Category: News

Washington/Bonn – The United Nations Ambassador for the Year of the Gorilla, Ian Redmond, has called for the inclusion of gorillas and elephants, as important components in African rainforests, in the upcoming climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

Large mammals, such as elephants and gorillas, are keystone species in their relevant ecosystems. Gorillas act as ‘gardeners’ in the rainforests of the Congo Basin, and protecting them helps prevent loss of flora that are ecologically dependent on them.

Gorillas are second only to elephants in the number of seeds they disperse each day in the forests of Africa. When eating fruit and seeds, the seeds pass through their system and are in this way prepared for germination.

UN Ambassador, Ian Redmond, who has just returned from a fact-finding mission across eight African gorilla range states said: “The gorillas and elephants of Africa are doing the world a service. UNEP has just succeeded in its Seven Billion Tree campaign, but I would estimate that the apes and elephants of Africa disperse some seven billion seeds every day! The full extent of the role they play in maintaining the health of their forest habitat – a central component of the Earth’s climate regulation -is still poorly understood.”

Fifteen years of armed conflicts in the Great Lakes region of Africa, accompanied by illegal exploitation of minerals to finance militias, led to a sharp increase in demand for bushmeat. In addition, rapidly growing urban populations accelerated deforestation through charcoal production. Consequently, gorillas and elephants have been poached in large numbers.

A dramatic decline in the diversity of vegetation can be observed in parts of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. As gorillas declined and elephants vanished from the montane area, the forest’s flora changed into denser, less diverse vegetation. Weed-like plants, which were formerly held in check by elephants and gorillas, have become much more dominant and are suffocating trees, thereby accelerating deforestation. Myrianthus fruit trees, whose seeds had formerly been dispersed especially by large mammals, are being killed by the Sericostachys scandens vines and if this continues may become increasingly rare.

By building nests, gorillas break off branches and create gaps in the forest canopy that allow light through to the forest floor enabling smaller plants to grow.

The survival of forests requires the protection of the animals in them as well as the trees. In the long term, deforestation is as much a consequence of over-hunting as of cutting trees for charcoal or timber.

Insights gained from encounters with senior government officials, ex-militia, park wardens, conservationists, poachers, loggers and farmers highlight the need for a comprehensive approach to conserve rain forests and gorillas in the Congo Basin.

Supporting existing national action plans to halt deforestation of gorilla habitat is one of the major objectives of the CMS Agreement on the Conservation of Gorilla and their Habitat during the Year of the Gorilla campaign.

Notes to Editors

The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals works for the conservation of a wide array of endangered migratory animals worldwide through the negotiation and implementation of agreements and species action plans. With currently 112 member countries, many of them in Africa, CMS is a fast-growing convention with special importance due to its expertise in the field of migratory species. More information is available at: www.cms.int

The Year of the Gorilla 2009

The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (UNEP/CMS), also known as the Bonn Convention, declared 2009 the Year of the Gorilla (YoG). Partners in this campaign include the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP), in cooperation with UNEP and UNESCO, and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). The initiative is part of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Its main objective is to raise funds, awareness and political will to implement the CMS Agreement on the Conservation of Gorillas and their Habitats, a legally binding treaty between gorilla range states.

For more information please contact:

Ian Redmond OBE, Ambassador, UN Year of the Gorilla, Chief Consultant, GRASP – UNEP/UNESCO Great Ape Survival Partnership, Mobile: +44-7769743975 or email: ele@globalnet.co.uk

Veronika Lenarz, UNEP/CMS Secretariat, Coordinator UN Year of the Gorilla) on +49 228 8152409 or email: vlenarz@cms.int

Daniel Karr, Consultant, UN Year of the Gorilla, email: dkarr@cms.int

Ian Redmond, a tropical field biologist and conservationist, spoke about the dangers of decreasing ape populations at a presentation hosted by the Department of Anthropology on Thursday. Several hundred students attended to hear Redmond speak about the importance of ape conservation and their impact on the world. Redmond’s presentation was titled, “Save the Gorillas to Save the World.”

