Guardian News Service: One of the world's most prominent conservation experts yesterday (May 30)issued a rallying cry to save the great apes, man's closest biological cousins, which are under serious threat of extinction. Richard Leakey, former head of the Kenya wildlife service and now chair of Wildlife Direct, said apes across the world faced unprecedented threatsfrom the combined effects of hunting, disease and logging. And he said efforts to tackle global warming through the use of biofuels could causemore damage to ape populations because of pressure to chop down their tropical forest homes.
About 80% of orang-utan habitat in south-east Asia has been destroyed in the past 20 years because of soaring demand for land to produce palm oilfor western markets. Experts warn that increased uptake of alternative fuels could mean the disappearance of the remaining 50,000 animals therewithin a generation.
Dr Leakey, who will outline his concerns in a public lecture tonight (May 31) at the Royal Geographical Society in London, said human activitywas directly to blame for the deaths of millions of gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos across the world. He urged politicians working on a newinternational treaty to regulate greenhouse gas emissions to focus more on incentives to conserve forests across south-east Asia, Africa and centraland south America.
Dr Leakey said:"People shrug their shoulders and say what are poor countries to do if they can't export their natural resources, and Iunderstand this, but it is simply not sustainable the way it is going. The threat to great ape populations around the world is growing visibly."He said preventing deforestation would help curb global warming as well as preserving endangered apes. Carbon released by deforestation is reckoned toaccount for 25% of all human greenhouse gas emissions, second only to the energy generation sector.
Scientists say conserving forests offers one of the cheapest ways to tackle climate change, and steps to reward tropical countries which leavetheir forests untouched will be discussed at the G8 summit in Germany next week.
Dr Leakey, a patron of a United Nations Environment Programme great apes survival project, called for more "imaginative" solutions such as creditsfor preserving biodiversity and wildlife habitats which a country could sell to others to offset their carbon pollution."We find it very hard topreserve natural beauty, but we are happy to spend GBP80m on a Picasso and a fortune looking after it."
But he insisted developing countries must take their share of responsibility for global warming."Developing countries are shrill about the damage thatdeveloped countries have caused with their pollution," he said."The developing world should have a comparable amount of responsibility becauseof deforestation. I don't think we [Kenya] can afford to shelter behind the fact that we're a new country and we were grossly exploited before, and sowe need to be given a break. We need to look at the effect we're having on the whole planet."
He called for a "huge revolution in entrepreneurial skills" to develop technology such as nuclear fusion and hydrogen power as a way of limitingthe need for biofuels."The whole biofuel issue is of great concern. And it's not just biofuels, the destruction of rainforest to make way for palm oil plantations is extraordinary."
A UN report this month also raised concerns over a rapid expansion of biofuels, saying they could have an irreversible environmental impact.There are also concerns about their impact on global food prices, with growing competition for scarce land resources. Dr Leakey said the direct effects of climate change could spell disaster for the great apes."I don't think we can say enough to stimulate concernover climate change. It's a complex process but it will undoubtedly impact on everything we know and the implications for biodiversity are there forall to see. We don't know the tolerance of plants to the predicted temperature changes. We should not for a minute assume that forests, riversand lakes are permanent features of our landscape."
He also criticised what he called the "oxymoron" of ecotourism, which he said was based on "a desperate race to make money while you still can". Hesaid:"An awful lot of damage is done under the umbrella of ecotourism. The tourism industry needs to be talked to very seriously about settingstandards that are something other than profit-motivated."
Guardian News Service: One of the world's most prominent conservation experts yesterday (May 30)issued a rallying cry to save the great apes, man's closest biological cousins, which are under serious threat of extinction. Richard Leakey, former head of the Kenya wildlife service and now chair of Wildlife Direct, said apes across the world faced unprecedented threatsfrom the combined effects of hunting, disease and logging. And he said efforts to tackle global warming through the use of biofuels could causemore damage to ape populations because of pressure to chop down their tropical forest homes.
About 80% of orang-utan habitat in south-east Asia has been destroyed in the past 20 years because of soaring demand for land to produce palm oilfor western markets. Experts warn that increased uptake of alternative fuels could mean the disappearance of the remaining 50,000 animals therewithin a generation.
Dr Leakey, who will outline his concerns in a public lecture tonight (May 31) at the Royal Geographical Society in London, said human activitywas directly to blame for the deaths of millions of gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos across the world. He urged politicians working on a newinternational treaty to regulate greenhouse gas emissions to focus more on incentives to conserve forests across south-east Asia, Africa and centraland south America.
Dr Leakey said:"People shrug their shoulders and say what are poor countries to do if they can't export their natural resources, and Iunderstand this, but it is simply not sustainable the way it is going. The threat to great ape populations around the world is growing visibly."He said preventing deforestation would help curb global warming as well as preserving endangered apes. Carbon released by deforestation is reckoned toaccount for 25% of all human greenhouse gas emissions, second only to the energy generation sector.
Scientists say conserving forests offers one of the cheapest ways to tackle climate change, and steps to reward tropical countries which leavetheir forests untouched will be discussed at the G8 summit in Germany next week.
Dr Leakey, a patron of a United Nations Environment Programme great apes survival project, called for more "imaginative" solutions such as creditsfor preserving biodiversity and wildlife habitats which a country could sell to others to offset their carbon pollution."We find it very hard topreserve natural beauty, but we are happy to spend GBP80m on a Picasso and a fortune looking after it."
But he insisted developing countries must take their share of responsibility for global warming."Developing countries are shrill about the damage thatdeveloped countries have caused with their pollution," he said."The developing world should have a comparable amount of responsibility becauseof deforestation. I don't think we [Kenya] can afford to shelter behind the fact that we're a new country and we were grossly exploited before, and sowe need to be given a break. We need to look at the effect we're having on the whole planet."
He called for a "huge revolution in entrepreneurial skills" to develop technology such as nuclear fusion and hydrogen power as a way of limitingthe need for biofuels."The whole biofuel issue is of great concern. And it's not just biofuels, the destruction of rainforest to make way for palm oil plantations is extraordinary."
A UN report this month also raised concerns over a rapid expansion of biofuels, saying they could have an irreversible environmental impact.There are also concerns about their impact on global food prices, with growing competition for scarce land resources. Dr Leakey said the direct effects of climate change could spell disaster for the great apes."I don't think we can say enough to stimulate concernover climate change. It's a complex process but it will undoubtedly impact on everything we know and the implications for biodiversity are there forall to see. We don't know the tolerance of plants to the predicted temperature changes. We should not for a minute assume that forests, riversand lakes are permanent features of our landscape."
He also criticised what he called the "oxymoron" of ecotourism, which he said was based on "a desperate race to make money while you still can". Hesaid:"An awful lot of damage is done under the umbrella of ecotourism. The tourism industry needs to be talked to very seriously about settingstandards that are something other than profit-motivated."
