Online Portal for Primate Conservation and Tourism
The Portal offers free access to showcase tourism products and facilities related to Primates and also conservation initiatives across Africa aiming to conserve and protect these magnificent animals.
According to the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group, there are currently 216 species (111 in the mainland while the 105 are found in Madagascar).
The African great apes – chimpanzees, bonobos, western and eastern gorillas – are mankind’s closest living relatives, and have captured human imagination since they were first discovered. African great apes express emotion, use tools, and have complex relationships within their social groups – and there is still so much more that we do not yet know about these animals.
It is no wonder that thousands of people travel to Africa each year just to catch a glimpse of these elusive animals in the wild. However, all four species of African great apes are today endangered: their populations have experienced significant reductions over the past 20-30 years and for most of them this decline is expected to continue in the future if the scale of conservation efforts does not improve significantly (IUCN 2010). The main threats to African great apes are commercial hunting, habitat loss and fragmentation, and disease spread (e.g., Ebola haemorrhagic fever). The major challenge is to ensure the effectiveness of conservation strategies in a regional context where the weak enforcement of national laws and international treaties are constant impediments to conservation progress.
WWF - African Great Ape Strategy 2011 - 2017
