Treaty Offers World's Last Chance to Save Great Apes

[buzzsaw_23]

Treaty offers world's last chance to save great apes

Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor

Published: 12 September 2005



The agreement signed in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is on a par with the 1982 whaling moratorium and the 1997 Kyoto protocol on climate change. It offers a real chance to halt the remorseless jungle slaughter of gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orang-utans, which on current trends is likely to kill them all off within a generation.

If it succeeds - a big if - it will be the most significant move yet to counter the greatest environmental problem facing the world after global warming, the mass extinction of living species. Increasingly, the great apes are being seen as the flagship example of species that have become endangered. Last year, the African conservationist Richard Leakey said their image should replace that of the giant panda as the international icon of threatened wildlife.

The agreement in Kinshasa between the nations where the animals occur in the wild, the "range states", and a group of rich donor countries, led by Britain, publicly recognises, for the first time at the international diplomatic level, the unique cultural, ecological and indeed economic importance of the four great ape species, which share up to 98.5 per cent of our DNA.

<snip>

As few as 350,000 of all the great apes, which once numbered in their millions, may now exist in the wild, and populations of some sub-species are already down to a few hundred. Some conservationists such as the chimpanzee specialist Jane Goodall believe they may be extinct in the wild outside protected areas in the next two decades.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/article311909.ece

[evolvenow]

1. Save the beautiful apes! Kicked and Recommended!

kick for the Apes!

[nosmokes]

6. if we continue our ways

we will be driving ourselves to extinction as well.

http://newdream.org/consumer/farmersmarkets.php">Eat Local

[hatrack]

2. Kicking and recommending

Here's to Dianne Fossey and Jane Goodall and all their forest friends and colleagues!

[kimchi]

7. I'll drink to that!

Bless all those advocating for our animals--whether our DNA is similar or not. With the animals, I mean.

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. Did the US sign the treaty as a donor ntation?

The article doesn't say, but wouldn't be surprised if US isn't on board with this :mad:

From article:
<snip>
It has been signed so far by a total of 23 range states and donor countries, including Britain, and remains open for further signatures (all the African range states, and more donor nations, are expected to sign).

It marks a hugely significant moment, said Ian Redmond, the British biologist who is Grasp's chief consultant. "The international community has belatedly recognised that the future of the great apes is the responsibility of all humanity, and not just the countries in which they live, which are among the poorest in the world," he said.

[Benhurst]

4. Recommended NT

[Spinzonner]

5. The ID'ers will be against it

Gotta kill the evidence