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Home , Central chimpanzee, Congo (chimpanzee), Cross River gorilla, Eastern chimpanzee, Mountain gorilla

African Great Update

Recent News from the WWF African Great Apes Programme

© WWF / PJ Stephenson

Number 1 – January 2005

Cover photo: Project staff from the Wildlife Conservation Society marking a Cross River in the proposed gorilla sanctuary at Kagwene, Mbulu Hills, (see story on page 7).

This edition of African Great Apes Update was edited by PJ Stephenson. The content was compiled by PJ Stephenson & Alison Wilson.

African Great Apes Update provides recent news on the conservation work funded by the WWF African Great Apes Programme. It is aimed at WWF staff and WWF's partners such as range state governments, international and national non-governmental organizations, and donors. It will be published at least once per year.

Published in January 2005 by WWF - World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund), CH-1196, Gland, Switzerland

Any reproduction in full or in part of this publication must mention the title and credit the above-mentioned publisher as the copyright owner. No photographs from this publication may be reproduced on the internet without prior authorization from WWF. The material and the geographical designations in this report do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of WWF concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. © text 2005 WWF All rights reserved

In 2002, WWF launched a new African Great Apes Programme to respond to the threats facing , , and western and eastern . Building on more than 40 years of experience in great conservation, WWF’s new initiative aims to provide strategic field interventions to help guarantee a future for these threatened species.

The long-term goal of the African Great Apes Programme is: Viable populations of all species and of African great apes conserved.

WWF’s work is organized around six objectives: Objective 1 (Protection and Management): To conserve viable populations of African great apes through improved protection and management. Objective 2 (Community Support): To increase public support for great ape conservation by providing incentives and reducing -ape conflict. Objective 3 (Policy): To establish relevant conservation policies, strategies and laws that eliminate ape and unsustainable forest practices. Objective 4: (Capacity Building): To increase capacity within range states to conserve and manage great apes. Objective 5 (Trade): To reduce illegal national and international trade in great apes and great ape products. Objective 6: (Awareness) To raise awareness of African great apes conservation

For further information on the WWF African Great Apes Programme please see our website: http://www.panda.org/africa/apes or contact:

Dr Peter J. Stephenson African Great Apes Programme WWF International, Avenue du Mont Blanc, CH 1196 Gland, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 364 9111 Email: [email protected]

African Great Apes Update 1 (2005) INSIDE THIS ISSUE beringei beringei), ( paniscus), 1 EDITORIAL eastern (Pan troglodytes 1 So much left to do for 's great schweinfurthii), central chimpanzee (Pan apes! troglodytes troglodytes), Nigerian chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes vellerosus), and western 2 NEWS FROM THE FIELD chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus). 2 Bleak news for the bonobo

3 Efforts increase to protect Grauer's The new programme is timely. The cons- gorilla ervation of Africa's great apes has never been 5 Mountain gorilla numbers increasing so important. As articles in this first edition of against the odds African Great Apes Update show, populations 7 A team initiative to save Africa's rarest across Africa have been experiencing mixed ape fortunes. While there is some encouraging 8 NEWS FROM BEYOND THE news for mountain gorillas and Grauer's AFRICAN GREAT APES gorillas, their situation is still vulnerable and PROGRAMME we cannot be complacent. The disturbing news 8 CITES 2004 - progress on great apes on bonobos shows that no apes are secure. and 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This newsletter focuses on work funded directly by the WWF African Great Apes Programme. However, it should be noted that many WWF projects across Africa's forests EDITORIAL also contribute to the conservation of great

apes and their habitats. Throughout its ape So much left to do for Africa's great conservation work - whether directly supported apes! by the African Great Apes Programme or not - WWF continues to work closely with national Ever since WWF's creation in 1961, the global governments, and their relevant ministries and conservation organization has been working to departments, as well as with local people conserve great apes. As flagship species, living alongside apes. In addition, many other gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orang- international and national organizations have utans galvanise broader conservation efforts projects that focus on apes and their habitats, within the forest ecosystems in which they supported in turn by numerous donors. Many live. of these agencies work at the same sites as

