ENDANGERED they may be, but there is new hope that the great apes, our closest biological relatives, can be saved from extinction 鈥� despite WWF鈥檚 bleak prediction on Monday that wild orang-utans could disappear within 20 years. A survey due for release later this month will show the mountain gorillas of Rwanda are on the road to recovery.
The gorillas living in the Virunga National Park have increased their numbers to almost 700 from a low of 400, according to the joint survey by WWF, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, the International Gorilla Conservation Programme and the governments of the countries hosting the park.
Managed expansion of tourist expeditions to see the gorillas was the key to halting a decline caused by poaching and habitat loss. 鈥淚t鈥檚 now one of the biggest earners in Rwanda,鈥� says David Cowdrey, former director of WWF鈥檚 anti-wildlife-trade campaign. He says that the success brings hope for Asia鈥檚 only great apes, the orang-utans of Sumatra and Borneo.
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Orang-utan populations crashed from around 60,000 to 30,000 between 1987 and 2001, and the WWF blames this on logging, forest clearance to make way for palm-oil plantations, and poaching of orang-utans to supply the pet and bushmeat trade.
The orang-utans could be greatly helped by the creation of wildlife 鈥渃orridors鈥� to reconnect isolated colonies, and extension of wildlife parks, says Cowdrey. But as Klaus Toepfer, the director of the UN Environment Programme, famously said in 2001: 鈥淭he clock is standing at one minute to midnight for the great apes.鈥