The goal of JGI’s Africa Programs is to ensure the long-term protection of wild ape populations in natural host countries in Africa while preserving biodiversity as well as cultural traditions and livelihoods.
Only about 150,000 chimpanzees remain in the wild today, where one to two million lived in 1900. The threats to chimpanzees are numerous, and the need to save them is urgent.
African forests teemed with wildlife at the turn of the last century. The forests rang out with the calls of birds, chimpanzees and other animals, and carried the gentle or erratic movements of vines and branches. Compare that with the African forests of today. Recent figures indicate that fewer than 150,000 chimpanzees -- among our closest relatives in the animal kingdom -- remain in the African wilderness, where 1 to 2 million lived in the year 1900.
While in remote areas the wildlife chorus may still ring out, more than ever before the forest carries other sounds -- truck, chain saw, and also the gunshots of poachers.
The most recent crisis threatens not only chimpanzees, but also other great apes and species of fauna and flora in the African forests. As logging roads are cut into previously unreachable areas, the hunting of wildlife for bushmeat -- once a practice supporting forest peoples -- has become commercial, catering to the cultural preference of many urban dwellers for the meat of wild animals. Bushmeat also supplies logging camps with food.
How serious is the problem? The commercial hunting of bushmeat could well lead to the loss of several species, including chimpanzees, gorillas and elephants.
The three greatest threats to the continued existence of chimpanzees, gorillas, and bonobos in Africa are habitat loss, hunting for meat, and the shooting of mothers to take their infants for the live animal trade. In the past many young chimps were exported for entertainment or biomedical research in the United States and other countries. Increased legislative restrictions and penalties have reduced the export of young chimpanzees, but the threat has by no means vanished.
Habitat loss is linked to the ever-increasing demands for land by the exploding human population. Africa currently has one of the highest growth rates in the world, with its population doubling every 24 years. The total population of the continent in 1990 was approximately 600 million people, leading to a greater demand upon the natural resources. Wood is cut for firewood, charcoal, and building poles. Forests are clear-cut for living space, crop growing, grazing for domestic livestock. Forest concessions are sold to timber companies from the developed world, some of which practice clear cutting, turning forestland into desert. Unless we can find some way to slow down population growth - to voluntarily optimize the population - the stresses and strains on the natural resources will be too great to bear. Deforestation drives the chimpanzee species toward extinction. Many populations have become fragmented. Very small relict groups will not be viable once they are cut off from other groups and no longer able to exchange genetic material.
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