Redmond detailed the impact of gorillas, both currently and if they become extinct, on the world. According to Redmond, by 2030, only 10 percent of great ape habitats will remain free of the impacts of human development in Africa. Only 1 percent of orangutans will avoid the same impacts in Southeast Asia. Gorilla populations have had some recovery successes, but their numbers continue to decrease.

Redmond explained that gorillas are essential to the survival of ecosystems in their home countries, as they fertilize and disperse seeds through their dung, which regenerates the forests.
Protecting gorilla habitats preserves forests, which in turn decreases the amount of carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere from a reduced number of trees and the harvesting process. Redmond concluded his talk by stating primates are keystone species in habitats that provide ecosystem services for the whole planet. Saving the gorillas will preserve ecosystems that directly determine human survival.

Ian is back in the UK, catching up with himself and preparing for his next journey, this time to the concrete jungles of LA, San Diego etc. to fundraise for YoG through a lecture tour.

As the regular reader of this blog will remember, Ian did numerous video interviews and collected other video material. Unfortunately, the files were too large to upload as he went, but we are now receiving them.

One of Ian’s first visits in the Dem. Rep. of Congo was to the Kahuzi Biega National Park, where he interviewed Head Ranger Radar Nishuli on the ever-volatile situation there and on what he thinks of the YoG.

Enjoy!

Year of the Gorilla enthusiast Laurel Colton organized an outstanding outreach and fundraising event at LA Zoo, California, on the 29th and 30th of August. This event was just one in a whole series of events Laurel has put together over the last months, and there is still more to come. It is enthusiasts like Laurel who make this campaign so lively, together with the support of CMS, GRASP and WAZA partners.

Together with a group of volunteers (thanks, guys!), Laurel assembled four infotables with a variety of information materials and fun activities for both kids and adults. Two of the tables were gorilla biofact-related and two were more gorilla conservation-related. Docents from LA Zoo gave talks to visitors about gorillas, the YoG, and the LA Zoo’s gorilla family group and bachelor group members throughout each day. The zoos enrichment team arranged for special icy treats (frozen tubcicles containing vegetables and fruits) to be given to gorillas to stimulate more activity in the heat of the day (and boy, was it hot!).

On Saturday, August 29th, Dr. Craig Stanford gave a lecture on gorilla biology and conservation, which was a great success, drawing in a crowd and helping raise 1300$ for gorilla conservation projects.

All weekend, visitors could see a replica of a gorilla skull, as well as hand and foot casts and prints up close. A map poster showed all four gorilla subspecies and where they live in Africa. Small kids could also “Groom a Gorilla” – large furry cut-outs of gorillas needed some insects and other debris removed from their “fur”.

The team also displayed a large YoG poster and a chart with the eight YoG-supported conservation projects. Two complementary conservation projects were specially featured – the Gorilla Organization’s fuel-efficient stoves program and the Virunga Fund’s biomass fuel briquettes program. The team felt these were probably the most eye-catching and practical programs to display for visitors. The zoo’s Eco Corp students (assisted by a docent) actually built a model of the fuel-efficient stove.

Thank you, volunteers (all of you)!A further acitivity was “Be A Gorilla Researcher”, with L.A. Zoo Research Volunteers guiding children (ages 8 and up) while the children could pretend they were researchers observing a gorilla, using a catalogue of basic behaviours to classify what the gorillas were doing. This activity showed the children how information about gorillas is obtained and how gorillas are studied in the field.

“Who Knows Whose Nose Is Whose?” was an activity teaching kids and adults to recognize the different gorilla species, and even individuals, by the shape of their noses, the “noseprint”.

“Guarding the Gardeners of the Forest” was a magnetic storyboard that allowed visitors to learn more about gorilla conservation. On magnets, images of all four gorilla subspecies, the natural/positive features of their habitats (e.g., foods they eat, vegetation, other animals that live with them, park rangers who protect them), and the major threats to their survival (e.g., deforestation, mining/coltan, charcoal trade, bushmeat trade, Ebola virus, warfare, human encroachment), were portrayed. Docents led visitors through the story by asking questions about what should naturally be part of gorilla habitat, then introducing the threats and talking about the consequences of these threats, and finally asking visitors how the problems could be resolved.

