Primates need helping hand if extinction is to be avoided

By NIRMALA GEORGE
Published on 16/10/2012 01:02

Twenty-five species of monkeys, langurs, lemurs and gorillas are on the brink of extinction and need global action to protect them from increasing deforestation and illegal trafficking, researchers have said.

Six of the severely threatened species live in the island nation of Madagascar, off south-eastern Africa. Five more are from mainland Africa, five from South America and nine are in Asia.

The report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature was released yesterday at the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity in the Indian city of Hyderabad.

Primates, mankind’s closest living relatives, contribute to the ecosystem by dispersing seeds and maintaining forest diversity.

Conservation efforts have helped several species, to the point where they are no longer listed as endangered, said the report, which is prepared every two years by global experts.

The report noted that Madagascar’s lemurs are severely threatened by habitat destruction and illegal hunting, which has accelerated dramatically since the change of power in the country in 2009. Among the most severely hit was the northern sportive lemur, with only 19 known individuals left in the wild in Madagascar.

“Lemurs are now one of the world’s most endangered groups of mammals, after more than three years of political crisis and a lack of effective enforcement in their home country, Madagascar,” said Christoph Schwitzer of the Bristol Conservation and Science Foundation, one of the groups involved in the study.

“A similar crisis is happening in south-east Asia, where trade in wildlife is bringing many primates very close to extinction.”

More than half of the world’s 633 types of primates are in danger of becoming extinct because of human activity such as the clearing of tropical forests, including for logging or to create farmland, as well as the hunting of primates for food and the illegal wildlife trade.

However, while the situation appears dire for some species, wildlife researchers say conservation efforts are beginning to pay off, with several primates being removed from the list, now in its seventh edition.

India’s lion-tailed macaque and Madagascar’s greater bamboo lemur have been taken off the endangered inventory for 2012 after the targeted species appeared to have recovered.

Conservation efforts have also ensured that the world did not lose any primate species in the 20th century, and no primate has been declared extinct so far this century, said Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and the chairman of the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s primate specialist group.

He said: “Amazingly, we continue to discover new species. What is more, primates are increasingly becoming a major eco-tourism attraction, and primate-watching is growing.”

In a separate report on global urbanisation released at the Hyderabad conference, the UN urged planners to incorporate green spaces in cities.

Green areas perform important ecological functions, such as “filtering dust, absorbing carbon dioxide and improving air quality,” the Convention on Biological Diversity said.

The Cities and Biodiversity Outlook is the first global analysis of how urban land expansion will affect biodiversity in the coming decades.