Apes in the News

Brazil will launch a new high resolution deforestation monitoring system that will be capable of detecting forest clearing under cloudy conditions.

In a statement issued Monday, Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said INDICAR - Imaging and Radar Deforestation Indicator - is being developed to improve Brazil's already world-class deforestation monitoring capabilities. The system will use data from the Japanese Space Agency's ALOS satellite, which is equipped with both cloud-penetrating radar and optical sensors, enabling Brazil for the first time to measure forest loss when visibility is obscured by clouds. Currently, Brazil monitors deforestation year round but does its annual accounting at the end of July when cloud extent is at a minimum in the Amazon.

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/1011-indicar_brazil.html

11/10/2010
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Campaigners say Costa Coffee should lose its Rainforest Alliance certification if it continues to use primates to promote its brand

Jamie Doward and Maiya Keidan
The Observer, Sunday 10 October 2010

The UK's largest coffee chain is under pressure to pull its first television advertising campaign amid criticism that its use of monkeys encourages people to buy them as pets.

The row threatens to become a major headache for Costa Coffee, owned by leisure giant Whitbread, as it seeks to up the ante in a marketing battle with its arch-rival Starbucks.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/10/costa-coffee-primates-monkey-ad

You can write to Costa to show your concern. Details of who to write to can also be found on the CAPS website: http://www.captiveanimals.org/news/2010/costa.html

10/10/2010
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The Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) extended its conservation network across central Africa today by granting membership to the Lwiro Primate Rehabilitation Centre in the Democratic Republic of Congo, bringing to 19 the number of PASA member sanctuaries that care for orphaned apes and monkeys.
 
Lwiro is the first new member admitted to PASA since 2008. The facility was admitted into PASA following a site inspection and a vote of the PASA advisory council.

05/10/2010
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Orang-utans in Indonesia are being helped to prepare for their return to the wild by some old fire hoses no longer needed in Cambridgeshire.

Crews from the fire service donated an old fire hose no longer fit for use to the Batu Mbelin Orang-Utan Quarantine Centre in Sumatra.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-11442482

30/09/2010
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A new gibbon species have been discovered by researchers, led by Christian Roos, from the German Primate Center (Deutschen Primatenzentrums) and was published on Vietnamese Journal of Primatology. The northern buffed-cheeked gibbons (Nomascus annamensis) live in the rainforests of Annamite Mountains, situated around Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The northern buffed-cheeked gibbons were once thought to be the yellow-cheeked gibbons (Nomascus gabriellae) but vocalization and genetic research prove that both are distinct species.

Thinh, VN. Mootnick, AR. Thanh, VN. Nadler, T. Roos, C. A new species of crested gibbon, from the central Annamite mountain range. Vietnamese Journal of Primatology 1(4), 2010, 1-12.

http://primatology.net/2010/09/22/new-gibbon-species-discovered/

22/09/2010
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The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is pleased to announce the publication of a new report.

 Development AND Gorillas?

Assessing fifteen years of integrated conservation and development in south-western Uganda

Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga Gorilla National Parks are extremely important biodiversity areas due to their populations of the highly endangered mountain gorilla. Gazettement of the parks in 1991 caused high levels of conflict and resistance from the surrounding communities, seriously threatening the ability of the protected area authority to manage the parks. This report summarises the findings of a study into a range of ‘integrated conservation and development' strategies in Bwindi and Mgahinga, and their effectiveness in reconciling biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development interests.

21/09/2010
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