Great Ape Conservation Fund Summary Report 2001-2007 the U.S

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Great Ape Conservation Fund Summary Report 2001-2007 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s mission: Working with others, to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. Cover: “Amahoro”, silverback in Parc National des Volcans, Rwanda. © R.G. Ruggiero/USFWS Above: Sunset in the Likouala-aux-Herbes, Republic of Congo. © R.G. Ruggiero/USFWS 2 Contents Introduction 2 Conservation of Orangutans 4 Conservation of Gibbons 6 Conservation of Bonobos 8 Conservation of Chimpanzees 10 Conservation of Gorillas 12 Funding for the Central African Forest Zone 14 Project Summaries 2007 15 Project Summaries 2006 20 Project Summaries 2005 26 Project Summaries 2004 29 Project Summaries 2003 34 Project Summaries 2002 36 Project Summaries 2001 38 Summary Maps and Graphs 41 3 Female Bornean orangutan 1 Orangutan Foundation International Great Ape Conservation Fund n behalf of the American people, the U.S. Congress passed the Great Ape Conservation Act Oin 2000, which created the Great Ape Conservation Fund for the conservation of gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and gibbons. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awards grants for activities related to combating infectious diseases, strengthening law enforcement, conservation education, safeguarding habitat and other efforts to support the conservation and management of apes. By their biological nature, apes The destruction of their forest To implement these programs, the are extremely vulnerable and habitat is perhaps the most USFWS works with conservation susceptible to population declines serious threat to great apes. partners within the U.S. and the from human disturbance. They grow As human populations grow, range countries. These collaborators relatively slowly, are long-lived, have there is an increased demand to have vast on the ground experience low reproductive rates and complex convert primary forest for human and are experts on the ecology of social relationships. The Great settlements, agriculture, and timber the species as well as the human Ape Conservation Fund conserves production. dimensions of conservation. gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos in Africa, and orangutans and In Asia, illegal logging, forest fires, This report provides an overview of gibbons in Asia — all of which have conversion of natural forests to conservation efforts supported by suffered significant population exotic plantations, and the draining the Fund between 2001 and 2007, declines due to poaching, disease, of peat lands threaten orangutans illustrates important progress and habitat loss or degradation. in Borneo and Sumatra. In Africa, to date, and highlights the way habitat conversion and poaching forward. Apes are sometimes killed to are aggravated by civil unrest, capture their young for the illegal uncontrolled logging, and the pet trade. They are also poached proliferation of weapons. for bushmeat, the meat of wild animals. Roads built for logging and Efforts to conserve apes are mining operations in both Africa frequently compromised by a lack of and Asia allow poachers easy access awareness and insufficient capacity to previously remote forests that to enforce laws and manage apes once served as protective refuges. and other wildlife. To address this, In some African cultures, ape meat the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a delicacy that fetches high prices, (USFWS), through the Great Ape particularly in urban areas, and this Conservation Fund, emphasizes creates a strong incentive to hunt a collaborative approach to them over much of their range. conservation. Most grants directly support field work targeting a Recent outbreaks of disease, such range of great ape conservation as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, have programs: building institutional and also decimated ape populations. In human resource capacity, improving some areas of Central Africa, Ebola law enforcement, educating local has killed up to 90% of individuals communities about conservation in several isolated populations of issues, providing economic gorillas. Ebola also poses a serious incentives for conservation, and Juvenile mountain gorilla, Parc human health risk and has been fulfilling the need for robust des Volcans, Rwanda. shown to infect persons who have scientific data on ape species. © R.G. Ruggiero/USFWS handled or consumed ape meat. 2 The name orangutan comes from the Malay words “orang hutan” meaning “forest people”. They are primarily found in lowland rain forest habitats, and prefer ﬂ oodplains, swamps, and adjacent upland habitats. Here they feed upon fruit and supplement their diet with considerable quantities of leaves, bark of select trees, certain ﬂ owers, some insects, honey, and occasional bird’s eggs. They make nests of broken branches, lined with twigs, high up in trees. The number of these nests present in an area may be used to estimate the size of the local orangutan population. 