Threats to primates are escalating
By Cat Lazaroff
Washington, DC, Oct. 8 (ENS)— One in every
three of the world’s apes, monkeys, lemurs and other primates
are now threatened with extinction, warns a new report by international
conservation groups. The report notes that primate species and
subspecies classified as endangered or critically endangered
has jumped by almost 63 percent — from 120 to 195 — since the
last version of the report was issued in January 2000.
“The World’s Top 25 Most Endangered Primates-2002,”
compiled by Conservation International (CI) and the Primate
Specialist Group of IUCN - The World Conservation Union, was
finalized during a recent gathering of the International Primatological
Society, at its 19th Congress in Beijing, China.
Asia now accounts for almost 45 percent of the
world’s most endangered primates, the report shows, with 11
listed in the top 25, including six that are new additions.
Africa has eight primates on the list, the Neotropics hosts
three endangered primates, and Madagascar is home to the final
three primates represented on the list.
“The latest information made available at the
International Primatological Society Congress in Beijing highlighted
the fact that Asia has now become the world leader in endangered
primates,” said Conservation International president Russ Mittermeier.
“Of particular concern is the situation in Vietnam
and China,” Mittermeier continued. “Indeed, with several primates
now numbering only in the dozens or low hundreds of individuals,
Vietnam is at risk of undergoing a major primate extinction
spasm within the next few years if rapid action is not taken.
Fully 20 percent of the top 25 primates are located in Vietnam,
with another 16 percent from China and 12 percent from Indonesia.”
Twenty-three of the 25 primates are found in the
world’s biodiversity hotspots: 25 regions identified by Conservation
International which cover just 1.4 percent of Earth’s land surface
but harbor more than 60 percent of all terrestrial plant and
animal diversity.
According to the report, 48 of the 55 critically
endangered primates — 87 percent — and 124 of the 140 endangered
primates — 89 percent — are found only in the biodiversity hotspots.
Six of the hotspots are considered the highest priorities for
the survival of the world’s most endangered primates, including
Indo-Burma, Madagascar, Sundaland, the Guinean Forests of West
Africa, the Atlantic Forests of Brazil, and the Western Ghats/Sri
Lanka.
“It’s important to point out that the Top 25 list
is just the tip of the iceberg and a call for more conservation
action,” said Bill Konstant of Conservation International and
co-author of the report. “Essentially, for each primate on it,
any one of several other equally threatened species might have
been chosen instead. Changing conditions in any of the represented
countries can lead to the rapid decline of any of the 195 species
threatened with extinction.”
Habitat loss due to the clearing of tropical forests
for agriculture, timber extraction and the collection of fuel
wood continues to be the major factor in the declining number
of primates according to the report. However, hunting has been
an insidious and major threat, especially in Africa and Asia.
While hunting was once done mainly for subsistence
purposes, it has now taken on a major commercial dimension.
Live capture for the pet trade and export for biomedical research
have become lesser concerns in recent decades, but still pose
a threat to some species.
As flagship species, primates are important to
the health of their surrounding ecosystems. Through the dispersal
of fruit seeds and other foods they consume, primates help support
a wide range of plant and animal life that make up the earth’s
forests.
The loss of nonhuman primates is directly linked
to the global extinction crisis, the report’s authors warn.
“These 25 are facing a very serious risk of extinction
due to the ongoing and rapid loss of their forests and, especially
in Asia and Africa, their widespread and devastating exploitation
for food and body parts, bizarre decoration, and charms or potions,”
noted Anthony Rylands of the species program at Conservation
International’s Center for Applied Biodiversity Science (CABS).
“The key factor is that all of the species listed as ‘critically
endangered’ and ‘endangered’ are declining dramatically and
require urgent measures for their protection.”
Although still highly endangered, a number of
species have been removed from the list first issued in 2000.
The golden lion tamarin and the black lion tamarin, for example,
have benefited from the protection efforts of the Brazilian
government. Comprehensive conservation and management programs
are in place for each — that for the black lion tamarin run
by the NGO IPÊ (Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas) in collaboration
with the Wildlife Preservation Trust, Philadelphia; and that
for the golden lion tamarin by the Associação Mico-Leão-Dourado
(AMLD) in collaboration with the National Zoological Park, Smithsonian
Institution.
