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Gorilla on a plate

by Anne Blair Gould

20-10-2004

Bushmeat: supplying human appetites is driving some primate species to extinction

Recently the United Nations held an emergency meeting – to publicise the fact that within 30 years, all the world's great apes will be extinct unless moves are made to halt their slaughter. In other words, by 2035, there will be no gorillas, chimpanzees, or orang-utans left in the wild. According to UNEP's Executive Director, Klaus Topfer: "The clock is standing at one minute to midnight for the great apes - animals that share more than 96 percent of their DNA with humans..."

But why is the world on the verge of losing its gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos (formerly known as pygmy chimpanzees) and orang-utans? Primatologist Russell Mittermeier is President of Conservation International and has also recently been appointed "Ape Ambassador" to the UN's Great Apes Survival Project, GRASP: 
 

"Destruction of the forests is the principle cause of great ape loss around the world but bushmeat is definitely another. In central Africa and western and central Congo Basin, chimps and gorillas are still regularly hunted for bushmeat consumption which is really amazing in this day and age. But it really is happening and it's being facilitated by logging operations."

There are already very few of these animals left. Exact numbers are difficult to determine but scientists estimate that the gorillas of Central Africa and the orang-utans of Sumatra and Borneo are both down to their last few thousand – which biologically speaking is a dangerously low level. And chimpanzees, although slightly more numerous, are also highly endangered. As for bonobos, it's difficult to say for sure because they live in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo – but they may be down to a mere 15,000.

Fruits of the wild
So what is bushmeat? Dr Ian Redmond, Chief Consultant to GRASP explains:

Great apes: becoming lonelier by the day

"'Bushmeat' is an African term for the meat from wild animals, akin to ‘bush tucker' in Australia or ‘game' in the UK. But recently the bushmeat trade in central Africa has changed from the subsistence hunting to commercial hunting where people come into the forests from the towns and shoot everything bigger than a breadbox – which will pay for their cartridges. They then smoke the meat and sell it in the cities. And because people originally from these central African areas now live in cities all over the world, there's a booming illegal international trade in great ape meat."

And the further away from forest, the more expensive the bushmeat becomes.

"If you're a wealthy African living in Brussels whose grandmother used to cook great apes back in the village, then for a special occasion, you might pay a lot of money - and when a lot of money is involved, then of course people will do whatever's involved!"

Poverty-driven
But rarely does the money earned from hunting and selling great apes reach the local people, according to WWF-Cameroon's Leonard Usongo.

"The primary reason for the bushmeat trade is poverty, but when we look at the economics of the bushmeat trade locally, we see that although the trade can generate up to 100,000 euros a year, that money is not actually invested locally."

Because of this, attempts to stop this bushmeat trade need to be directed at both local and international levels. Hence the UNEP-UNESCO Great Apes Survival Project. 

Chimpanzees and their cousins the bonobos are also under threat

"The emergency meeting at UNESCO's headquarters in November 2003 was the first time ever that government representatives and NGO's had got together to decide how they're going to halt this decline," reports Ian Redmond. "And that's the simple message of GRASP – because if we don't stop the numbers decreasing year by year, very clearly, within our lifetime – never mind whether it's 20 or 30 or 40 years – we'll be seeing the extinction of the world's great apes."

What can I do ?
Visit any one of the links below to find out how you can help save the great apes from extinction.

Tags: ape, bushmeat, chimp, gorilla, GRASP

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