Apes in the News

SPRINGFIELD - If you want to own a pet monkey, you're out of luck in Illinois.

A ban on new monkey ownership is one of hundreds of state laws that take effect Jan. 1. Some might affect your daily life, such as a law intended to make red-light cameras at intersections more fair about who gets ticketed. Others have big implications for the state's budget, such as new rules making public employee retirement plans a little less lucrative.

31/12/2010
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Guest commentary by Doug Boucher, director of the Tropical Forest and Climate Initiative at the Union of Concerned Scientists

Amid the whirlwind of climate change news before and after the Cancún climate conference, including a landmark agreement on REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation, and related pro-forest actions), an important story seems to have passed by with little notice. Over the past two months, several new analyses have given clear evidence that deforestation has gone down over the past several years. In fact, the drop is quite impressive, and shows that of all the approaches to avoiding the worst consequences of global warming, reducing tropical deforestation is the one that has contributed by far the most to date.

15/12/2010
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By Kara Moses

Distinguished conservation luminaries, eminent primate experts, ape-suited bucket wielders, a group of African drummers and nearly 1,500 people gathered in London last week for an evening of talks to shine the spotlight on the plight of apes and the forests in which they live, sending a strong message to the climate negotiators hammering out a REDD+ mechanism in Cancun.

Hosted by conservation heavyweight Sir David Attenborough, ‘Hope 4 Apes' was something of a reunion of the first Hope 4 Apes event that took place ten years ago to raise awareness of -- and funding for -- ape conservation.

15/12/2010
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UN talks in Cancun have reached a deal to curb climate change, including a fund to help developing countries. Nations endorsed compromise texts drawn up by the Mexican hosts, despite objections from Bolivia.

The draft documents say deeper cuts in carbon emissions are needed, but do not establish a mechanism for achieving the pledges countries have made. Some countries' resistance to the Kyoto Protocol had been a stumbling block during the final week of negotiations.

11/12/2010
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The analysis of the census conducted in March and April 2010 indicates that there were a total of 480 mountain gorillas, Gorilla beringei beringei, in 36 groups along with 14 solitary silverback males in the Virunga Massif, which includes three contiguous national parks: Parc National des Virunga in DRC, Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda. The only other location where mountain gorillas exist is Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda.

09/12/2010
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Four years after the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) rushed aid to a small chimpanzee rescue center gutted by a fire that left two animals dead and the founders deeply shaken, that facility - the Jeunes Animaux Confisqués au Katanga (JACK) sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo - was today named the 20th member of PASA.

JACK becomes the third PASA member sanctuary in the DR Congo, joining Lola ya Bonobo and the Lwiro Primate Rehabilitation Centre. Other PASA member sanctuaries are in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gambia, the Republic of Congo, South Africa, Zambia, Uganda, Guinea, Kenya, Gabon and Cameroon.

09/12/2010
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