DRC Vice-President Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi shakes hands with Melanie Virtue, GRASP Team Leader
The endangered great apes share their living space with many millions of
people in west and central Africa and southeast Asia. Fifteen of the 23 African
great ape range states are Least Developed Countries (LDCs) where incomes
average less than three dollars a day. One of the GRASP Partnership’s
missions is to create a genuine partnership between all stakeholders in these
ecosystems.
The future survival of the great apes lies in recognizing the importance
of empowering the local communities with whom the great apes share their natural
habitat. Ape habitats are vital to humans and many other species as a source
of food, water, medicine and timber and as a regulator to our changing climate.
A reduction in ape numbers is a sure sign that the forests are being used
unsustainably. Most communities living in the humid forests hosting the great
apes are impoverished and more often than not are exploited by external forces
interested in the natural resources found therein. The loss in the rich biodiversity
found in these habitats will not only lead to the extinction of the great
apes but also to the threat of the very survival of the local communities
dependent on the great ape habitat.
The GRASP Partnership promotes the importance of forests and their human
inhabitants at the international level by focusing on the conservation of
flagship species (great apes), which live in tropical forests, and encouraging
community development, national planning activities and donor commitment to
address the protection of these habitats. GRASP works with local people to
develop and implement development and conservation initiatives that are of
mutual benefit to communities and great apes.
Melanie Virtue
A young inhabitat of central Kalimantan, Borneo
Poverty and lack of knowledge drive their victims to use wildlife and other
natural resources unsustainably. The need to link the welfare of humans and
wildlife is a central objective of the GRASP Partnership. It is one of the
key criteria for choosing projects for GRASP support, such as the International
Gorilla Conservation Programme's (IGCP) conservation of mountain gorillas
and Afro-montane forests. Poverty reduction is also a key theme of GRASP's
National Great Ape Survival Plan (NGASPs) and other conservation planning
processes. The GRASP Partnership supports projects that address these issues
by helping people as well as wildlife. Above all, it is essential to support
community-based projects that protect the entire forest resource - and maintain
its capacity to supply people with essentials such as water, food, medicine,
building materials, soil and fuel.
Specific GRASP activities in this area include:
• Support to rangers from the Virunga parks to attend
the 2003 Durban World Parks Congress to raise awareness of their situation
and share experiences with their counterparts from other countries.
• Submission in progress with the Global Environmental Facility for
the funding of a GRASP project addressing the effects of, and responses to,
Ebola-outbreaks on both human and great ape populations in Central Africa.
• Support to the TVE documentary "Blood Timber", broadcast
on BBC TV and focusing on the plight of the Baka people of Cameroon and the
apes, who share their habitat.
• Financial assistance to Bristol Zoo Garden's educational project in
Cameroon, which is attempting to establish an effective two-way communication
between villagers and conservation and/or development initiatives.
• Capacity building of national range state conservation authorities
through the provision of office equipment such as desktop computers.
• Preliminary negotiations for a charity fundraising soccer match between
the national teams of Cameroon and Nigeria, which will highlight the links
between poverty and the environment.
• Intention of establishing links with New Partnership for African Development's
(NEPAD) Plan of Action on Poverty and the Environment.
