Africa’s action plan to save chimpanzees

ACTION PLAN: Stamping out hunting and poaching is seen as the key to success Picture: Andrew Plumptre / WCS

Protecting 16 areas would save 50,000 chimps

June 2010: Ninety-six per cent of known populations of eastern chimpanzees - about 50,000 animals - could be protected with a new action plan, which puts stamping out illegal hunting and trafficking as key to saving one of man's closest relatives.

The nations of East and Central Africa have developed a ten-year plan to save the eastern chimpanzee from hunting, habitat loss, disease, the capture of infants for the pet trade and other threats, IUCN and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have announced.

The action plan for the Eastern Chimpanzee calls for the conservation of 16 areas, which if protected would conserve 96 per cent of the known populations of eastern chimpanzees, estimated to be around 50,000. However, the total number could be as high as 200,000, almost double previous estimates.

The eastern chimpanzee is currently classified as Endangered on IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species, and lives in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Zambia. Eastern chimpanzees share an estimated 98 per cent of genes with humans and are among the best studied of the great apes.

‘We know about the distribution and abundance of only a quarter of the world population of the eastern chimpanzee,' says Dr Liz Williamson, IUCN's Species Survival Commission Great Ape Coordinator. ‘There are large areas of the Congo basin where we know very little about this ape. The plan identifies key areas for future surveys that are likely to be of importance for chimpanzees.'

‘This effort to assess the status of eastern chimpanzees will help us to focus our conservation actions more effectively,' says Dr Andrew Plumptre, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Albertine Rift Program and the plan's lead author. ‘In the next decade, we hope to minimize the threats to these populations and the ecological and cultural diversity they support.'

In addition to targeting two of the greatest threats to the species, illegal hunting and trafficking, other objectives include reducing the rate of forest loss in chimpanzee habitats; increasing knowledge of chimpanzee distribution, status, and threats; improving the understanding of health risks to chimpanzee populations, including human-transmitted diseases; increasing community support for chimpanzee conservation; and, securing sustainable financing for chimpanzee conservation units.

‘The plan will require considerable support from the global community but will ensure the continued survival of eastern chimpanzees in their natural habitats,' says Dr James Deutsch of WCS's Africa Programme.

‘The conservation of wild populations is important not only for conservation, but also for the survival of chimpanzee cultures in the region that are invaluable to helping us define our own place within the natural realm.'