WWF. Whilst we continue to make every In 2002, WWF launched a new African Great effort to acknowledge the partners we work Apes Programme. Building on more than 40 with directly, it is not always possible to list all years' experience of tropical forest and great the agencies supporting a given species or its ape conservation, the new programme sets out habitat. However, we welcome these other to tackle the challenges still facing great apes partners and their work and hope that together, in the twenty-first century. In spite of years of in partnership for a common cause, we can effort by range state governments, WWF and make a difference and stop the extinction of other conservation agencies, all of Africa's Africa's great apes. apes still face a bleak future. Hunting for meat and the pet trade, habitat loss and fragment- And as a last note - "what about orang-utans?" ation, diseases such as , and conflict I hear you say. Well, this newsletter focuses on between and apes continue to threaten African great apes, but the WWF programmes all species, and many scientists predict we will in Indonesia and Malaysia continue to strive lose these forever within 20-50 years. for the conservation of the "old man of the

jungle". News on WWF's work on orang-utans The WWF African Great Apes Programme can be found at: sets out to provide support for strategic field http://www.panda.org/species/orangutan interventions that contribute to the conservation of all subspecies: Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli), (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), PJ Stephenson, eastern lowland or Grauer's gorilla (Gorilla Gland, Switzerland beringei graueri), mountain gorilla (Gorilla 14 January 2005

1 African Great Apes Update 1 (2005) NEWS FROM THE FIELD In 2004, in response to the worrying survey findings, the WWF African Great Apes Programme started providing support for a Bleak news for the bonobo project to monitor and protect surviving bonobo populations in the northern sector of Salonga National Park. The initiative is Bonobos or pygmy chimpanzees – arguably providing park staff and researchers with our closest relatives – may have been hunted training and equipment as well as supporting so extensively that the survival of the species anti-poaching operations on foot and by boat to is at risk. stop the illegal killing of the rare apes. The

project is being implemented by ICCN and the The bonobo is found only in the Democratic Zoological Society of Milwaukee in partner- Republic of Congo, in the heart of the Congo ship with WWF's Salonga Landscape Basin forest, and is much less widespread than Programme. As part of the broader Salonga the closely related and better studied Landscape Programme (funded by, among chimpanzee. Scientists had estimated the others, the USAID/CARPE Congo Basin bonobo population to be perhaps as high as Forest Partnership and the European Union), 50,000. However, preliminary results of the WWF is also contributing to the rehabilitation first systematic survey of a known bonobo of Salonga National Park and the development stronghold indicate that may be an over- of long-neglected infrastructure and manage- estimation. ment systems. WWF will place a park advisor

2 in Salonga in 2005 to provide technical advice Salonga, a World Heritage Site of 36,000 km to the ICCN management team and park (about the size of Holland), is the only national guards. park within bonobo range. It was created in

1970 specifically to safeguard the bonobo. In

2002-3, a survey of Salonga National Park was undertaken by the Congolese Institute for

Nature Conservation (ICCN) and the Wildlife

Conservation Society, with support from

WWF's African Great Apes Programme and other donors such as US Fish & Wildlife

Service. It was conducted as part of the 1 CITES programme for Monitoring the Illegal

Killing of Elephants (MIKE), which assesses apes as well as elephants.

The first data from about one third of the park show evidence of very few bonobos living there. No bonobos were encountered, and sightings of and dung were only made in a quarter of the area surveyed, at lower densities than previously measured in neighbouring sites. In contrast, there was abundant evidence of human encroachment © Zoological Society of Milwaukee into the park and of poaching. The full survey results will be published in early 2005 as part ZSM project staff studying bonobo habitat in of the overall MIKE report for . Salonga National Park

During the long running civil war in DRC, it “The war has had terrible consequences for the became almost impossible for ICCN to protect people and wildlife of the Congo Basin," said effectively the country's national parks. Lisa Steel, co-ordinator of WWF's Salonga Increased poaching by armed militias and local Landscape Programme. "However, now, as the people was inevitable. Wildlife outside Democratic Republic of Congo rebuilds protected areas is likely to have been hit even socially and economically, the opportunity is harder by hunting. there to make sure that forest conservation benefits not only wildlife but also local 1 Convention on International Trade in Endangered people." Species of Wild Fauna and Flora 2 African Great Apes Update 1 (2005) It is hoped that the investment by WWF and offer effective protection for wildlife. As a other conservation and research agencies in result, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos supporting ICCN rebuild Salonga will help remain under constant threat from hunting and protect the remaining bonobos. In addition, (see previous story on WWF will work with stakeholders to identify bonobos). Many biologists fear that great apes other blocks of forest with surviving bonobo may become extinct in DRC, and indeed the populations and work towards establishing rest of Africa, within the next 20 years. new national parks to protect these threatened apes. Grauer’s gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri), also known as the , is For more information see: found only in the rainforests of eastern DRC. http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/o Here, civil conflict and political instability ther_news/news.cfm?uNewsID=17054 have left the Congolese national parks network or contact Lisa Steel, Co-ordinator, WWF in a state of dereliction. The security situation Salonga Landscape Programme in the region remains extremely precarious. ([email protected]) However, in 2002 a withdrawal of Rwandan troops from eastern DRC opened a window of opportunity for conservationists to start addressing the many problems that protected areas have been facing there.

