Earth Equity News

Outlook for World's Primates Has 'Dramatically Worsened' with Nearly Half at Risk of Extinction. By James Randerson, London Guardian, August 5, 2008. "Nearly half of all primate species are now threatened with extinction, according to an evaluation by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The study, which drew on the work of hundreds of scientists and is the most comprehensive analysis for more than a decade, found that the conservation outlook for monkeys, apes and other primates has dramatically worsened. In some regions, the thriving bushmeat trade means the animals are being 'eaten to extinction'. The 2007 IUCN 'red list' has 39% of primate species and sub-species in the three highest threat categories -- vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered. In today's revised list, 303 of the 634 species and sub-species -- 48% -- are in these most threatened categories. The two biggest threats faced by primates are habitat destruction through logging and hunting for bushmeat and the illegal wildlife trade. 'We've raised concerns for years about primates being in peril, but now we have solid data to show the situation is far more severe than we imagined,' said Dr. Russell Mittermeier, [chair] of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's primate specialist group and the president of Conservation International… The picture in south-east Asia is particularly bleak, where 71% of all Asia primates are now listed as threatened, and in Vietnam and Cambodia, 90% are considered at risk. Populations of gibbons, leaf monkeys and langurs have dropped due to rapid habitat loss and hunting to satisfy the Chinese medicine and pet trade." [Editor's note: In light of this depressing news, it was heartening to read of the recent discovery of 125,000 western lowland gorillas in the northern Congo Republic.]