Gorillas are referred to as the “gardeners of the forest” because their presence helps maintain forest biodiversity. Gorillas disperse the seeds of many plants which they eat, some of which are endemic to their forest habitats. In addition, when gorillas build new nests each night, they clear away portions of the forest canopy, letting light in and encouraging new growth of seeds and saplings.

Last but not least, green gorilla hand stamps were also a big hit, as children LOVE to get an image of an animal stamped on their hands..

Thank you, Laurel, Craig, docents and team, great work!!!

One afternoon of the Great Ape Health workshop, August 21-23, was spent discussing methods to vaccinate apes against such deadly natural diseases as Ebola, or against diseases that humans might bring, such as ‘flu.  Many captive gorillas, we were told, are given an annual ‘flu vaccine as a precautionary measure but this has not yet been done to wild gorillas.

There is an ethical debate about whether this is an unacceptable level of intervention in a natural ecosystem, but the majority of those present seemed to agree that if human activities are causing the problem, humans should attempt to solve it.  And although Ebola might be natural, the repopulation of an area after an outbreak is more difficult since humans have fragmented the forest and in many places, bushmeat hunters will still kill any survivors.

Paradoxically though, Ebola seems to have a greater impact where gorillas are not hunted, because densities are higher and this enables the disease to spread more easily.  But vaccination of gorilla populations at risk from the advancing Ebola wave is now a serious option thanks to Peter Walsh and colleagues in a project called Vaccinape (http://www.vaccinape.org/).

They are working on oral vaccines for unhabituated gorillas (if they can find a bait that wild gorillas want to eat) and vaccines to be delivered by darts or so-called biobullets (biodegradable material with the vaccine inside) for gorillas who can be approached. Not only might this save whole populations of gorillas, it will greatly reduce the risk of Ebola outbreaks in humans – many of which have been traced back to someone handling or butchering an infected ape they found in the forest.

As such, it would seem to me that the costs of Vaccinape should be shared by human health agencies, because as Richard Preston graphically described in The Hot Zone if one of these emerging diseases mutates to be better able to survive out of the host’s body, enabling it to spread by droplet infection, H1N1 would seem like a walk in the park in comparison…

The links between human and gorilla health is the focus of a relatively new NGO, Conservation Through Public Health (www.ctph.org), that recently won the Whitley Award (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tDRbZ80OAY).  Founded by Uganda’s best know wildlife vet, Dr Gladys Kalema Zikusoka, it recognises that there is a three-way connection between human health, domestic livestock and wildlife. As people and their animals are increasingly living in close proximity to dwindling natural habitat, the health of the whole eco-system needs to be addressed.

A recent study of E. coli bacteria in gorilla dung, for example, found strains showing resistance to antibiotics (available without prescription in Uganda) that can only have come from the local human population. Gladys and her team work to improve treatment of people and livestock around gorilla habitat as well as the wildlife in that habitat, and introduce health measures to minimise the risks of cross-contamination.

After the workshop finished, Gladys and her husband Lawrence kindly hosted me for my last night in Kampala. Lawrence is a telecom specialist and is seeking to launch a new Gorilla Calling Card that would bring a sustainable source of revenue to expand this important work to other gorilla habitats.  We could have talked all night, but I had to finish reviewing Desmond Morris’s new book ‘Planet Ape’ for BBC Wildlife, and we all had an early start the next day.

The Los Angeles Zoo has created an online donations mechanism to help the YoG fundraise for select gorilla conservation projects. To see the details, go to http://www.lazoo.org/conservation/yog/.

The Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association’s involvement in the YoG is part of the Los Angeles Zoo’s continuing efforts to educate the public about threatened species like gorillas through the Zoo’s Gorilla Campo Reserve where visitors can learn about these intelligent and powerful primates.

