Campaign takes aim at ape-hunting trade

Protecting primates such as this juvenile mountain gorilla is the aim of a campaign opposing the illegal hunting of Africa's great apes.

January 12, 2000
Web posted at: 3:20 p.m. EST (2020 GMT)

By Environmental News Network staff

Conservation groups are taking dead aim at illegal ape-hunting in Africa with an educational campaign that informs U.S. consumers of the connection between rare wood products and the bushmeat trade.

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"When fighting to save endangered species, it is all too easy to blame the lax conservation practices of certain African countries, " said Hope Walker, founder of the Primate Conservation and Welfare Society based in Port Townsend, Washington. "But it is actually the practices of Western-based timber companies, some even in Washington state, that are accelerating the demise of Africa's great apes."

The conservation society has developed a poster and information kit to educate Americans about the plight of Africa's gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and other primates. The kit provides information about ape-hunting practices and the destruction of their habitat. It also includes the names and addresses of U.S. timber companies now logging Africa's rain forests.

Bushmeat hunting, or the killing of apes for human consumption, has been practiced on a subsistence level for centuries by forest dwellers. But the recent influx of loggers to the rain forest and increased access to remote areas via logging roads has transformed bushmeat hunting into a commercial venture. The danger to Africa's great apes is clear and present, and can be traced directly to logging practices.

"Logging roads in Africa create a spider web in the forest," said Erick Brownstein of the Rainforest Action Network. "A vast network of roads now goes into previously remote and inaccessible rain-forest areas. That facilitates the movement of commercial hunters to transport meat."

Sold mostly in cities, bushmeat is gaining popularity as a delicacy among many middle- and upper-class Africans. The meat is also used to feed workers in logging camps.

"At a purely educational level, we're hoping to show people that this faraway disaster actually has some connections and underlying causes that are not so distant," said Brownstein. "Such information can empower people to make choices that are aligned with socially and environmentally responsible values that the vast majority of Americans share. In addition, we're hoping that companies who have felt no pressure up to now will take notice."

Without action, many of Africa's great apes will be extinct within the next 40 years, Brownstein predicted.

A recent report by Conservation International and the World Conservation Union's Species Survival Commission warns that 25 species of apes, monkeys, lemurs and other primates are on the brink of extinction. Bushmeat hunting and the destruction of tropical forest habitat are the chief causes for the alarming decline, according to the report.

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