Almost half of the world’s primate species – which include apes, monkeys and lemurs – are threatened with extinction due to the destruction of tropical forests and illegal hunting and trade.

In a report highlighting the 25 most endangered primate species, conservationists have outlined the desperate plight of primates from Madagascar, Africa, Asia and Central and South America, with some populations down to just a few dozen in number.

The golden headed langur, which is found only on the island of Cat Ba in north-eastern Vietnam, is down to 60 to 70 individuals. And there are fewer than 100 northern sportive lemurs left in Madagascar, and around 110 eastern black crested gibbons in northeastern Vietnam.

Sumatran orangutans, which are thought to number approximately 6,600 in the wild, are categorized as “critically endangered,” while the Bornean orangutan (54,000) is listed as “endangered.”

Of the world’s 634 primate species, 48% are classified as threatened with extinction on the IUCN’s “red list” of threatened species. The latest report was compiled by 85 primatologists working in the field and will be launched today at Bristol Zoo by a coalition of conservation groups including the IUCN and Conservation International and the International Primatological Society

“All over the world, it’s mainly habitat destruction that affects primates the most,” said Christoph Schwitzer, head of research at the Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation and one of the authors of the report. “Illegal logging, fragmentation of forests through fires, hunting is a big issue in several African countries and also now in Madagascar. In Asia one of the main problems is trade in hearts for traditional medicine, mainly into China.”
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The Great Apes Film Initiative (GAFI) and the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS) will present Patrick Rouxel’s `Losing Tomorrow’, a poetical film on the habitat of orangutans and an insight into the logging industry in Indonesia, and `Dear Mr President’, a short film created at the request of local communities in Sumatra, at a benefit on March 10 in Oxford, United Kingdom.

The films, which will be screened at The Old Music Hall (106-108 Cowley Road, Oxford) beginning at 6: 30 p.m., will use a newly developed Pedal Power Cinema. Admission is £3 ($5).

Conservationist Ian Redmond, OBE, will be the guest speaker for the evening. Redmond has worked with great apes for over 30 years and will be on hand to share his experiences and answer any questions. There will also be a raffle, refreshments and merchandise for sale.

Places are limited so pre-booking is strongly recommended. Please contact 01865 403343 (U.K.) or e-mail: click to email.

All money raised at this event will go towards a Pedal Power Cinema for conservation education projects with communities living near the last remaining forests in Sumatra.

(Source: Great Apes Film Initiative)

The Malaysian palm oil industry has been broadly accused of contributing to the dramatic decline in orangutan populations in Sabah, a state in northern Borneo, over the past 30 years. The industry has staunchly denied these charges and responded with marketing campaigns claiming the opposite: that oil palm plantations can support and nourish the great red apes. The issue came to a head last October at the Orangutan Colloquium held in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. There, confronted by orangutan biologists, the palm oil industry pledged to support restoring forest corridors along rivers in order to help facilitate movement of orangutans between remaining forest reserves across seas of oil palm plantations. Attending NGOs agreed that they would need to work with industry to find a balance that would allow the ongoing survival of orangutans in the wild. Nevertheless, the conference was marked by much of the same rhetoric that has characterized most of these meetings – chief palm oil industry officials again made dubious claims about the environmental stewardship of the industry. However, this time, there was at least acknowledgment that palm oil needs to play an active role in conservation.

“The industry wants to be part of the efforts that not only show concern for the environment, but in fact actually take an active part in its conservation, ” chairman of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), Dato’ Lee Yeow Chor, told the conference.

While several environmentalists expressed doubt of the industry’s commitment to rainforest conservation, Dr. Marc Ancrenaz, the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Hutan, the NGO that helped organize the event, was encouraged that the two sides are at least talking. As a follow up to the meeting, and some of the spin that followed, Ancrenaz answered some questions on palm oil in Sabah and the Kinabatangan river basin, where Hutan focuses its efforts.

Q: Do you agree with claims by organisations such as World Growth that the oil palm
industry is not directly responsible for the decline of orang-utan?
Dr. Ancrenaz: These claims are untrue, irresponsible and are misleading. Genetic studies in Sabah show that orang-utan population have declined by 50 to 90% over the past few decades. This severe decline is due to several causes such as hunting and pet trade, but the foremost reason is forest losses when the forest is cut down and converted to agriculture. In Borneo and Sumatra where wild orang-utans live, forest is primarily converted to palm oil and industrial tree plantations. Forest conversion results in an
extreme loss of biodiversity and the destruction of species like the orang-utans. There is no doubt about this.
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The European Commission and some EU member states hope to redefine palm oil plantations as “forests,” according to a leaked document from the EU executive.

Rules governing the use of biofuels were supposed to be designed to sort out the sustainable versions of the technology from their dirtier cousins following a massive backlash against it in 2008. At the time, an avalanche of reports revealed that many forms of the fuel source both increase greenhouse gas emissions and put pressure on food prices.

The production of palm oil was one of the most egregious examples of the problem.

In the wake of the biofuels boom, there has been a rush to chop down rainforests to make way for palm oil plantations. The UN says that the growth in such plantations is now the main cause of rainforest destruction in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Worse still are the land grabs and human rights abuses resulting from the lucrative business. In Indonesia, as EUobserver reported two years ago, when native communities complain about the loss of their lands, private security firms and police that collude with the oil companies crack down violently on protesters.

But in a manoeuvre that has shocked environmental campaigners, a draft commission communication offering guidance to EU member states on the use of biofuels has classified palm oil plantations – the source of one of the most destructive forms of biofuels – as “forests.”

Essentially, the document argues that because palm oil plantations are tall enough and shady enough, they count as forests.
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