Your contribution to this specific fund will support wild gorilla conservation in Africa. The YoG conservation projects funded through this international campaign encompass all gorilla species and subspecies and will include:

– Promoting local African communities’ awareness, education, and participation in gorilla conservation,
– Providing fuel-efficient stoves to local African communities to reduce firewood and charcoal harvesting in gorilla habitat,
– Supporting conservation-relevant gorilla research,
– Offering sanctuary for gorillas confiscated in the fight against illegal trafficking,
– Rebuilding and strengthening protection and surveillance in key protected areas inhabited by gorillas, and
– Increasing wildlife law enforcement in African countries where gorillas live.

If you have specific questions about the Los Angeles Zoo’s participation in the YoG, please contact Laurel Colton: +1 323/256-8406 or lmcolton@hotmail.com.

The new WAZA Magazine (11/2009) features a variety of essays on topics important for the conservation of gorillas, from ape trade to ecotourism and poverty alleviation, and more.

It can be ordered (just send an envelope with appropriate postage) from

WAZA Executive Office, Lindenrain 3, CH3012 Bern, Switzerland

For enquiries phone: +41 31 300 2030

Ian Redmond, Ambassador for the UN Year of the Gorilla, participated in the International Conference on Gorilla Conservation in Rwanda which preceded the annual Kwita Izina gorilla naming Ceremony. As well as being YoG Ambassador in 2009, he is also Chief Consultant for GRASP, the UNEP/UNESCO Great Ape Survival Partnership, aiming to conserve gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans – all of them endangered species.

During his visit, The New Times’ Fred Oluoch-Ojiwah caught up with Ian Ambassador during the 5th Kwita Izina celebrations. This is a shortened version of the interview.

FOO: Ambassador Ian Redmond, kindly share with readers the key focus areas of your ambassadorial duties.

IR: It is 33 years this year since I first came to Rwanda to work with Nyiramatchabelli – the late Dr Dian Fossey – and I have spent much of my time since then talking about gorillas, writing about gorillas, studying and filming gorillas. Thus, my ambassadorial position has simply given more impetus to the work I already do, but on a higher level. The YoG is an international campaign in support of the new CMS Gorilla Agreement, a legally binding treaty agreed on by the 10 gorilla range states (most people don’t realise that out of nearly 200 countries in the world, only 10 have gorillas, and all of them are in Africa). It is fantastic how many people and organisations have joined in to make YoG2009 a success. All over the world governments, conservation organisations and zoos are organising conferences, fund-raising events, public lectures, gorilla film shows, etc.

FOO: Do your efforts entail fundraising? If so, the global financial crisis has hit what could easily be your targeted sources. So what is your plan B if any?

IR: Of course people all over the world are feeling the pinch financially, and this affects donations to charities, but many small donations can add up to significant amounts. The various partners are welcome to use the YoG to raise funds for gorilla projects, there is a list of priority projects for any donations to YoG itself – see www.YoG2009.org for details. As for Plan B – that should in fact be Plan A – there is a growing recognition that everyone on the planet benefits from the eco-system services provided by tropical forests – carbon storage, oxygen production, climate stability global rainfall and biodiversity – and yet none of us pay for them. More and more decision-makers agree this must change, and the UN Climate Conference to be held in Copenhagen this December will be where we hope the first steps will be taken by including tropical forests in the post-Kyoto climate agreement, which is currently being negotiated. If carbon finance is used to better manage and monitor tropical forests, it will not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation, it should conserve endangered species such as gorillas so they continue to play their vital role in the ecology of their habitat.

FOO: How do you intend to ensure a sustainable conservation for Gorillas is as far as creating a balance between tourism and conservation is concerned in Rwanda?

IR: Rwanda seems to be striking that balance very well, with professional guides and calm, habituated gorillas giving an outstanding experience to every visitor who tracks what Dian Fossey used to call ‘the greatest of the great apes’. Our hope is that Rwanda, Uganda and Eastern DRC will be able to share their experiences with the other seven countries – perhaps by sending staff on secondment to work in, say, Gabon or Cameroon or Congo Brazzaville, or by inviting people trying to develop gorilla tourism in those countries to work here for a few weeks and see how you do it. Circumstances are different in each country, so methods will likely need to be adapted to fit, but the exchange of skills and experiences would be very valuable.

