In concert with the first UN Environment Assembly (UNEA),the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) launched a report titled 'State of the Apes: Extractive Industries and Ape Conservation,' the first in a series of policy publications focused on apes.
The report emphasizes that global systems of production, consumption, and demography are inter-connected, and that rapid globalization will exert intense pressure on natural resources and ape habitats.
25 June 2014: In concert with the first UN Environment Assembly (UNEA),the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) launched a report titled ‘State of the Apes: Extractive Industries and Ape Conservation,’ which is the first in a series of policy publications focused on apes. The report emphasizes that global systems of production, consumption, and demography are inter-connected, and that rapid globalization will exert intense pressure on natural resources and ape habitats.
According to the report, the accelerated and unsustainable exploitation of timber, minerals, oil and gas has damaged ape habitat in Africa and Asia, pushing chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, orangutans and gibbons closer to extinction. The report calls on integrating the conservation of these species into broader social, economic and environmental policies.
At this rate, human development will have impacted 90% of the apes’ habitats in Africa and Asia by 2030, according to GRASP. All species of apes are listed as “endangered” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with some listed as critically endangered. [Publication: State of the Apes: Extractive Industries and Ape Conservation] [GRASP News] [IISD RS coverage of UNEA]