In September 2002, an extraordinary event brought together conservationists and biologists from all over the country to prepare the first National Great Apes Survival Plan for DRC - one of the first truly nationwide meetings to be held in DRC since the war started. Nearly 200 Congolese experts joined international conservationists and government ministers in the capital for the three- day workshop, which was organized by CARPE (Central Africa Regional Programme for the Environment, a USAID-funded initiative) and held under the auspices of the UNEP/UNESCO Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP). Several non-governmental organi- zations, including WWF and the International Fund for Welfare, helped finance the meeting.

Key recommendations from the workshop included the need: to survey little-known areas © WWF-Canon / Martin Harvey to establish the locations where great apes survive; to rehabilitate protected areas such as A female bonobo with infant the Maiko National Park and Kahuzi-Biega

National Park which are key refuges for

Grauer’s gorilla and eastern chimpanzee; and Efforts increase to protect Grauer’s to strengthen existing laws protecting great apes. There was also a plea from participants gorilla to ensure that development schemes are

implemented for local communities who live Grauer's gorillas identified as one of national alongside great apes. ape priorities in DRC Conservation activities restart The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is home to more species and sub-species of great Initially, conservation efforts were put on hold apes than any other country in the world, but because of hostilities between armed factions few places in this vast and troubled country in and around Kahuzi-Biega National Park, 3 African Great Apes Update 1 (2005) which led to a suspension of anti-poaching exploitation: fifteen of these sites were closed patrols for several months between October by rangers. In addition, meetings have been 2002 and April 2003. All ranger posts were held with local communities to discuss park- closed and rangers were recalled to park community problems and relations. headquarters. The only appropriate strategy was for park staff to wait and restart work The fragility of the situation was demonstrated, when prevailing conditions became favourable though, in mid-2004. The park station at again. At the start of May 2003, some of the Tshivanga was held from May to July by armed factions were beaten back from parts of various rebel militias. In June it was ransacked, the park, allowing the re-opening of ranger the infrastructure damaged and all the posts. WWF staff liaised with the ICCN equipment stolen. Materials lost included (Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation) computers, typewriters, telephones, solar Director General Mme Eulalie Bashige panels, medication and office supplies and Baliruyha, and the Director of Kahuzi-Biega furniture. National Park, Bernard Iyomi Iyatshi, to identify priorities for WWF support. These In spite of the damage and loss of material, and included provision of fuel, rations and despite the on-going insecurity in the region allowances for rangers on anti-poaching and rebel army activity, ICCN staff took up patrols and the repair of anti-poaching patrol their work stations again in July in all park vehicles. This support complemented on-going ranger posts. Staff are now undertaking regular work in Kahuzi-Biega by the German monitoring of more than 80 Grauer's gorillas development agency, GTZ, and the US-based belonging to seven family groups. A new Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). gorilla family of nine individuals with one silverback has been observed in the lowland WWF's support in 2003 was timely not only sector of the park. In addition, for the first time because it complemented work funded by since the beginning of the war more than five other ICCN partners but also because it helped years ago, the military commander of the park rangers undertake patrols in areas they region has ordered all his troops to leave the had not visited for eight months or more. The park station office which they had taken patrols collected illegal snares and cleaned up control of, and requested the park authority to camps that had been established in the forest restart conservation work. This shows that by poachers and armies. Between May and Congolese military authorities can support the July rangers arrested 52 poachers and seized conservation of wildlife resources in protected three firearms and more than 700 snares, as areas. well as two live chimpanzees. They also began tracking gorillas again. Although some gorilla There is a further ray of hope. A survey of poaching was detected, one of the key gorillas in the high altitude section of the park, successes was the discovery of two new gorilla conducted in late 2004 by ICCN with support groups (named Langa and Mpungwe). from WCS, was encouraging. The survey counted 160 gorillas, 33 more than the last Kahuzi-Biega National Park continues to be survey in 2000. beset by problems: human pressures observed in the park include poaching and trade in Wider surveys initiated bushmeat, and habitat destruction through encroachment by agriculturalists, wood cutting WWF is also working to improve our and mining. However, the situation is understanding of the status of Grauer’s gorilla slowly improving. In the first six months of in areas outside Kahuzi-Biega. In early 2004, 2004, anti-poaching patrols in Kahuzi-Biega two meetings were organized between WWF, increased by 68% from an average of 238 WCS, and ICCN to develop a work plan for patrols per month to 477 patrols per month. the Itombwe Massif, which lies south of New rangers have been recruited and trained, Kahuzi-Biega near the border with . In and more ranger posts have re-opened. ICCN a survey undertaken in the mid 1990s, more staff have begun operating in the lowland than 1,000 Grauer’s gorillas were estimated to sector of the park for the first time since the occur in this biologically diverse, but civil war: as of June 2004, they controlled unprotected area of montane forest. A priority some 70% of the park area. By mid 2004, now is to complete a feasibility study to some 90 mining sites had been discovered, gazette part of the Itombwe Massif as a with some 4,400 people undertaking illegal protected area. 4 African Great Apes Update 1 (2005) Only through continued support for Kahuzi- Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Biega National Park, and through the Nature (ICCN), ’s Office Rwandais du protection of larger areas of habitat, will Tourisme et des Parcs Nationaux (ORTPN), Grauer's gorilla populations be secured. and the Wildlife Authority (UWA).