FOO: Talk about the projects centred around giving back to the communities living close to gorillas in Rwanda.

IR: The practice of revenue sharing is one of the keys to widespread acceptance by surrounding communities of the need for protecting the Virunga Volcanoes Conservation Area. We should remember, though, that it is not just about tourism dollars! Forests provide many services to everyone just by being there; water is a good example: The Volcanoes National Park is only about half of one per cent of Rwanda’s area, and yet it receives about 10 per cent of the country’s rainfall, and the forest stores that rain and releases it slowly during the dry season. Gorillas disperse the seeds of trees such as Pygeum Africana and so by protecting gorillas you also guarantee the next generation of trees and other plants that rely on them to spread their seeds.

FOO: How would you rate gorilla tracking as a regional tourism attraction?

IR: Over the years I have introduced hundreds of tourists to gorillas; some of them are wealthy people who have sailed up the Amazon, visited Antarctica and watched wildlife all over the world, and yet almost without exception they come down the mountain tired, wet, scratched and muddy saying that meeting gorillas is the best experience of their lives! At the same time, many of them say they were drawn to this region by the gorillas, but they fall in love with the people too – the friendly welcome and fabulous culture is just as important to visitors.

FOO: You are just back from Akagera, I presume to see what Rwandan Tourism has to offer. What is your take about our destination?

IR: It was wonderful to see the Akagera Lodge refurbished, and the views there are world-class. I was saddened a few years ago when Akagera was reduced in size, but from what I have heard of the government’s environmental policies today, the importance of rebuilding eco-systems outside of protected areas is well understood. Our challenge in the 21st Century is to help communities develop and improve their standard of living in a way that is compatible with a healthy planet, and that means adapting our farming methods to become more sustainable, and planting more trees (especially indigenous species, which also support bird and insect life). Tourists who fly increasingly want to offset the resulting carbon emissions; Rwanda is trying to reforest its denuded hillsides – why not put these two facts together and offer every visitor the chance to offset the greenhouse gas emissions from their travel by contributing to a community tree-planting project?

An omnipresent yet invisible threat to gorillas and their habitats, as well as to countless other species, is the ever-growing human demand for energy and its consequences.

Charcoal production is a major threat to gorilla forests in many areas, not least the Mountain Gorilla habitat in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. To reduce this threat, solar cookers, tree-planting on farms and the spread of fuel-efficient stoves are needed. The Year of the Gorilla (YoG) is supporting a project in the Mountain Gorillas’ range which enables local residents to purchase highly fuel-efficient stoves for a low price, thereby enabling them to use less firewood, which is often taken from the very same forests that are home to the gorillas.

This threat manifests itself also through fossil fuel extraction. Oil exploration in Petit Loango wetland, Gabon, put Western Lowland Gorillas in peril, but prospecting luckily did not yield results to justify further action. The search for nuclear fuel can have similar effects.

Robert Hepworth, Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of wild animals (UNEP/CMS), said: “Stopping the current overexploitation of natural resources is a key element of any strategy leading to a sustainable way of living. The forests and woodlands of Africa must play a central role in efforts to avoid dangerous climate change. There is a strong scientific case for carbon finance to make significant contributions to gorilla conservation, as gorilla range states would benefit financially from protecting their forests.”

A further worrying development is the fact that many gorilla range states are signing land deals with foreign companies for agriculture, including bio-fuels. On top of destroying the habitat of numerous species, forest degradation also means palm oil, an edible oil found in one in ten supermarket products and also increasingly being seen as a profitable bio-fuel, has a higher carbon footprint than the fossil fuels it is supposed to replace.

Beyond the immediate impact of these industries, the influx of relatively well-paid workers who can afford to frequently eat meat causes bushmeat trade to boom and gorillas to decline, as happened with the Coltan boom in Democratic Republic of Congo in 2000/2001.

