to ape conservation, but acceptance also reflects The Trust’s overall mission and the value of ape cognition research in elevating public appreciation of great apes.”

Located in Des Moines, Iowa, Great Ape Trust is a scientific research institute with a four-part mission: studying the intelligence of great apes, advancing the conservation of great apes, providing sanctuary and an honorable life for great apes, and providing unique educational experiences about great apes.

GRASP’s binding agreement, the 2005 Kinshasa Declaration, recognizes that the underlying cause of activities that decimate great ape populations, including poaching and deforestation, is poverty. Because of that, the partnership’s objectives include working with local communities to identify and promote economic activities that are compatible with great ape conservation and mitigate development activities that area detrimental to great ape populations and habitat.

When the Kinshasa Declaration was signed in 2005, Kofi A. Annan of Ghana, then the secretary general of the United Nations, said: “By preserving the great apes, we can protect the livelihoods of many people who rely on forests for food, clean water and much else. Indeed the fate of great apes has both practical and symbolic implications for the ability of human beings to move to a sustainable future.”

Beck said GRASP’s program of action is mindful of the political and economic realities in ape range countries and includes realistic, attainable goals. “This is not just a paper tiger,” he said. “It provides a new avenue for Great Ape Trust to pursue its interests in the conservation of great apes and their habitats.”