Humans have pushed primates, a group of animals including monkeys and apes who share virtually all DNA with people, to the brink of extinction.
Almost 50 per cent of the world’s 634 kinds of primates are in danger of going extinct, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which released its first comprehensive review of primates in five years in Edinburgh at the 22nd International Primatological Society Congress.
The situation is worse in Asia, especially southeast Asia, where more than 70 per cent of primates have been classified as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered in the IUCN red list of threatened species.
The main reason for the accelerated extinction of the primate is destruction of their natural habitat, tropical forests. Other threats include the hunting of primates for food and an illegal wildlife trade, the IUCN, which is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental network, said.
"Tropical forest destruction has always been the main cause, but now it appears that hunting is just as serious a threat in some areas, even where the habitat is still quite intact. In many places, primates are quite literally being eaten to extinction," Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International and chairman of the IUCN species survival commission’s primate specialist group, said.
In both Vietnam and Cambodia, approximately 90 per cent of primate species are considered at risk of extinction. Populations of gibbons, leaf monkeys, langurs and other species have dwindled due to rampant habitat loss exacerbated by hunting for food and to supply the wildlife trade in traditional Chinese medicine and pets, the report warned.
"What is happening in Southeast Asia is terrifying," said Jean-Christophe Vié, deputy head of the IUCN species programme.
The full details about the state of primates will be released along with a comprehensive report on the state of the world’s mammals at the 4th IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona in October.
Linking the problem with the climate change issue, the IUCN said healthy forests, which are essential for the survival of the primates, provide resources for human populations and store carbon dioxide.
"If you have forests, you can save primates," said Conservation International scientist Anthony Rylands, who is deputy chair of the IUCN primate specialist group.
"Conserving forest fragments and reforesting to create corridors that connect them is not only vital for primates, but offers the multiple benefits of maintaining healthy ecosystems and water supplies while reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change."
