UNEP - Great Apes Survival Project

Great Apes Survival Partnership

Despite the dedicated efforts of many individuals and organizations, the great apes are on the very edge of extinction. In May 2001, in response to the current crisis, Dr. Klaus Toepfer, the Former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), launched GRASP - a new approach to save the great apes and their habitat. Through intergovernmental dialogue and policy making, conservation planning initiatives, technical and scientific support to great ape range state governments, flagship field projects and fund and awareness raising in donor countries, GRASP has a unique role to complement existing great ape conservation efforts.

In September 2002, joined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), GRASP was registered as a World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) Type II Partnership, a multi-sectoral international initiative. The GRASP Partnership is a dynamic alliance bringing together governmental and intergovernmental, UN institutional, non-governmental, scientific and academic foundations, local community and private sector interests. By capitalizing on close links with governments through the UN, the GRASP Partnership can promote its message at the highest political levels. As such, it is uniquely placed to inform policy makers, to mobilize and pool resources for effective action, to ensure maximum efficiency and provide a communication platform in order to bring the decline of great ape populations to a halt.

Since its inception, the activities of the GRASP Partnership have helped define what strategy GRASP might adopt to address the threats facing the great apes, given its unique position as a truly international alliance among a diversity of stakeholders. Intergovernmental dialogue and events, meeting with key GRASP Partners and other forms of policy implementation have consolidated the GRASP Partnership and linked it to relevant biodiversity-related mechanisms and multilateral agreements. Technical support to the range states has catalyzed government action to respond to the crisis. National Great Ape Survival Plan (NGASP) workshops and support to other planning mechanisms have helped great ape range countries develop conservation strategies. Information and awareness activities through such media as TV and newspapers articles, publications, documentary films and side events have raised the profile of the plight facing the great apes at the global level. UNEP, UNESCO and donor funding of non-governmental partner projects has involved local communities and achieved much in the field. GRASP Patrons Jane Goodall, Russell Mittermeier, Toshisada Nishida, Richard Leakey and Richard Wrangham have provided their world-renowned expertise and reputation to bring further attention to the plight facing the great apes.