ENVIRONMENT BRIEFS
US polluters escape sanctions under Bush
A new study bolsters charges by environmentalists
that the US EPA has drastically cut back its pursuit of polluters.
Using EPA data, researchers in the office of Democratic
Congressman Edward J. Markey found that the Bush administration
brought nearly 50 percent fewer administrative actions against
polluters than were undertaken under the tenure of former president
Bill Clinton.
Titled “Does Honesty Pay at the EPA?,” the study
reviewed 20,000 EPA actions against polluters in the last 13
½ months of the Clinton presidency and the first 14 months under
Bush.
Fines settled against polluters fell by 80 percent
under Bush, from about $845 million to $165 million, according
to the study. Furthermore, many of the fines and lawsuits culminating
in 2001 were really the product of actions taken under the Clinton
administration, since the cases can take years to resolve.
Markey accuses the administration of encouraging
companies to pollute through lack of incentives to clean up
their operations. Businesses that fully comply with existing
laws, he said, are harmed when those who fail to comply are
not subject to enforcement action.
Examples of the reality behind the study are numerous.
For example, Hilton Kelley lives in Port Arthur, TX, a predominantly
African-American town that has four big oil refineries. He says
residents are plagued by cancers, headaches, respiratory and
skin problems, but that the EPA is actually trying to roll back
emissions standards to allow these companies to return to 10-year-old
pollution baselines.
Port Arthur is one of 25 highly polluted communities
spotlighted in a new Sierra Club report. Each of these areas
have been directly harmed by the Bush administration’s bid to
cut the EPA’s enforcement and clean-up budget, the group says.
(IPS)
Climate-related perils could bankrupt insurers
Climate change is causing natural disasters that
the financial services industry must address, a group of the
world’s biggest banks, insurers and re-insurers warned today.
They estimated the cost of financial losses from events such
as this summer’s devastating floods in central Europe at $150
billion over the next 10 years.
“Climate Change and the Financial Services Industry,”
a report supported by 295 banks and insurance and investment
companies, was launched Oct. 7 at the Swiss Re Greenhouse Gas
conference in Zurich, Switzerland. A partnership between the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the financial
institutions, known as UNEP Finance Initiatives, commissioned
the report. The report shows that losses as a result of natural
disasters appear to be doubling every decade and have reached
$1 trillion in the past 15 years. The report concludes that
the increasing frequency of severe climactic events, coupled
with the subsequent social instability, has the potential to
“stress insurers, reinsurers, and banks to the point of impaired
viability or even insolvency.”
Linked to heat-trapping emissions from the combustion
of coal, oil and gas, the environmental implications of global
warming are serious. Melting polar ice caps and glaciers, rising
sea levels, distorted weather patterns, and drought are widely
forecast. Coastal cities, crops, and animal habitat could be
destroyed. But too few financial companies are taking the risks
and opportunities posed by climate change seriously, a survey
of mainstream financial institutions carried out by the UNEP
Finance Initiatives report indicates. This lack of action is
most likely due to prolonged wrangling over the Kyoto Protocol,
the international environmental agreement stymied last year
by the US and Australia. (ENS)
Locals claim win: World Bank rejects Romanian
mine
The World Bank has backed away from funding a
controversial mining project in Romania after environmentalists
and economists insisted the operation could become an ecological
nightmare for the European country.
The contentious Rosia Montana gold mine project
in Romania’s Apuseni Mountains would have required $100 million
from the Washington-based Bank’s private arm, the International
Finance Corporation (IFC).
An international coalition of non-governmental
organizations opposed the project because of flaws in the proposal,
its potential environmental impact, and concerns about the record
of Canadian sponsor Gabriel Resources.
The IFC released a statement Oct. 10 stating its
decision not to pursue the project. The decision came just weeks
after dozens of civil society groups protested Bank financing
of fossil fuel and mining projects.
Had it gone ahead, Rosia Montana would have been
Europe’s largest opencast or open-pit mining operation. The
pits would have generated millions of tons of cyanide-laced
waste.
In a statement released Friday, the international
coalition described a catastrophe at the Baia Mare gold mine
in Romania, where a cyanide spill in 2000 polluted the Tisza
and Danube Rivers, contaminating the drinking water supply of
2.5 million people and reportedly killing 1,200 tons of fish.
(IPS)
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