New alarm bells

Abstract

A recent study finds that many our closest relatives are at the sharp end of extinction worries as numbers of many primates dwindle worldwide. Nigel Williams reports. A recent study finds that many our closest relatives are at the sharp end of extinction worries as numbers of many primates dwindle worldwide. Nigel Williams reports. An alarming recent study finds that, amongst the very many environmental pressures humans are creating for other species, it is our closest relatives that appear to be coming off worst. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) is now warning that the first extinction of a primate species in more than a century is imminent, according to their latest evaluation of the threat posed to the continued existence of monkeys and apes around the world. One species of monkey that has not been seen for many years is already thought to have died out. A detailed assessment of the 394 species of primate found that 29 per cent are in danger of disappearing due to habitat loss, hunting and climate change. Some are already on the brink of extinction, the report said. One species, Miss Waldron's red colobus, found in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, is now feared to have become extinct while the golden-headed langur, in Vietnam, and China's Hainan gibbon are numbered in their dozens. The Horton Plains slender loris in Sri Lanka, has been seen just four times over the past 20 years and the Sumatran orang-utan is suffering one of the fastest rates of decline of all primates as a result of being forced out of its rainforest habitat by human encroachment. The report by the IUCN, which draws up the official list of endangered species, has identified the 25 most endangered primate species on the planet. All of them live in the world's biodiversity ‘hotspots’ which are exceptionally rich in wildlife. “You could fit all the surviving members of these 25 species in a single football stadium. That's how few of them remain on Earth today,” said Russell Mittermeier, president of the Washington-based environmental group, Conservation International. Primates are in peril from a range of human activities, of which the bushmeat trade in central Africa is particularly threatening, along with the logging of rainforests in Indonesia and South America, says the IUCN. A separate major report by the UN Environment Programme on the state of the world's environment warns of the continuing and growing problem of an expanding human population, climate change and the mass extinction of animals and plants. On primates, it highlighted the bushmeat trade as a particular danger which it said is running at six times the level that can be considered sustainable. Mittermeier said that protecting forests from logging would preserve the habitats of many endangered primates while at the same time would help to protect the planet against climate change. “By protecting the world's remaining tropical forests, we save primates and other endangered species,” he said. The list of the most endangered species includes eleven from Asia, seven from Africa, four from Madagascar and three from South America. The loss of primates is also affecting the health of trees because of the role primates play in seed dispersal and forest regeneration, the report said. The UNEP warns: “Without an accelerated effort to reform the way we collectively do business on planet Earth we will shortly be in trouble if indeed we are not already.”