US TV show ‘Dancing With the Stars' decided not to use footage of a performing chimp following complaints.   The chimpanzee "actor" was filmed supposedly predicting the winner of the show. But after primate protection organisations contacted the show's Executive Producer, a decision was made to not broadcast the footage of the chimpanzee.   In response to Dr. Shirley McGreal of IPPL, Executive Producer Conrad Green wrote:   "If I had been aware of the information you outlined below I wouldn't have proceeded with the shoot in the first place, so I've decided on balance to re-cut the package we use in tonight's show to remove any footage of the chimpanzee. While I can't undo the fact that we did shoot with a chimpanzee I will be sure we don't do this again in the future."   Thanks to everyone who emailed the show.

09/10/2009
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Kinshasa, 8 October 2009-Some 50 participants from across the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC) met in Kinshasa this September to formulate a
national action plan to address the issue of trade in wild meat,
popularly termed "bushmeat".

08/10/2009
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An Ape Alliance campaign opposing the use of a macaque in a TV advert by the European Commission has been successful!   The anti-smoking commercial featuring a macaque monkey chained around the neck and sitting on a woman's shoulder, screwing up a cigarette packet as she tries to smoke, was broadcast across Europe earlier this year.   On behalf of the Ape Alliance, the Captive Animals' Protection Society (CAPS) www.captiveanimals.org wrote to the Commission, advertising agency and UK MEPs calling for the ad to be stopped and for it to be removed from the Commission's website. It was immediately taken off the English and Irish language websites but has finally been removed from all of the different language websites of the EC's HELP campaign.   The Monkey Sanctuary Trust (UK) and FAADA (Spain) also put a lot of effort into this campaign.   In response to a Written Question by Spanish MEP Raül Romeva about the ad, Commissioner for Health Androulla Vassiliou responded to the campaign by saying:   "[Wild] animal species, and in particular primates, should not be used in a way that could encourage their keeping as pet animals. ... The Commission attaches great importance to animal welfare and animals are recognised as sentient beings by the Protocol on Animal Welfare annexed to the EC Treaty.   "Therefore, this particular advert will not be used in for the next phase of the Help 2.0 campaign to be launched in January 2010."   Raül Romeva also called on the Commission to sign a pledge not to use wild animals in future adverts, a move backed by other MEPs including ones across the UK contacted by CAPS.

06/10/2009
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David L A Gaveau, SergeWich, Justin Epting, Daniel Juhn, Markku Kanninen and Nigel Leader-Williams

Abstract. Payments for reduced carbon emissions from deforestation (RED) are now attracting attention as a way to halt tropical deforestation. Northern Sumatra comprises an area of 65 000 km² that is both the site of Indonesia's first planned RED initiative, and the stronghold of 92% of remaining Sumatran orangutans. Under current plans, this RED initiative will be implemented in a defined geographic area, essentially a newly established, 7500 km² protected area (PA) comprising mostly upland forest, where guards will be recruited to enforce forest protection. Meanwhile, new roads are currently under construction, while companies are converting lowland forests into oil palm plantations. This case study predicts the effectiveness of RED in reducing deforestation and conserving orangutans for two distinct scenarios: the current plan of implementing RED within the specific boundary of a new upland PA, and an alternative scenario of implementing RED across landscapes outside PAs.

03/10/2009
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A wildlife trafficker has been arrested in Bissombo, Bengbis in the South Region. He was arrested in possession of a live chimpanzee, elephant parts and chimpanzee skulls, some of which were still fresh, implying that the animals had just been killed to obtain those parts for illegal trade.

01/10/2009
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Gaveau D.L.A., Wich S., Epting J., Juhn D., Kanninen M, and Leader-Williams N. : The future of forests and orangutans (Pongo abelii) in Sumatra: predicting impacts of oil palm plantations, road construction, and mechanisms for reducing carbon emissions from deforestation. Environ. Res. Lett. 4 (2009) 034013 (11pp)

Available at http://www.iop.org/EJ/toc/1748-9326/4/3

Abstract

Payments for reduced carbon emissions from deforestation (RED) are now attracting attention as a way to halt tropical deforestation. Northern Sumatra comprises an area of 65 000 km2 that is both the site of Indonesia's first planned RED initiative, and the stronghold of 92% of remaining Sumatran orangutans. Under current plans, this RED initiative will be implemented in a defined geographic area, essentially a newly established, 7500 km2 protected area (PA) comprising mostly upland forest, where guards will be recruited to enforce forest protection. Meanwhile, new roads are currently under construction, while companies are converting lowland forests into oil palm plantations. This case study predicts the effectiveness of RED in reducing deforestation and conserving orangutans for two distinct scenarios: the current plan of implementing RED within the specific boundary of a new upland PA, and an alternative scenario of implementing RED across landscapes outside PAs. Our satellite-based spatially explicit deforestation model predicts that 1313 km2 of forest would be saved from deforestation by 2030, while forest cover present in 2006 would shrink by 22% (7913 km2) across landscapes outside PAs if RED were only to be implemented in the upland PA. Meanwhile, orangutan habitat would reduce by 16% (1137 km2), resulting in the conservative loss of 1384 orangutans, or 25% of the current total population with or without RED intervention. By contrast, an estimated 7824 km2 of forest could be saved from deforestation, with maximum benefit for orangutan conservation, if RED were to be implemented across all remaining forest landscapes outside PAs. Here, RED payments would compensate land users for their opportunity costs in not converting unprotected forests into oil palm, while the construction of new roads to service the marketing of oil palm would be halted. Our predictions suggest that Indonesia's first RED initiative in an upland PA may not significantly reduce deforestation in northern Sumatra and would have little impact on orangutan conservation because a large amount of forest inside the project area is protected de facto by being inaccessible, while lowland forests will remain exposed to the combined expansion of high-revenue plantations and road networks. In contrast, RED would be more effective in terms of its conservation impact if payments were extended to all remaining carbon-rich tropical forests, including lowland peat swamp forests, the preferred habitat for dense populations of orangutans, and if the construction of new roads was halted.

31/09/2009
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