For more information on Kahuzi-Biega NP: All of national parks with mountain gorillas lie - in English, check out the World Heritage amidst some of the most densely populated Sites website: areas of Africa which, for the past decade, http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/kahuzib have been the scene of prolonged political and iega.html social conflict. In the face of armed poachers, - in French, check out the ICCN website: increasing population pressure, and even http://www.iccnrdc.cd/kahuzi-biega.htm volcanic eruptions, IGCP’s goal of conserving mountain gorillas and their forest home is For more information on WWF's work in being achieved through focussing on four Kahuzi-Biega contact: Bisidi Yalolo, WWF strategic objectives across the three states: Project Manager, Kahuzi-Biega National Park effective management of afromontane forests ([email protected]) by the three national authorities, an effective regional framework for conservation, strength- For a more detailed account of the Kinshasa ening linkages with local communities, and great apes workshop see: implementing supportive policies and leg- http://ld.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_wor islation. k/africa/news/news.cfm?uNewsID=2696

Mountain gorilla numbers increasing against the odds

WWF’s thirty years of work to save the mountain gorilla and its forest habitat in the mysterious cloud-shrouded mountains in the very heart of Africa represents one of its longest-running flagship species programmes. Early gorilla surveys and aid to protected areas © WWF-Canon / Martin Harvey in the Albertine Rift ecoregion started in the 1970s. In 1991, the effort evolved into today’s A baby mountain gorilla playing on its International Gorilla Conservation Programme mother's back, , DRC (IGCP), a joint initiative of the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Fauna and Flora International (FFI), and WWF. Recent Achievements IGCP’s activities extend across the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic It is likely that IGCP’s greatest achievement of Congo (DRC). Mountain gorilla habitat is has been its contribution towards maintaining subdivided into two ecological units covering 2 mountain gorilla numbers in the face of 765 km of the volcanic Virunga Massif and enormous difficulties. Its success was the Bwindi-Impenetrable Forest. The largest confirmed in 2003, when IGCP and its partners unit includes three protected areas in the took advantage of an improvement in the Virungas: the Parc National des Volcans in regional security situation to undertake, for the Rwanda, the Parc National des Virunga in first time in 14 years, a mountain gorilla DRC, and the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park census in the three adjacent national parks of in Uganda. The second, separate, unit the Virungas. The census was supported by comprises the Bwindi Impenetrable National IGCP as well as the Wildlife Conservation Park in Uganda. Over the years, IGCP has Society, the Gorilla Fund, the provided long-term financial, technical and Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation, logistical support for the protected areas Berggorilla und Regenwald Directhilfe, the authorities in the three countries: DRC’s Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, and the 5 African Great Apes Update 1 (2005) Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anth- Over the past year, IGCP has assisted the three ropology. protected area authorities to deploy joint patrols covering the whole Virunga Massif: The census was conducted by more than 100 this increased surveillance has been people drawn from the parks’ staff and their instrumental in securing the safe births of NGO partners. Working in six teams, they several baby gorillas. There is now a greater traversed the entire Virunga gorilla habitat number of effective local community range. As each gorilla makes a new nest to enterprises such as beekeeping and mushroom sleep in each night, the teams were able to growing, as well as a new initiative to estimate the number of individuals and the encourage tourists to view the rare golden number of groups by counting fresh nests as (Cercopithecus mitis kandti) in the well as by actual sightings. Parc National des Volcans.

