GRASP Reporting

During the World Summit, a GRASP (Great Ape Survival Project) report was released by UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) Executive Director Klaus Töpfer. It concludes that less than 10% of the habitat now inhabited by the great apes of Africa will be left undisturbed by 2030 if road building, mining camps and other infrastructure developments continue at current levels.
A new method of evaluating the wider impacts of infrastructure development on key species was used in this study. The key species studied are the chimpanzees, the bonobo or pygmy chimpanzee, the gorillas and the orangutans.
The scientists looked in detail at each of these species to assess the current remaining habitat deemed relatively undisturbed and able to support viable populations of apes. The experts then mapped the likely impact at current levels of infrastructure growth, and the area of healthy habitat that would be left to the apes in 2030.
The study estimates that around 28%, or some 204,900 km², of remaining gorilla habitat can be classified as relatively undisturbed. If infrastructure growth continues at current levels, the area left by 2030 is estimated to be 69,900 km² or just 10%. It amounts to a 2.1%, or 4,500 km², annual loss of low-impacted gorilla habitat in countries including Nigeria, Gabon and Rwanda.
The report The Great Apes - The Road Ahead was edited by Christian Nellemann of UNEP Grid-Arendal in Norway and Adrian Newton of UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, UK. It is available as PDF file.
As the study was launched at the summit, supporters of GRASP announced more cash backing for the project. More funding was announced from the Government of the United Kingdom, and new money from the United Nations Foundation (UNF) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) was earmarked for great ape survival.
The strategy aims to cover all of the two dozen range states of the great apes and draw up national recovery action plans in collaboration with the governments concerned, wildlife groups and local people.

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