The Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) is an alliance of governments, UNEP, UNESCO, the global biodiversity-related conventions, scientists, local and international non-governmental organizations and the private sector, which aims to conserve viable populations of great apes and their habitat – forested tropical ecosystems that provide important services to humanity – wherever they exist, through pro-poor conservation and sustainable development strategies. Since great ape habitats include two of the planet’s three major tropical forest blocks that are essential for global climate regulation, GRASP is increasingly looking for ways to tap into carbon and other financing mechanisms such as REDD in order to generate new streams of revenue for forest conservation and management.

In this project, four great ape range states (Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia and a third yet-to-be selected country in the Congo Basin) will be supported to develop best-practice avoided deforestation and forest carbon stock presevation initiatives with multiple benefits (climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, water resource protection and improved community livelihoods).

By choosing a cross-regional approach (Central Africa, Southeast Asia), UNEP and its partners will produce comparisons and lessons learned that can inform national and global policy, and provide examples for other countries to build upon. Project activities in relevant countries will be undertaken as part of UN-REDD Programme.

More information:
Melanie Virtue
Coordinator Great Apes Survival Partnership
Division of Environmental Policy Implementation
P.O. Box 39522 (00100)
Nairobi, Kenya
Phone: +254 20 7624163
Fax: +254 20 7624249
Email: forest@unep.org
www.unep.org/grasp