Encouragingly, the results of the census showed a total of 380 gorillas in the Virungas, living in 30 social groups. This is an increase of 56 individuals (17%) since the 1989 census. This population growth is particularly remarkable given that it occurred in the midst of intense political instability, armed conflict and the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Combined with a 2002 Bwindi census, which established the Bwindi population at approximately 320, the latest Virunga census indicates that the world population of mountain gorillas is now © WWF-Canon / Martin Harvey at least 700. Tourists and park guards observing a Towards effective trans-boundary mountain gorilla in Virunga National Park. cooperation

IGCP’s long-standing efforts to strengthen The need to remain vigilant regional cooperation for mountain gorilla conservation also appear to be bearing fruit. In Despite some positive news, the threats to 2003, after 13 years of informal collaboration, gorillas and other wildlife continue to persist. the Executive Directors of ICCN, ORTPN and About 15 km2 of the Mikeno sector of the Parc UWA signed a Memorandum of Under- National des Virunga in DRC has recently standing committing them to work together on been destroyed by local agriculturalists. WWF effective trans-boundary collaboration for the joined other agencies in helping construct a protection of mountain gorillas and their wall to prevent further encroachment but the habitat. IGCP has been working with the threat remains. A resurgence of baby gorilla protected area authorities of the three countries trafficking in November 2003 also demon- by organizing joint training and problem strates that more efforts are needed to ensure solving workshops, as well as regular regional the survival of mountain gorillas. meetings and conferences to foster dialogue. IGCP is also working with the three regional "IGCP is very happy with the result of the governments to develop policies on eco- mountain gorilla census” says Eugene tourism and benefit sharing from conservation. Rutagarama, IGCP Director. “The growth in the mountain gorilla population shows that The slow move towards political stability in with sustained efforts, conservation bodies can the Great Lakes region over the past year has save mountain gorillas from extinction. increased tourism and investment in However, we have to be vigilant because the conservation, and has encouraged the author- major problems - human pressure and related ities to resume gorilla tourism in Virunga illegal activities - remain”. National Park in DRC. Meanwhile, gorilla viewing permits in Uganda and Rwanda rose For more information on IGCP and its work to $360 and $375 respectively, going further check out the IGCP website at towards meeting the costs of running the www.mountaingorillas.org protected areas. or contact : 6 African Great Apes Update 1 (2005) Eugene Rutagarama, Director, IGCP in partnership with a variety of governmental ([email protected]) and non-governmental organizations. or Marc Languy, Programme Coordinator, WWF Albertine Rift Ecoregion Programme ([email protected]) New Partnerships For more details on WWF's response to the Mikeno sector deforestation, see: In 2004, WWF started supporting a new http://panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/africa project aimed at saving Cross River gorillas. /where/eastern_africa/news/news.cfm?uNewsID=1 The project is being implemented in 7357 partnership with WCS and the Cameroonian and Nigerian governments.

WCS has undertaking conservation-related A team initiative to save Africa's rarest research on Cross River gorillas since 1996 in ape and since 2000 in Cameroon. Their current Cross River gorilla programme oper- ates in both countries, integrating field re- WWF is partnering up with the Wildlife Cons- search, education and outreach as well as ervation Society (WCS) and the Cameroon support and capacity building of local govern- Ministry of Environment and Forestry to start a ment agencies. The programme is enhancing new initiative to conserve the world's rarest our understanding of the gorilla’s biology and great ape. assisting with law enforcement activities while also generating community-based support for The Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli) conservation. is a unique race or subspecies of the . With probably no fewer than 300 The challenges of conserving Cross River individuals remaining, it is one of the world’s gorillas are huge and require a unified rarest . approach. The partnership between WWF and WCS follows two conservation workshops Cross River gorillas are restricted to a range of focused on developing strategies for the 2 about 200 km across a total area of more than protection of Cross River gorillas held in

