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| Dr. Serge Wich, who was recently appointed to a global conservation effort backed by the United Nations, has done extensive conservation work in Indonesia. Photo: Perry Van Duijnhoven. |
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GRASP leverages the strengths of major players in ape conservation
Des Moines, Iowa – August 29, 2007 – Great Ape Trust of Iowa scientist Dr. Serge Wich has been appointed to the Scientific Commission of GRASP, or Great Apes Survival Project, a United Nations-backed effort to help move great apes away from the edge of extinction.
GRASP was launched in May 2001 by Dr. Klaus Toepfer, former executive director of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), in response to the current crisis facing great apes in the wild. Co-sponsored by UNEP and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, GRASP capitalizes on close links with governments through the UN in issuing an immediate challenge “to lift the threat of imminent extinction facing most populations of great apes ... to make sure that, where they interact with people, those interactions are mutually positive and sustainable.”
Wich, who joined Great Ape Trust in 2006, has studied orangutan behavior at field sites in Sumatra and Borneo, the only two islands where orangutans remain in the wild. At the Ketambe Research Station in northern Sumatra, the longest-running orangutan field study site in Sumatra, Wich and his research partners focused extensively on conservation issues.
Dr. Benjamin Beck, The Trust’s director of conservation, said the appointment speaks well of the respect Wich has garnered not only in his specific areas of scientific inquiry and expertise – ecology, conservation, vocal communication, orangutans, Thomas langurs, and innovative behavior and culture – but also in the range countries where great apes live in the wild.
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| The Great Ape Survival Project, or GRASP, is taking a new approach to help save orangutans and other great apes from extinction. Photo: Perry Van Duijnhoven. |
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“Dr. Wich’s appointment to the GRASP Scientific Commission reflects his leadership in research and conservation of great apes, especially of orangutans, and his astonishing scientific productivity,” Beck said. “The Trust is privileged to have Dr. Wich as a scientific staff member, and to consequently expand our influence in modern primatology and conservation biology.”
Wich is among six members of the commission selected by the Species Survival Commission of the World Conservation Union, or the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, which is still known by its former acronym, IUCN. Both Wich and Beck have been extensively involved in great ape conservation issues through that organization.
In this new approach to save great apes and their habitats, GRASP brings together the major players in conservation efforts and leverages the strengths of their various interests – governmental and non-governmental, United Nations, scientific and academic foundations, and local community private-sector – to promote its message at the highest levels of government, especially in Africa and Asia.
As a multisectoral international alliance, GRASP is in a position to provide advocacy on public policy issues, mobilize and pool resources to ensure maximum efficiency, and to provide a communication platform to bring the decline of great ape populations to a halt much more effectively than organizations and individuals working on their own. By working through intergovernmental dialogue and policy making, conservation planning initiatives, technical and scientific support to great ape range state governments, flagship field projects, and fund- and awareness-raising in donor countries, the organization complements those existing great ape conservation efforts.
The GRASP Scientific Commission of which Wich is a member functions independently of the GRASP partnership, providing an analysis of and advice on myriad issues affecting great ape conservation to the GRASP Executive Council.
Great Ape Trust Background
Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a scientific research facility in southeast Des Moines dedicated to understanding the origins and future of culture, language, tools and intelligence. When completed, Great Ape Trust will be the largest great ape facility in North America and one of the first worldwide to include all four types of great ape – bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans – for noninvasive interdisciplinary studies of their cognitive and communicative capabilities.
Great Ape Trust is dedicated to providing sanctuary and an honorable life for great apes, studying the intelligence of great apes, advancing conservation of great apes and providing unique educational experiences about great apes. Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit organization and is certified by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). |
Great Ape Trust is certified by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums
