African Great Apes 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 gorilla nest in the proposed gorilla sanctuary at Kagwene, Mbulu Hills, Cameroon (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 chimpanzees, bonobos, and western and eastern gorillas. Building on more than 40 years of experience in great ape 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 subspecies 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 human-ape conflict. Objective 3 (Policy): To establish relevant conservation policies, strategies and laws that eliminate ape poaching 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: PJStephenson@wwfint.org

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE 1 EDITORIAL 1 So much left to do for Africa's great

apes! 2 NEWS FROM THE FIELD 2 Bleak news for the bonobo 3 Efforts increase to protect Grauer's

gorilla 5 Mountain gorilla numbers increasing

against the odds 7 A team initiative to save Africa's rarest

ape 8 NEWS FROM BEYOND THE

AFRICAN GREAT APES PROGRAMME

8 CITES 2004 - progress on great apes and bushmeat

9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS EDITORIAL So much left to do for Africa's great apes! Ever since WWF's creation in 1961, the global conservation organization has been working to conserve great apes. As flagship species, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orang-utans galvanise broader conservation efforts within the forest ecosystems in which they live. In 2002, WWF launched a new African Great Apes Programme. Building on more than 40 years' experience of tropical forest and great ape conservation, the new programme sets out to tackle the challenges still facing great apes in the twenty-first century. In spite of years of effort by range state governments, WWF and other conservation agencies, all of Africa's apes still face a bleak future. Hunting for meat and the pet trade, habitat loss and fragment-ation, diseases such as ebola, and conflict between humans and apes continue to threaten all species, and many scientists predict we will lose these animals forever within 20-50 years. The WWF African Great Apes Programme sets out to provide support for strategic field interventions that contribute to the conservation of all subspecies: Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli), western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), eastern lowland or Grauer's gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri), mountain gorilla (Gorilla

beringei beringei), bonobo (Pan paniscus), eastern chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii), central chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes troglodytes), Nigerian chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes vellerosus), and western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus). The new programme is timely. The cons-ervation of Africa's great apes has never been so important. As articles in this first edition of African Great Apes Update show, populations across Africa have been experiencing mixed fortunes. While there is some encouraging news for mountain gorillas and Grauer's gorillas, their situation is still vulnerable and we cannot be complacent. The disturbing news on bonobos shows that no apes are secure. 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 also contribute to the conservation of great apes and their habitats. Throughout its ape conservation work - whether directly supported by the African Great Apes Programme or not - WWF continues to work closely with national governments, and their relevant ministries and departments, as well as with local people living alongside apes. In addition, many other international and national organizations have projects that focus on apes and their habitats, supported in turn by numerous donors. Many of these agencies work at the same sites as WWF. Whilst we continue to make every effort to acknowledge the partners we work with directly, it is not always possible to list all the agencies supporting a given species or its habitat. However, we welcome these other partners and their work and hope that together, in partnership for a common cause, we can make a difference and stop the extinction of Africa's great apes. And as a last note - "what about orang-utans?" I hear you say. Well, this newsletter focuses on African great apes, but the WWF programmes in Indonesia and Malaysia continue to strive for the conservation of the "old man of the jungle". News on WWF's work on orang-utans can be found at: http://www.panda.org/species/orangutan PJ Stephenson, Gland, Switzerland 14 January 2005

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NEWS FROM THE FIELD Bleak news for the bonobo Bonobos or pygmy chimpanzees – arguably our closest relatives – may have been hunted so extensively that the survival of the species is at risk. The bonobo is found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the heart of the Congo Basin forest, and is much less widespread than the closely related and better studied chimpanzee. Scientists had estimated the bonobo population to be perhaps as high as 50,000. However, preliminary results of the first systematic survey of a known bonobo stronghold indicate that may be an over-estimation. Salonga, a World Heritage Site of 36,000 km2 (about the size of Holland), is the only national 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 CITES1 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 nests 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 into the park and of poaching. The full survey results will be published in early 2005 as part of the overall MIKE report for central Africa. During the long running civil war in DRC, it became almost impossible for ICCN to protect effectively the country's national parks. Increased poaching by armed militias and local people was inevitable. Wildlife outside protected areas is likely to have been hit even harder by hunting. 1 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

In 2004, in response to the worrying survey findings, the WWF African Great Apes Programme started providing support for a project to monitor and protect surviving bonobo populations in the northern sector of Salonga National Park. The initiative is providing park staff and researchers with training and equipment as well as supporting anti-poaching operations on foot and by boat to stop the illegal killing of the rare apes. The project is being implemented by ICCN and the Zoological Society of Milwaukee in partner-ship with WWF's Salonga Landscape Programme. As part of the broader Salonga Landscape Programme (funded by, among others, the USAID/CARPE Congo Basin Forest Partnership and the European Union), WWF is also contributing to the rehabilitation of Salonga National Park and the development of long-neglected infrastructure and manage-ment systems. WWF will place a park advisor in Salonga in 2005 to provide technical advice to the ICCN management team and park guards. © Zoological Society of Milwaukee ZSM project staff studying bonobo habitat in

Salonga National Park “The war has had terrible consequences for the people and wildlife of the Congo Basin," said Lisa Steel, co-ordinator of WWF's Salonga Landscape Programme. "However, now, as the Democratic Republic of Congo rebuilds socially and economically, the opportunity is there to make sure that forest conservation benefits not only wildlife but also local people."

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It is hoped that the investment by WWF and other conservation and research agencies in supporting ICCN rebuild Salonga will help protect the remaining bonobos. In addition, WWF will work with stakeholders to identify other blocks of forest with surviving bonobo populations and work towards establishing new national parks to protect these threatened apes. For more information see: http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/other_news/news.cfm?uNewsID=17054 or contact Lisa Steel, Co-ordinator, WWF Salonga Landscape Programme (lisasteel@gis.net)

© WWF-Canon / Martin Harvey

A female bonobo with infant Efforts increase to protect Grauer’s gorilla Grauer's gorillas identified as one of national ape priorities in DRC The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is home to more species and sub-species of great apes than any other country in the world, but few places in this vast and troubled country

offer effective protection for wildlife. As a result, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos remain under constant threat from hunting and habitat destruction (see previous story on bonobos). Many biologists fear that great apes may become extinct in DRC, and indeed the rest of Africa, within the next 20 years. Grauer’s gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri), also known as the eastern lowland gorilla, is found only in the rainforests of eastern DRC. Here, civil conflict and political instability have left the Congolese national parks network in a state of dereliction. The security situation in the region remains extremely precarious. 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 Kinshasa 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 Animal Welfare, helped finance the meeting. Key recommendations from the workshop included the need: to survey little-known areas to establish the locations where great apes survive; to rehabilitate protected areas such as the Maiko National Park and Kahuzi-Biega National Park which are key refuges for Grauer’s gorilla and eastern chimpanzee; and to strengthen existing laws protecting great apes. There was also a plea from participants to ensure that development schemes are implemented for local communities who live alongside great apes. Conservation activities restart Initially, conservation efforts were put on hold because of hostilities between armed factions in and around Kahuzi-Biega National Park,

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which led to a suspension of anti-poaching patrols for several months between October 2002 and April 2003. All ranger posts were closed and rangers were recalled to park headquarters. The only appropriate strategy was for park staff to wait and restart work when prevailing conditions became favourable again. At the start of May 2003, some of the armed factions were beaten back from parts of the park, allowing the re-opening of ranger posts. WWF staff liaised with the ICCN (Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation) Director General Mme Eulalie Bashige Baliruyha, and the Director of Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Bernard Iyomi Iyatshi, to identify priorities for WWF support. These included provision of fuel, rations and allowances for rangers on anti-poaching patrols and the repair of anti-poaching patrol vehicles. This support complemented on-going work in Kahuzi-Biega by the German development agency, GTZ, and the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). WWF's support in 2003 was timely not only because it complemented work funded by other ICCN partners but also because it helped park rangers undertake patrols in areas they had not visited for eight months or more. The patrols collected illegal snares and cleaned up camps that had been established in the forest by poachers and armies. Between May and July rangers arrested 52 poachers and seized three firearms and more than 700 snares, as well as two live chimpanzees. They also began tracking gorillas again. Although some gorilla poaching was detected, one of the key successes was the discovery of two new gorilla groups (named Langa and Mpungwe). Kahuzi-Biega National Park continues to be beset by problems: human pressures observed in the park include poaching and trade in bushmeat, and habitat destruction through encroachment by agriculturalists, wood cutting and coltan mining. However, the situation is slowly improving. In the first six months of 2004, anti-poaching patrols in Kahuzi-Biega increased by 68% from an average of 238 patrols per month to 477 patrols per month. New rangers have been recruited and trained, and more ranger posts have re-opened. ICCN staff have begun operating in the lowland sector of the park for the first time since the civil war: as of June 2004, they controlled some 70% of the park area. By mid 2004, some 90 mining sites had been discovered, with some 4,400 people undertaking illegal

exploitation: fifteen of these sites were closed by rangers. In addition, meetings have been held with local communities to discuss park-community problems and relations. The fragility of the situation was demonstrated, though, in mid-2004. The park station at Tshivanga was held from May to July by various rebel militias. In June it was ransacked, the infrastructure damaged and all the equipment stolen. Materials lost included computers, typewriters, telephones, solar panels, medication and office supplies and furniture. In spite of the damage and loss of material, and despite the on-going insecurity in the region and rebel army activity, ICCN staff took up their work stations again in July in all park ranger posts. Staff are now undertaking regular monitoring of more than 80 Grauer's gorillas belonging to seven family groups. A new gorilla family of nine individuals with one silverback has been observed in the lowland sector of the park. In addition, for the first time since the beginning of the war more than five years ago, the military commander of the region has ordered all his troops to leave the park station office which they had taken control of, and requested the park authority to restart conservation work. This shows that Congolese military authorities can support the conservation of wildlife resources in protected areas. There is a further ray of hope. A survey of gorillas in the high altitude section of the park, conducted in late 2004 by ICCN with support from WCS, was encouraging. The survey counted 160 gorillas, 33 more than the last survey in 2000. Wider surveys initiated WWF is also working to improve our understanding of the status of Grauer’s gorilla in areas outside Kahuzi-Biega. In early 2004, two meetings were organized between WWF, WCS, and ICCN to develop a work plan for the Itombwe Massif, which lies south of Kahuzi-Biega near the border with Burundi. In a survey undertaken in the mid 1990s, more than 1,000 Grauer’s gorillas were estimated to occur in this biologically diverse, but unprotected area of montane forest. A priority now is to complete a feasibility study to gazette part of the Itombwe Massif as a protected area.

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Only through continued support for Kahuzi-Biega National Park, and through the protection of larger areas of habitat, will Grauer's gorilla populations be secured. For more information on Kahuzi-Biega NP: - in English, check out the World Heritage Sites website: http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/kahuzibiega.html - in French, check out the ICCN website: http://www.iccnrdc.cd/kahuzi-biega.htm For more information on WWF's work in Kahuzi-Biega contact: Bisidi Yalolo, WWF Project Manager, Kahuzi-Biega National Park (yalolob@yahoo.fr) For a more detailed account of the Kinshasa great apes workshop see: http://ld.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/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 in the Albertine Rift ecoregion started in the 1970s. In 1991, the effort evolved into today’s International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP), a joint initiative of the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Fauna and Flora International (FFI), and WWF. IGCP’s activities extend across the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Mountain gorilla habitat is subdivided into two ecological units covering 765 km2 of the volcanic Virunga Massif and the Bwindi-Impenetrable Forest. The largest unit includes three protected areas in the Virungas: the Parc National des Volcans in Rwanda, the Parc National des Virunga in DRC, and the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda. The second, separate, unit comprises the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. Over the years, IGCP has provided long-term financial, technical and logistical support for the protected areas authorities in the three countries: DRC’s

Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN), Rwanda’s Office Rwandais du Tourisme et des Parcs Nationaux (ORTPN), and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). All of national parks with mountain gorillas lie amidst some of the most densely populated areas of Africa which, for the past decade, have been the scene of prolonged political and social conflict. In the face of armed poachers, increasing population pressure, and even volcanic eruptions, IGCP’s goal of conserving mountain gorillas and their forest home is being achieved through focussing on four strategic objectives across the three states: effective management of afromontane forests by the three national authorities, an effective regional framework for conservation, strength-ening linkages with local communities, and implementing supportive policies and leg-islation.

© WWF-Canon / Martin Harvey

A baby mountain gorilla playing on its mother's back, Virunga National Park, DRC

Recent Achievements It is likely that IGCP’s greatest achievement has been its contribution towards maintaining mountain gorilla numbers in the face of enormous difficulties. Its success was confirmed in 2003, when IGCP and its partners took advantage of an improvement in the regional security situation to undertake, for the first time in 14 years, a mountain gorilla census in the three adjacent national parks of the Virungas. The census was supported by IGCP as well as the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, the Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation, Berggorilla und Regenwald Directhilfe, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, and the

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Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anth-ropology. The census was conducted by more than 100 people drawn from the parks’ staff and their NGO partners. Working in six teams, they traversed the entire Virunga gorilla habitat range. As each gorilla makes a new nest to sleep in each night, the teams were able to estimate the number of individuals and the number of groups by counting fresh nests as well as by actual sightings. 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 at least 700. Towards effective trans-boundary cooperation IGCP’s long-standing efforts to strengthen regional cooperation for mountain gorilla conservation also appear to be bearing fruit. In 2003, after 13 years of informal collaboration, the Executive Directors of ICCN, ORTPN and UWA signed a Memorandum of Under-standing committing them to work together on effective trans-boundary collaboration for the protection of mountain gorillas and their habitat. IGCP has been working with the protected area authorities of the three countries by organizing joint training and problem solving workshops, as well as regular regional meetings and conferences to foster dialogue. IGCP is also working with the three regional governments to develop policies on eco-tourism and benefit sharing from conservation. The slow move towards political stability in the Great Lakes region over the past year has increased tourism and investment in conservation, and has encouraged the author-ities to resume gorilla tourism in Virunga National Park in DRC. Meanwhile, gorilla viewing permits in Uganda and Rwanda rose to $360 and $375 respectively, going further towards meeting the costs of running the protected areas.

Over the past year, IGCP has assisted the three protected area authorities to deploy joint patrols covering the whole Virunga Massif: this increased surveillance has been instrumental in securing the safe births of several baby gorillas. There is now a greater number of effective local community enterprises such as beekeeping and mushroom growing, as well as a new initiative to encourage tourists to view the rare golden monkey (Cercopithecus mitis kandti) in the Parc National des Volcans.

© WWF-Canon / Martin Harvey

Tourists and park guards observing a mountain gorilla in Virunga National Park.

The need to remain vigilant Despite some positive news, the threats to gorillas and other wildlife continue to persist. About 15 km2 of the Mikeno sector of the Parc National des Virunga in DRC has recently been destroyed by local agriculturalists. WWF joined other agencies in helping construct a wall to prevent further encroachment but the threat remains. A resurgence of baby gorilla trafficking in November 2003 also demon-strates that more efforts are needed to ensure the survival of mountain gorillas. "IGCP is very happy with the result of the mountain gorilla census” says Eugene Rutagarama, IGCP Director. “The growth in the mountain gorilla population shows that with sustained efforts, conservation bodies can save mountain gorillas from extinction. However, we have to be vigilant because the major problems - human pressure and related illegal activities - remain”. For more information on IGCP and its work check out the IGCP website at www.mountaingorillas.org or contact :

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Eugene Rutagarama, Director, IGCP (ERutagarama@awfke.org) or Marc Languy, Programme Coordinator, WWF Albertine Rift Ecoregion Programme (MLanguy@wwfearpo.org) For more details on WWF's response to the Mikeno sector deforestation, see: http://panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/africa/where/eastern_africa/news/news.cfm?uNewsID=17357 A team initiative to save Africa's rarest ape WWF is partnering up with the Wildlife Cons-ervation Society (WCS) and the Cameroon Ministry of Environment and Forestry to start a new initiative to conserve the world's rarest great ape. The Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli) is a unique race or subspecies of the western gorilla. With probably no fewer than 300 individuals remaining, it is one of the world’s rarest mammals. Cross River gorillas are restricted to a range of about 200 km2 across a total area of more than 2500 km² in forested highlands on the border between Cameroon and Nigeria (for a map of their range see http://www.berggorilla.de/). The nearest population of western gorillas lies at least a couple of hundred kilometres away. The small Cross River gorilla population is fragmented into approximately ten potentially isolated sub-populations, some of which number no more than 20 individuals. Many of these tiny groups are living in unprotected forest and facing the threat of habitat loss as local people clear land for agriculture and cattle grazing. Given the small size and fragmentation of this population and the intensity of threat to their habitat, urgent conservation measures must be implemented to ensure their survival. WWF has supported various research-related conservation activities and field projects in Cross River gorilla habitat in both Cameroon and Nigeria over the last twenty years. Among other activities, it has provided financial support for gorilla surveys in Cameroon’s Takamanda Forest Reserve and technical and financial support for the management of Nigeria’s Cross River National Park, working

in partnership with a variety of governmental and non-governmental organizations. New Partnerships In 2004, WWF started supporting a new project aimed at saving Cross River gorillas. The project is being implemented in partnership with WCS and the Cameroonian and Nigerian governments. WCS has undertaking conservation-related research on Cross River gorillas since 1996 in Nigeria and since 2000 in Cameroon. Their current Cross River gorilla programme oper-ates in both countries, integrating field re-search, education and outreach as well as support and capacity building of local govern-ment agencies. The programme is enhancing our understanding of the gorilla’s biology and assisting with law enforcement activities while also generating community-based support for conservation. The challenges of conserving Cross River gorillas are huge and require a unified approach. The partnership between WWF and WCS follows two conservation workshops focused on developing strategies for the protection of Cross River gorillas held in Calabar, Nigeria in 2001 and in Limbe, Cameroon in 2003. The complementary strengths of WCS and WWF in collaboration with host governments will provide the opportunity to ensure that the protection of these unique apes becomes a reality. The project goals include: • strengthening protection and law

enforcement measures for all Cross River gorilla populations;

• establishing an effective trans-boundary protected area for the Takamanda-Okwangwo forest complex, in particular by improving the effectiveness of prot-ection in the Okwangwo Division of Cross River National Park in Nigeria, and upgrading the protection status of the Takamanda Forest Reserve in Cameroon;

• developing a land-use plan for the Takamanda-Mone-Mbulu forest complex in Cameroon, which includes the creation of a protected area at Kagwene Mountain and provisions for maintaining or recreating forested corridors;

• developing a plan for the conservation of Afi-Mbe-Okwangwo area in Nigeria,

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including both a review of management options for the Mbe Mountains and the maintenance of forested connections between gorilla habitats;

• continuing research into the ecology, dist-ribution and population biology of the gorillas, including the monitoring of exist-ing study populations;

• strengthening and expanding conservation education and awareness programmes at all levels, from local communities to government.

• contributing to the capacity of institutions in Cameroon and Nigeria that can assist Cross River gorilla conservation, through direct support and training;

• holding a third trans-national workshop on Cross River gorilla conservation, to focus on ways to make trans-boundary co-operation more effective.

The first phase of WWF's support will provide the funds necessary to realise objectives on the Cameroon side of the border and will comp-lement grants provided by donors, such as the US Fish and Wildlife Service. In 2005 WWF will explore, with WCS and others, new ways of working towards Cross River gorilla cons-ervation in Nigeria. It is hoped this flourishing partnership between two of the world's most experienced cons-ervation NGOs will help stop Africa's rarest ape going extinct. For more information on the project contact: Jacqueline Sunderland-Groves, WCS Cross River Gorilla Research Project (Cameroon), Limbe, Cameroon (jsunderlandgroves@ wcs.org) or Dr John Oates, Senior Technical Advisor, WCS Cross River Biodiversity Project (john.oates@hunter.cuny.edu) NEWS FROM BEYOND THE AFRICAN GREAT APES PROGRAMME

CITES 2004: Progress on great apes and bushmeat Among the many threats facing great apes is the international trade in wild-caught live specimens, these days mainly for the pet trade.

