The Current Condition of Great Apes in the Natural Environment
Introduction
Our closest relatives in the animal kingdom - the great apes of Africa, Borneo and Sumatra - are on the verge of extinction (Butynski 2000, IUCN 2000, Rijksen & Meijard 1999). It is doubtful that they can survive this century if we do not take vigorous actions.
During the latter half of the last century, all subspecies of great apes declined dramatically, and the situation is getting worse. Some experts are now predicting extinction over most of their current range during the next ten to twenty years (e.g. Amman et al. 2000). Habitat loss, forest fires, logging, hunting for bushmeat, war and the capture of live infants for sale have all contributed to this decline (Marshall et al. 2000).
Apes are protected by national laws in every country they inhabit, but there is a lack of enforcement capabilities in most ape range states. Outside protected areas, loss of forest to agricultural land and for fuel is rampant, causing direct loss of ape habitat and ape populations. This process can be expected to continue unabated until human populations reach stability, of which there is no sign in most ape range states.
Even in supposedly protected areas, poaching, illegal logging, and mining all harm vulnerable ape populations (e.g., Rijksen & Meijaard 1999). International law is also failing to protect apes. All non-human great apes are listed in Appendix I of CITES, which bans international trade for primarily commercial purposes, and only the second generation individuals from artificially bred groups are allowed to be transported over national boundaries. However, the high monetary value that some people attach to captive apes acts as a constant lure to illegal traders and hunters. Moreover, the illegal commercial bushmeat trade - a portion of which involves ape flesh - continues largely unchecked within and between neighboring countries in Africa (Ape Alliance 1998, Amman 2000). Finally, war, civil unrest, and a breakdown in law and order have exacerbated the existing problems in several African countries and Indonesia.
Great Ape Survey Report
Recently, a group of experts made a survey of the conservation status of the great apes living in protected areas (Marshall et al. 2000). The result was much more pessimistic than had been expected. The Executive Summary of the Great Apes Survey reads as follows:
1. All of the great ape species are faced with extinction within this century unless action is undertaken immediately to counteract the threats they face.
2. The great apes are unusually susceptible to the major threats to survival, habitat destruction and illegal hunting, that face many of the animal and plant species alive today. This is because all great ape species reproduce slowly, live at extremely low population densities, and require large areas of protected land.
3. Ape populations are declining in 96% of the Protected Areas where active research programs are being conducted. These are the areas where apes have the most protection because there are typically on-site conservation programs in these Protected Areas. Therefore, if apes within Protected Areas are suffering substantial losses, apes outside protected areas have little hope for long-term survival.
4. Ape populations outside of Protected Areas with active research programs (i.e., most apes) are faced with extinction in the very near future (e.g., 10-50- years).
5. Apes in Protected Areas are highly susceptible to extinction due to random catastrophes, erosion of genetic variability, poaching, and other forms of human disturbance because of their small population sizes. The average size of Protected Areas in which great apes can be found is 2,700 km2. With average ape density ranging from 0.3 -1.0/km2, the average ape containing Protected Area has a population of between 800-2700 apes. This small population size is insufficient to guarantee long-term survival.
6. Protected Areas in which formal conservation plans are being implemented are more likely to have slower rates of ape population decline. Therefore, greater on-site research presence and more funding for research and local conservation and development programs are likely to be the best ways to insure ape survival in African and Southeast Asian National Parks and Reserves.
7. While the future of the apes may seem bleak, concerted conservation effort has brought other long-lived, slowly reproductive species, such as elephants and whales, back from the brink of extinction.
Are Great Apes Being Protected by the Framework of World Heritage Sites?
The emergency of the extinction of our closest relatives should be broadcast to the public, and by mobilizing a heightened awareness new effective conservation measures must be urgently implemented. Since this is an international problem that affects all people on earth, the United Nations should take the initiative in planning the global conservation of the great apes. Of course, the United Nations has played a great role in conserving them by designating the World Heritage Sites (WHS) and the Biosphere Reserves (BR) for some of the important habitats of the great apes.
Great apes are distributed in tropical Africa and Asia (Nowak 1999). Habitat countries of gorillas are 9 African countries: Uganda, Rwanda, DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, CAR, Cameroon, and Nigeria. Chimpanzees inhabit 21 countries: Mali, Sudan, Senegal, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Angola, Burundi and Tanzania, in addition to the gorilla-inhabiting countries. Bonobos are confined to the DRC. Orangutans are distributed in two countries: Indonesia and Malaysia. Orangutans inhabit 21 Protected Areas (PAs), while African great apes inhabit 63 PAs, which include three open sites "protected" by researchers.