2500 km² in forested highlands on the border Calabar, Nigeria in 2001 and in Limbe, between Cameroon and Nigeria (for a map of Cameroon in 2003. The complementary their range see http://www.berggorilla.de/). strengths of WCS and WWF in collaboration The nearest population of western gorillas lies with host governments will provide the at least a couple of hundred kilometres away. opportunity to ensure that the protection of The small Cross River gorilla population is these unique apes becomes a reality. fragmented into approximately ten potentially isolated sub-populations, some of which The project goals include: number no more than 20 individuals. Many of • strengthening protection and law these tiny groups are living in unprotected enforcement measures for all Cross River forest and facing the threat of habitat loss as gorilla populations; local people clear land for agriculture and • establishing an effective trans-boundary cattle grazing. Given the small size and protected area for the Takamanda- fragmentation of this population and the Okwangwo forest complex, in particular intensity of threat to their habitat, urgent by improving the effectiveness of prot- conservation measures must be implemented to ection in the Okwangwo Division of Cross ensure their survival. River National Park in Nigeria, and upgrading the protection status of the WWF has supported various research-related Takamanda Forest Reserve in Cameroon; conservation activities and field projects in • developing a land-use plan for the Cross River gorilla habitat in both Cameroon Takamanda-Mone-Mbulu forest complex and Nigeria over the last twenty years. Among in Cameroon, which includes the creation other activities, it has provided financial of a protected area at Kagwene Mountain support for gorilla surveys in Cameroon’s and provisions for maintaining or Takamanda Forest Reserve and technical and recreating forested corridors; financial support for the management of • developing a plan for the conservation of Nigeria’s Cross River National Park, working Afi-Mbe-Okwangwo area in Nigeria, 7 African Great Apes Update 1 (2005) including both a review of management In Africa, the bushmeat trade is an additional options for the Mbe Mountains and the menace as meat from , widely maintenance of forested connections consumed in central and west Africa, is often between gorilla habitats; smuggled across borders – even reaching street • continuing research into the ecology, dist- markets catering for expatriate Africans in ribution and population biology of the Europe and North America. gorillas, including the monitoring of exist- ing study populations; In October 2004, in Bangkok, Thailand, the • strengthening and expanding conservation thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the education and awareness programmes at Parties (CoP) to CITES (the Convention on all levels, from local communities to International Trade in of government. Wild Fauna and Flora) adopted two resolutions • contributing to the capacity of institutions aimed at clamping down on these twin dangers in Cameroon and Nigeria that can assist and at helping range states implement their Cross River gorilla conservation, through national strategies to conserve great apes. direct support and training; • holding a third trans-national workshop on The Great Apes Resolution Cross River gorilla conservation, to focus on ways to make trans-boundary co- The first resolution (Res. Conf. 13.4) on the operation more effective. Conservation of and Trade in Great Apes urged Parties to strengthen measures to The first phase of WWF's support will provide conserve great apes and to tighten controls on the funds necessary to realise objectives on the the illegal trade in live apes and their products. Cameroon side of the border and will comp- The resolution was drafted by Ireland on lement grants provided by donors, such as the behalf of the European Union. It noted the US Fish and Wildlife Service. In 2005 WWF endangered status of all great ape species, the will explore, with WCS and others, new ways wide range of threats they face, and current of working towards Cross River gorilla cons- efforts to save them, such as the international ervation in Nigeria. UNEP/UNESCO Great Ape Survival Project (GRASP) and National Great Ape Survival It is hoped this flourishing partnership between Plans. two of the world's most experienced cons- ervation NGOs will help stop Africa's rarest The resolution, as finally adopted, urged ape going extinct. Parties (among other things) to:

• Prohibit all international trade for For more information on the project contact: primarily commercial purposes of wild- Jacqueline Sunderland-Groves, WCS Cross caught apes; River Gorilla Research Project (Cameroon), • Develop deterrent penalties aimed at Limbe, Cameroon (jsunderlandgroves@ eliminating illegal trade in apes and wcs.org) or Dr John Oates, Senior Technical products; Advisor, WCS Cross River Biodiversity • Strengthen anti-poaching and anti- Project ([email protected]) smuggling efforts; • Promote the protection and restoration of great ape habitats, including co-operative trans-boundary efforts. NEWS FROM BEYOND THE The resolution also directed the CITES AFRICAN GREAT APES Secretariat to work with the Parties to achieve PROGRAMME these goals, and to assist range states in the implementation of their national plans. It also