3 Conservation of Orangutans rangutans (Pongo pygmaeus and Pongo abelii), are primarily found in lowland rain Oforests, preferring floodplains, swamps, and adjacent upland habitats. They are only found on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The wild population of orangutans Kalimantan’s Sebangau Peat including Bornean orangutans. is estimated at 50,000 to 60,000 Swamp hosts the largest extant Biologists are studying how the individuals. This includes 48,860 population of Bornean orangutans orangutans adapt to changes in Bornean orangutans (Pongo (approximately 6,900 or 12.5% of their natural habitat to determine pygmaeus), of which it is estimated the world population). This key whether orangutans can survive in there are 36,500 in Kalimantan population is threatened by loss exploited areas over the long-term. (southern Borneo), 11,000 in Sabah of habitat due to drainage of the The results of this study will be used (northeastern Borneo), and 1,360 in swamp for illegal logging. Drainage to design a management plan for the Sarawak (north and northwestern dries the peat and increases the Kinabatangan orangutan population Borneo), and 7,300 Sumatran likelihood of fire and ultimately and to guide management of wild orangutans (Pongo abelii). the destruction of the habitat. orangutan populations in other In response, the Fund provided multiple-use forests. Orangutans are critically support for the Orangutan Tropical endangered due to habitat loss Peatland Project (Ou-Trop), which In Sumatra, the Fund supported a from logging, peat land drainage, raised the profile of the swamp as series of environmental awareness and a rapid expansion in palm oil an important orangutan habitat road shows for villages associated plantations. In addition, orangutans and helped shape the conservation with oil palm and rubber plantations are killed for meat, medicinal strategy for saving the region’s directly adjacent to the borders purposes, and for entering orangutans. Due to efforts of Gunung Leuser National Park. agricultural fields. Infants are also supported by this project, in 2004 The project communicated crucial taken for the pet trade. Studies have the Indonesian government officially messages about the state of shown that for every baby abducted announced the area as a new Indonesia’s forests and biodiversity, and sold, several other orangutans national park for orangutans. focusing on the Sumatran orangutan die in the process. Since orangutans as a flagship species. The main have a slow reproductive rate In Borneo’s Malaysian state of target audiences were oil palm and (females normally give birth every Sabah, the Fund supported work rubber plantation workers in regions 6-8 years) even low rates of poaching on the Kinabatangan River, Sabah’s where human-orangutan conflict can threaten the existence of large longest river and home to some was either likely to occur, or already orangutan populations. If left of the largest and most diverse documented, due to the proximity of unchecked, these factors will lead to concentrations of wildlife in Borneo, plantations to orangutan habitat. the extinction of the orangutans. In response to these threats, the Great Ape Conservation Fund supports many projects in the range states. In the Indonesian region of Borneo, also known locally as Kalimantan, the Gunung Palung National Park harbors one of the few remaining viable Bornean orangutan populations. Unfortunately, illegal logging has degraded large areas of the park and damaged precious habitat. To bring this destruction to an end, the Fund is supporting the Gunung Palung Orangutan Conservation Project to increase understanding and build pride for the orangutan and the National Park. The Fund has also provided grants for applied research in the park and to establish patrols to protect orangutans and their habitat. Juvenile Bornean orangutan. The Nature Conservancy Left: Illegal logging accounts for 70 percent of the timber leaving Borneo. It is a major threat to survival of the orangutan. © Georgeanne Irvine/Orangutan Foundation International 4 Adult female Hainan gibbon in Bawangling Nature Reserve, Hainan Island, China © Xi Zhinong /Fauna & Flora International 5 Conservation of Gibbons ibbons are small apes that live in the tropical rain forests of Southeast Asia. They are the Gmost diverse of the living apes with four genera comprised of 16 species. They occur from northeast India to Vietnam, north into China, and south through portions of Indonesia. Gibbon species are usually separated by rivers or straits, and typically the ranges of the

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