Western Lowland Gorilla Conference - May 2002

Will our children live in a world without gorillas?

The vast majority of the world's gorillas live in the forests of central Africa, not in the mountains of east Africa. Results reported in Leipzig, Germany, at the recent gathering of world's gorilla experts show that western gorillas are much more diverse then previously recognized. The very survival of these western gorillas is now threatened by a wave of commercial poaching, the experts warn. With immediate investment in law enforcement this decline could be reversed.

Photo: "Group of Gorillas in a large Bai in Odzala - Congo", copyright: F. Magliocca

Although habitat destruction does contribute to the decline, large-scale commercial poaching threatens to drive western gorillas to extinction. Hunting of gorillas is illegal in all range states, but even in national parks gorillas are not safe. Poaching has reached crisis levels due to the rapid expansion of logging, civil unrest and lack of management capacity. Present conservation activities have not succeeded and the experts' consensus is that without truly effective law enforcement western gorillas may go extinct in our lifetimes.

Past international investments have not sufficiently focused on building law enforcement capacity. The world community needs to help range countries enforce existing national and international laws. Although law enforcement has received little attention in central Africa, experience with mountain gorillas shows that it is the foundation for gorilla conservation. Law enforcement should take place at all levels from protected areas, to logging concessions, to cities. In the longer term gorilla conservation should focus on the establishment of a network of effectively managed protected areas funded through sustainable mechanisms such as trust funds. A fund to forever protect the habitat of these amazing animals would cost only about 3 dollars for each person in the developed world.

Photo: "Head of a gorilla on sale in a market", copyright: Karl Amman (http://www.karlamman.com)

Quotes from experts:

Dr. Emma Stokes, Director of the Mbeli Bai Gorilla Study in Congo said, "In the short term providing adequate and sustainable funding for enforcing existing wildlife protection laws is fundamental. Everything else hinges on the success of this."

Daniel Idiata from the Gabonese Wildlife Department, who has spent most of the last 5 years in the forests of Gabon updating information on the abundance of large mammals, said, "I have surveyed all over my home country, but the only places where gorillas remain in any number are in the few protected areas. Outside of these protected forests they are increasingly rare. To protect gorillas it is urgent that the international community participates much more in our efforts to conserve those that remain for the next generation."

Dr. Liz Rogers said, "As a society we have to decide if we are prepared to contribute towards the protection of gorillas. If they become extinct within the next 50 years it will have been nobody`s fault but our own. Unless we recognise gorilla conservation as a priority they will be lost. It`s as simple as that."

Richard Parnell, a gorilla expert with 12 years of experience said "Most of the people gathered here are scientists, yet I doubt if there's a single person who would not admit to having had their life changed somehow by meeting a gorilla face to face. It's something to do with the enormous power of the animal combined with such restraint, and of course the hypnotic power of those eyes in which we see so much of ourselves reflected. This meeting has been about sharing what we know of western gorillas, but far more about recognising and acting upon our responsibility to towards them. What's immediately needed, if we are to halt the decimation of the western gorilla, is nothing short of a massive global response. Helping to mobilise this must be our first priority."

Jacqui Groves who studies the Cross River Gorilla in northern Cameroon said, "These critically endangered populations are so fragmented and vulnerable that without immediate conservation initiatives they will be lost forever."

Dr. Kate Abernethy said, "It is shocking that in this day and age, we still seem unable to protect such an important species."

Dr. Peter Walsh said: "90 % of the rapid decline in western gorilla populations are attributable to illegal hunting. Ecological monitoring will provide sufficient precision to detect future trends in wild western gorilla populations if an investment of about 500.000 $/year is available."

Dr. Martha Robbins said: "Despite civil unrest in mountain gorilla habitat, intensive conservation efforts have successfully stopped population decline."

Dr. Tomo Nishihara, a conservationist who has worked in Central Africa for 13 years said, "The African forest is so far from Japan that we often think these issues have nothing to do with us. But in many ways, including the large-scale importation of tropical hardwoods from Africa, we are indirectly influencing the fate of gorillas. Japanese people must recognise that they are part of the threat faced by gorillas and other wildlife and take a role in finding a solution. Otherwise, the forest, this jewel on our planet, may soon be empty of gorillas."

Dr Yuji Takenoshita of Kyoto University who also studies gorillas in central Africa said, "In Japan, many of us have fallen for ‘Momotaro’, the baby gorilla born recently. All the gorillas in Japan are western lowland gorillas from central Africa, and right now, they are under enormous pressure. If we care about Momotaro, then we should also care about his distant cousins in Africa. We can make a difference and help to stop the illegal hunting that is killing the gorillas, but only if we act now."

Top

List of Signatures

ABERNETHY Kate, BERMEJO Magdalena, BOESCH Christophe, BLOM Allard, BRADLEY Brenda, CIPPOLETTA Chloe, CLIFFORD Stephen, DORAN Diane, GROVES Jacqui, IDIATA MAMBOUNGA Daniel, KLEIN Marie Laure, LATOUR,Stephanie, MAGLIOCCA Florence, McFARLAND Kelley, NISHIHARA Tomo, OATES John, PARNELL, Richard, REMIS Melissa, ROBBINS Martha, ROGERS Elisabeth, STOKES Emma, TAKENOSHITA Yuji, TUTIN Caroline, VIGILANT Linda, WALSH Peter, WILLIAMSON Liz, YAMAGIWA Juichi, ANTHONY Nicola, BERGL Richard, TODD Angelique, WICKINGS Jean, Nsubuga Mutebi Anthony, Nkrunungi Bosco.

Funding for this meeting provided by: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Great Apes Conservation Fund from the US  Fish and Wildlife Service. 

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Department of Primatology
Deutscher Platz 6
D-04103 Leipzig
Germany

phone: ++49 341 3550 200
Fax: ++49 341 3550 119

E-Mail: info at eva.mpg.de
URL: http://www.eva.mpg.de/

Top

Contact persons:

For Europe:

Dr. Caroline Tutin
caroline.tutin(at)wanadoo.fr or wcsgabon (at) compuserve.com;

Dr. Christophe Boesch
boesch (at) eva.mpg.de; herf (at) eva.mpg.de
phone ++49 (0)341-3550 200

For America:

Dr. Diane Doran
Ddoran(at)notes.cc.sunysb.edu;
phone: ++(631)632-9445

Dr. Peter Walsh
walsh (at) eva.mpg.de
Princeton University UK, MPI EVA Germany

For Africa:

Daniel Idata
dandiata(at)anala.com or lwhite(at)wcs.org

For Japan:

Dr. Tomo Nishihara
Tomo16(at)aol.com
phone: ++81-3-3595-1171

Top