CITES 2004: Progress on great apes and called on the CITES Standing Committee to regularly review the implementation of the bushmeat resolution and to consider measures such as

Among the many threats facing great apes is technical and/or political missions to achieve the international trade in wild-caught live this goal. This should be discussed at the next specimens, these days mainly for the pet trade. Standing Committee meeting which is due to take place June 2005 and in which WWF will 8 African Great Apes Update 1 (2005) participate The resolution urged all great ape MacArthur Foundation. To date, the working range state Parties to join GRASP, and called group has stimulated the development of for international funding and technical action plans in Cameroon, Congo and assistance to aid Parties achieve their and initiated a number of pilot field projects. conservation goals with respect to the great apes. At Bangkok, Parties to CITES passed a resolution (Res. Conf. 13.11) that calls on all One part of the draft resolution called for an Parties to help stop the illegal bushmeat trade end to the practice of giving great apes as and to provide support to African States in diplomatic gifts. Despite an intervention by tackling associated issues such as poverty, WWF for retention of this clause, several habitat degradation and natural resource use. range States opposed it, suggesting that it The resolution also acknowledged the would undermine their sovereign right over important role that CBWG plays in the region, their national faunas. In the face of this especially in helping range states to adopt opposition, a working group, of which WWF relevant action plans. Parties to the CoP also was a member, eventually reached a approved a decision encouraging the CBWG to compromise wording urging Parties to "limit continue its work as the Central Africa the international use of great apes to nationally Bushmeat Working Group. At the CoP, the approved zoological institutions, educational WWF delegation worked closely with the chair centres, rescue centres and captive-breeding of the Central Africa Bushmeat Working centres in accordance with CITES". Group to encourage momentum in dealing with this important issue. At the CoP, the UK pledged £20,000 to set up as a pilot project, to be jointly managed by A related decision was approved calling on the GRASP and CITES Secretariat, to help combat CITES Secretariat to work more closely with the smuggling of great apes in central Africa. other organizations such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Food The Resolution also calls on the CITES Secre- and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to draw tariat to collaborate with the CBD Secretariat attention to the unsustainable trade in in developing measures for in situ conservation bushmeat. The FAO was invited to organize an of great apes. international workshop to produce a sub- regional bushmeat action plan. This complements work currently underway by The Bushmeat Resolution WWF, FAO and other partners to organize such a planning workshop in West Africa. CITES also adopted a resolution (Res. Conf. 13.11) encouraging Parties to clamp down on the illegal bushmeat trade. The resolution For more information on the CITES CoP13 go reflected the recommendations of the CITES to: http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/index.shtml Bushmeat Working Group (CBWG), which was established in 2000 at CoP11 to identify solutions to the bushmeat crisis in central Africa which threatens a wide range of species ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS including gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos. Although most of the trade in meat from wild The WWF Africa and Madagascar Programme animals is domestic, and therefore not of direct is very grateful to WWF-Netherlands, WWF- relevance to CITES, cross-border trade in Switzerland, WWF-Germany, WWF-US and bushmeat is significant and growing. Jennifer Ivey Bannock for their support to the African Great Apes Programme since 1992. In The CBWG is composed of the Wildlife addition, WWF in Denmark, Sweden, the UK Directors for the Central African Parties to the and USA continues to support the International Convention (Cameroon, Central African Gorilla Conservation Programme, WWF's Republic, DRC, , Gabon and longest running African . The the Republic of Congo). CBWG is based at the editor would like to thank Alison Wilson, IUCN regional headquarters in Yaoundé, Joanna Benn, Cliona O'Brien and Sandrine Cameroon and assisted by funds from the US Jimenez for their help with this newsletter, and and UK Governments, and the Bushmeat the WWF Global Species Programme for Crisis Task Force through a grant from the financial support for its production. 9 African Great Apes Update 1 (2005)

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WWF is one of the world's largest and most experienced independent WWF International

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conservation organizations, with almost 5 million supporters and a global p network active in more than 100 countries. Avenue du Mont Blanc Re are lanet” 1196 Gland WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment Switzerland and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature by: g - conserving the world's biological diversity Tel: +41 22 364 9111 istered Trademarks

- ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable Fax: +41 22 364 9268 - promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. www.panda.org

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