Apes and other large mammals are keystone species in their ecosystems, dispersing billions of seeds, which have higher germination and seedling survival rates than seeds that just fall to ground. Ian Redmond OBE, Ambassador for the YoG said, “I am proud to be an Ambassador for the YoG. Fascinating though gorillas are because of their similarities to humans, we also need to focus on their key ecological role. They are second only to elephants in the number of seeds dispersed per unit area, and symbolise the fate of the Congo Basin forests, which the planet needs for climate stability. Save the gorillas and you save the world!”

Viewed globally, degradation and destruction of habitats not only threaten gorillas, they also worsen climate change overall. Tropical trees in undisturbed forest are absorbing nearly a fifth of the CO2 released by burning fossil fuels. The world’s remaining tropical forests remove 4.8 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions from the atmosphere each year. This includes a previously unknown carbon sink in Africa, mopping up 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2.

Numerous threats endanger gorillas’ survival. Together with the other great apes, they are most severely threatened by: habitat loss and fragmentation; hunting and the bushmeat trade; diseases and epidemics; mining; and the effects of armed conflicts. This is why the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (UNEP/CMS), the UNEP/UNESCO Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) have joined forces to declare 2009 the Year of the Gorilla.

Angela Meder of the German gorilla conservation NGO Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe e.V. said: “This year, we celebrate our 25th anniversary. Our organization supports gorilla conservation projects through quick, unbureaucratic help. For example we are currently supporting the reforestation of a montane forest on the edge of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo.“

On May 21st, YoG Ambassador Ian Redmond and Dr. Angela Meder of German NGO and GRASP partner Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe e.V. gave a lecture entitled “Gorillas – Survival or Extinction” at the Zoological Museum König, Bonn, Germany.

Dr. Angela Meder opened with an outlook on Germany’s role in gorilla studies and the current taxonomy, some research findings and how BRD was formed and which projects it supports.

Ian Redmond then recapitulated the ‘Mountain Gorilla story’ from George Schaller and Dian Fossey (whom he knew personally) to current activities to save them from extinction through international cooperation and the Year of the Gorilla, contrasting the fragile recovery of Mountain Gorillas with the continuing decline of the other sub-species, and highlighting the importance of gorillas for intact forest ecosystems.

This was followed by Q&A; and discussion with the audience. The book ‘Gorillas – the Gentle Giants’ by EMB Books (part of revenue goes to gorilla conservation) was offered for sale.

A press conference on May 22nd at Langer Eugen Tower, UN Campus Bonn, again highlighted the need to view energy consumption patterns in light of the effects they have on ecosystems and the species therein.

Africa’s Green Heart. A personal journey through Africa’s great Equatorial Rainforests.

The film clips you can view here are short examples of material filmed in late 2008 near Odzala National Park in the northwest of Congo Brazzaville. The gorillas were filmed at a location called Ebobobo. Steve Taylor is presently editing a documentary film entitled “Africa’s Green Heart – A personal journey Through Africa’s great Equatorial Rainforests”. His work is supported by the YoG, Conservation International and the Ape Alliance.

The essential message of the film about the Congo Basin and its diverse and rich ecosystem is to encourage Africans themselves to see their region as an essential component in the wellbeing of mankind and global climate stability, creating awareness of the necessity to coexist with our planet’s fragile biodiversity. Africans are the guardians of this region and need to lead in the conservation and the protection of its wealth and ecological functions.

Steve Taylor, besides recording the area’s unique and endangered wildlife, also met with and listened to the people of this region. Their views and input are of the utmost importance in helping to conserve the vast tracts of equatorial rain forests. Without their support and understanding conservation within this region will not succeed. Steve Taylor began his filming in Sierra Leone as a way of showcasing what happens when nations are subjected to resource conflicts and the long-term aftermath of losing ninety five per cent of the nation’s forests.

We will inform on the progress of his project. For now, you can view several clips of Eastern Lowland Gorillas and Western Lowland Gorillas.