In Africa, the bushmeat trade is an additional menace as meat from primates, widely consumed in central and west Africa, is often smuggled across borders – even reaching street markets catering for expatriate Africans in Europe and North America. In October 2004, in Bangkok, Thailand, the thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) adopted two resolutions aimed at clamping down on these twin dangers and at helping range states implement their national strategies to conserve great apes. The Great Apes Resolution The first resolution (Res. Conf. 13.4) on the Conservation of and Trade in Great Apes urged Parties to strengthen measures to conserve great apes and to tighten controls on the illegal trade in live apes and their products. The resolution was drafted by Ireland on behalf of the European Union. It noted the endangered status of all great ape species, the wide range of threats they face, and current efforts to save them, such as the international UNEP/UNESCO Great Ape Survival Project (GRASP) and National Great Ape Survival Plans. The resolution, as finally adopted, urged Parties (among other things) to: • Prohibit all international trade for

primarily commercial purposes of wild-caught apes;

• Develop deterrent penalties aimed at eliminating illegal trade in apes and products;

• Strengthen anti-poaching and anti-smuggling efforts;

• Promote the protection and restoration of great ape habitats, including co-operative trans-boundary efforts.

The resolution also directed the CITES Secretariat to work with the Parties to achieve these goals, and to assist range states in the implementation of their national plans. It also called on the CITES Standing Committee to regularly review the implementation of the resolution and to consider measures such as technical and/or political missions to achieve this goal. This should be discussed at the next Standing Committee meeting which is due to take place June 2005 and in which WWF will

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participate The resolution urged all great ape range state Parties to join GRASP, and called for international funding and technical assistance to aid Parties achieve their conservation goals with respect to the great apes. One part of the draft resolution called for an end to the practice of giving great apes as diplomatic gifts. Despite an intervention by WWF for retention of this clause, several range States opposed it, suggesting that it would undermine their sovereign right over their national faunas. In the face of this opposition, a working group, of which WWF was a member, eventually reached a compromise wording urging Parties to "limit the international use of great apes to nationally approved zoological institutions, educational centres, rescue centres and captive-breeding centres in accordance with CITES". At the CoP, the UK pledged £20,000 to set up as a pilot project, to be jointly managed by GRASP and CITES Secretariat, to help combat the smuggling of great apes in central Africa. The Resolution also calls on the CITES Secre-tariat to collaborate with the CBD Secretariat in developing measures for in situ conservation of great apes. The Bushmeat Resolution CITES also adopted a resolution (Res. Conf. 13.11) encouraging Parties to clamp down on the illegal bushmeat trade. The resolution reflected the recommendations of the CITES 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 including gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos. Although most of the trade in meat from wild animals is domestic, and therefore not of direct relevance to CITES, cross-border trade in bushmeat is significant and growing. The CBWG is composed of the Wildlife Directors for the Central African Parties to the Convention (Cameroon, Central African Republic, DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo). CBWG is based at the IUCN regional headquarters in Yaoundé, Cameroon and assisted by funds from the US and UK Governments, and the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force through a grant from the

MacArthur Foundation. To date, the working group has stimulated the development of action plans in Cameroon, Congo and Gabon and initiated a number of pilot field projects. At Bangkok, Parties to CITES passed a resolution (Res. Conf. 13.11) that calls on all Parties to help stop the illegal bushmeat trade and to provide support to African States in tackling associated issues such as poverty, habitat degradation and natural resource use. The resolution also acknowledged the important role that CBWG plays in the region, especially in helping range states to adopt relevant action plans. Parties to the CoP also approved a decision encouraging the CBWG to continue its work as the Central Africa Bushmeat Working Group. At the CoP, the WWF delegation worked closely with the chair of the Central Africa Bushmeat Working Group to encourage momentum in dealing with this important issue. A related decision was approved calling on the CITES Secretariat to work more closely with other organizations such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to draw attention to the unsustainable trade in bushmeat. The FAO was invited to organize an international workshop to produce a sub-regional bushmeat action plan. This complements work currently underway by WWF, FAO and other partners to organize such a planning workshop in West Africa. For more information on the CITES CoP13 go to: http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/index.shtml ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The WWF Africa and Madagascar Programme is very grateful to WWF-Netherlands, WWF-Switzerland, WWF-Germany, WWF-US and Jennifer Ivey Bannock for their support to the African Great Apes Programme since 1992. In addition, WWF in Denmark, Sweden, the UK and USA continues to support the International Gorilla Conservation Programme, WWF's longest running African great ape project. The editor would like to thank Alison Wilson, Joanna Benn, Cliona O'Brien and Sandrine Jimenez for their help with this newsletter, and the WWF Global Species Programme for financial support for its production.

African Great Apes Update 1 (2005)

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© WWF-Canon / Martin Harvey

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