Are non-human great apes celebrated by the United Nations? Table 2 lists all of the World Heritage Sites that harbor one or two species of great apes. Figure 1 shows their locations. Indonesia has three natural World Heritage Sites (WHS), namely Ujung Kulon National Park (abbreviated as NP hereafter), Komodo NP, and Lorentz NP, but none of them have orangutans. Uganda's two WHS (Bwindi Impenetrable NP and Rwenzori Mountains NP) harbors either both gorillas and chimpanzees or chimpanzees only. Cameroon has one WHS (Dja Faunal Reserve), which harbors both gorillas and chimpanzees. Cote d'Ivoire has two WHS sites, Tai NP and Comoe NP, both of which have chimpanzees. The Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, located in Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea, harbors chimpanzees. The DRC has five WHS, and all of them (Virunga NP, Kahuzi-Biega NP, Garamba NP, Salonga NP and Okapi Wildlife Reserve) harbor either gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, or both gorilla and chimpanzees. Senegal has three WHS, one of which (Niokolo-Koba NP) harbors chimpanzees. Tanzania has four WHS, none of which have chimpanzees. CAR and Mali has one WHS each, neither of which harbors great apes.
In terms of the ape habitat areas, WHS occupy almost 50% of all protected areas inhabited by great apes (see Table 2 and 3). This is because WH great ape sites include the largest national parks and game reserves such as Salonga National Park, whose area amounts to 36,560 km2. The mean area of the 11 WH sites with great ape habitats is 8,328 km2, while that of the non-WH sites is only 1,141 km2. Therefore, it could apparently be concluded that from the viewpoint of conserving African great apes, UNESCO has designated WHS efficiently. However, some of these big parks such as Virunga have no great apes at all within most of the park boundary. Since we have currently no information on the size of the area inhabited by great apes, we cannot help satisfying ourselves with the above calculation.
Moreover, it is difficult and not practical to designate all the great ape habitats as WHS since there will need to be a lot of discussions and negotiations among the people at stake if we dare to do so, which will require a decade or more by the time the final decision is made. Therefore, there is an urgent need for an alternative measure. By formulating a new concept of the World Heritage Species for the great apes, (1) each habitat country will be encouraged to make more stringent conservation plans for great apes, in particular, by placing capturing, eating and trading them under a ban, (2) CITES officials can
be expected to take more vigorous action against border transgressions in the illegal trade of great apes, (3) foreign logging companies working in the ape habitats will be required to refrain from doing harm to great apes by their own governments, whose policies must conform to UN commitments, (4) developed countries such as Japan will be encouraged to use more ODA money for the conservation of great apes, and (5) by using great apes as the flagship species, more attention and resources will be granted to all of the PAs, which will facilitate the IUCN's basic concept of biodiversity/ecosystem conservation.
Great Apes Play an Important Role in Biodiversity Conservation
There may be some argument that it is contrary to the current mainstream policy of biodiversity conservation to accord great apes special treatment. However, this is not the case for the following reasons.
1. Keystone species in tropical ecosystems
Great Apes live in forested areas and mainly eat fruits. They usually swallow the seeds along with the fruit's meat (Galdikas 1982; Kano 1992; Kuroda et al. 1996; Nishida & Uehara 1983; Watts 1996; Wrangham et al. 1994). In addition, they tend to select ripe fruits with fully developed seeds for their diet, so the seeds can germinate after they are passed in their feces. There are even evidence that the germination probability becomes higher When seeds have passed the gut of great apes than when they have not (Takasaki,
1983). Great apes travel great distances and visit many different types of vegetation (Suzuki 1969, Yamagiwa et al. 1996). This not only broadens the distribution of these plants but also serves as a means of sowing the seeds of new forests in areas where vegetation has been destroyed by human beings. In other words, the great apes serve a very important function in reforestation.
Since great apes need a large area to survive, if they are to be protected at all, other smaller animals and plants will also be preserved. They ifthey are to be protected at all, other smaller animals and plants will also be preserved. They can play a crucial role as the keystone species for biodiversity conservation.
2. Flagship species in tropical ecosystems
Being large and resembling humans, great apes are very popular with people, especially children (Morris & Morris 1966). This popularity indicates the World Heritage potential of these species, since the public clearly cares for great apes. As such, they can become the Flagship species that can represent the tropical ecosystems. The utility of the popularity of great apes in the biodiversity conservation cannot be stressed too much.
3. Eco-tourism as a sustainable relationship with great apes
Tourism programs with gorillas and chimpanzees in Rwanda, DRC, Tanzania and Uganda have been successful (Weber 1993, Nishida et al. 2000). Orangutan rehabilitation centers have attracted a great number of tourists from all over the world (Rijksen & Meijard 1999). Although careful monitoring of the habituated population is necessary to prevent the transmission of diseases from human to nonhuman great apes (Wallis & Lee 1998), the ape-based eco-tourism could provide a good income for the local communities on which they depend for survival on a long-term basis, in addition to earning precious foreign currency. This is a sustainable relationship between humans and great apes. However, because the great ape habitats largely fall outside of current World Heritage Sites, they remain particularly vulnerable to human persecution.
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