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In the photo above, a mother orangutan and her baby perched in the only tree left standing when forest was cleared for a palm oil plantation. |
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World Conservation Union’s 2007 Red List of Threatened Species cites threats to gorillas and orangutans; other species still endangered
Des Moines, Iowa – September 27, 2007 – Scientists at Great Ape Trust of Iowa, a world-class scientific research center in southeast Des Moines, say the grim picture painted for great apes by the World Conservation Union in its 2007 Red List of Threatened Species is a reminder about how rare humans’ closest living relatives have become.
Every species of great ape is classified as endangered. Most notably in this year’s Red List, the status of Western Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) was changed from endangered to critically endangered after the Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) suffered a population loss of more than 60 percent since the early 1980s due to hunting for the commercial bushmeat trade and deaths related to the Ebola virus.
Only about 700 Mountain Gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) survive in the wild today. About one-fifth of them are found in Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where five adults and an infant were shot by gunmen. They are also found in the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda.
Orangutans also are quickly disappearing. With fewer than 7,600 individuals remaining in the wild, the Sumatran Orangutan (Pongo abelii) remains critically endangered. Listed as endangered are Bornean Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).
Even with the most optimistic of estimates, the number of remaining great apes in the wild – 412,000 – is significantly less than the estimated population of the Des Moines metropolitan area, about 534,200, as of March 2007. Again using the most optimistic estimates, the number of remaining Sumatran Orangutans would only half-fill Principal Park, the home stadium of the Iowa Cubs Minor League baseball team.
“This list is not the prediction of alarmists of what might happen to our biological world in the future,” said Dr. Benjamin Beck, Great Ape Trust’s director of conservation. “This is the carefully researched work of international experts, revealing what is happening now to the plants and animals with which we share the Earth, and the trend line is down.”
Great Ape Trust scientist Dr. Serge Wich was among the experts who helped compile the Red List estimates for orangutans. Wich, who has extensive field experience in Borneo and Sumatra, the only areas where orangutans are found in the wild, cautioned that the estimates probably are optimistic.
“We try to keep up with what’s happening in the wild, but the problem is we do not have sufficient manpower or funding to recheck every year,” he said. “If a forest is logged or hunted in an area after we have done the count, the number will be affected.”
While the Red List estimates the number of remaining Sumatran Orangutans at 7,600, experts said further declines are likely as forests within the species’ range are under major threat. Based on the work by many researchers working in Indonesia, including Wich, the report noted the Sumatran Orangutan population has declined by more than 80 percent over the last 75 years, a trend that is expected to continue with the degradation of forests within their range.
“Most orangutans are outside of protected areas, including within potential logging areas and conversion forests,” the report said. “After a period of relative stability, pressure on these forests is increasing once again as a result of the recent peace accord, and a dramatic increase in demand for timber and other natural resources after the December 2004 tsunami.”
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Increasing worldwide demand for palm oil has contributed to the decline of habitat necessary for orangutan survival in the wild. |
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Though found in greater numbers, demand for their habitat is putting additional pressure on the Bornean Orangutan population, which experts estimated at between 45,000 and 69,000 individuals. Again citing the work of Wich and his colleagues, the IUCN Red List said the majority of remnant wild populations are found outside of protected areas in forests that are being exploited for timber production or in the process of being converted to agriculture. “Last but not least,” the report said, “poaching and the pet trade remain major threats to orangutans across most of Borneo.”
Bonobos, found only in the wild in Democratic Republic of Congo, have experienced a significant population reduction in the past 20 to 30 years due to loss of habitat and habitat quality, according to the report. They are difficult to count in the wild, and speculative estimates put their population at between 29,500 and 50,000 individuals. The downward trend is expected to continue for the next 45 to 55 years. The decline over a three-generation period from the 1970s to 2045 is thought to exceed 50 percent. The report warned that though the causes of the reduction are largely understood, they “have certainly not ceased and are not easily reversible. The suspected future survival of bonobos will be determined by the rapidly increasing human population density in the region and the high degree of political instability in the range states.”
Chimpanzees, whose population in the wild is estimated at between 172,700 and 299,700, are the most abundant and widespread of great apes and have populations in many protected areas, but population declines have occurred and are expected to continue due to exploitation, loss of habitat and habitat quality. As with bonobos, the downward trend is not easily reversible, according to the Red List, because of rapidly increasing human population in range states, the spread of diseases such as Ebola and political instability in range states.
Most of the conditions that have caused the rapid decline of great apes in the wild are caused by humans and are preventable, said Wich, who noted that “for humans to drive a species to extinction is a strange form of arrogance.”
“Losing any animal or plant species is a loss to what is here on Earth,” he said. “They are all part of what, I think, is supposed to be on this planet at this moment, part of healthy ecosystems that make this a livable world. If orangutans would go extinct, it also means all the forests would be gone, and that would mean living conditions would be negatively affected. That might mean more poverty, more conflict and climate change.
“That we still have apes on this planet means there are still certain healthily functioning ecosystems.”
There are socially responsible choices that consumers can make to reduce their footprint on great ape habitat. The demand for versatile palm oil, extracted from the fruit of oil palm trees and grown only in the tropics, is fueling rapid destruction of rain forests that orangutans depend upon for survival. Now the second-most widely produced edible oil, it’s used in cookies, crackers, shampoo, skin care and beauty products, and pet food, and it is widely touted as a fuel alternative. The majority of the world’s palm oil is produced in Borneo and Sumatra, the only places in the world where orangutans are found in the wild.
It is used so prevalently that avoiding it altogether is difficult, Wich said, but eco-friendly palm oil produced from already degraded lands or established palm oil plantations does exist. The main thing, Wich said, is to avoid palm oil produced at plantations that were created by clearing rain forests.
A group called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil is working on labeling and other guidelines that will help consumers determine if rain forests were degraded to produce the palm oil. The RSPO plans to unveil its certification system at a meeting in November, and that means that sustainable palm oil will soon be available on the market, giving manufacturers using palm oil the option to adhere to sustainability principles in sourcing the ingredient.
Private industry also can respond to the palm oil crisis. Citing the example of a bank in the Netherlands that has refused to finance palm oil plantations opening up new forests, “if those institutions would put pressure on industries, it could change the pattern in which we consume things and buy things,” Wich said.
He said that though great apes in the wild are found a half world away, there are steps U.S. residents can take to improve the survival chances of humans’ closest living relatives, whether through financial support of conservation initiatives or careful reading of product labels.
Great Ape Trust is committed to conservation of great apes in the wild and makes grants each year to organizations committed to protecting their habitat. In addition to supporting Great Ape Trust’s and like-minded organizations’ conservation efforts, Wich urged people to “see what in your own lifestyle might affect those ape populations.”
Though orangutan numbers are dwindling, the news in Indonesia isn’t entirely bad. For example, in Aceh, Sumatra’s northern-most province and the area where most of the island’s orangutans are found, a moratorium has been imposed on illegal logging.
“Logging has stopped in a few areas due to the hard work of scientists and the Indonesian government,” Wich said. “There are some positive changes, but whether they will remain, I don’t know.”
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). To learn more about Great Ape Trust of Iowa, go to www.GreatApeTrust.org.
World Conservation Union Background
The World Conservation Union, which is still known by the acronym IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources), is the world’s largest and most important conservation network, bringing together 83 states, 110 government agencies, more than 800 non-governmental organizations, and some 10,000 scientists and experts from 181 countries in a unique worldwide partnership. The Union’s mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable. It is multicultural, multilingual organization with 1,100 staff located in 40 countries. Its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland. |
Great Ape Trust is certified by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums
