Many Threats to Wild Chimpanzees
Popular Great Ape Victim of Habitat Loss, Bushmeat Trade and Farming
Nov 2, 2007
The chimpanzee is probably the best known of the great apes, thanks largely to the work of Jane Goodall. Much of her time, and that of many other people today, is spent trying to protect the animals she studied at Gombe for so many years. Her knowledge is being used to develop programs that will aid locals and protect the chimps.
Dangers to Chimp Populations
Gombe National Park is synonymous with Jane Goodall’s groundbreaking study of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). But the park is now an isolated island of forest surrounded by farmland. The chimps are also isolated, as it is dangerous for them to cross through the open farmland to reach other forest areas. In fact, much of the great ape habitat in Central Africa is similarly fragmented.
Rapidly growing human populations have reduced chimp numbers from an estimated 1-2 million in 1900 to less than 150,000 today. Logging not only directly reduces habitat, the roads it creates mean easier access into deep jungle and the animals that live there. This also makes hunting for bushmeat easier. Most of this bushmeat is sold in larger cities rather than consumed locally. Numbers of animals taken are much higher with most of the hunted species experiencing significant losses.
Chimp Conservation Projects
The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) is working on many levels to change this situation. Its Roots and Shoots program not only educates children in chimpanzee range states, it involves children all over the world in conservation work. JGI maintains several sanctuaries for chimps, many of whom were orphaned by the bushmeat trade, some of whom would have ended up as pets.
On the ground in range states, development of sustainable agriculture and other locally owned and managed small businesses, schools and health care for local people and awareness programs make up a multi-pronged attack on the problem.
But JGI is not the only organization working to save chimpanzees. In Rwanda, Partners in Conservation has initiated a beekeeping program to replace the traditional method of cutting down trees deep in the forest or creating huge smoky fires at the base of the trees to get at the bees deep in the forest.
And in Uganda the Kibale Community Fuel Wood Project is introducing fast growing trees that can be grown on small plots in the villages to reduce the number of people who enter the National Park to gather wood. A museum has also been established to teach people about the importance of the chimpanzees to the health of the forest.
Ongoing Research
Equally important, the Institute continues to support the work of the Gombe Stream Research Center, where Jane began her studies in 1967. In addition to continuing her efforts to understand chimps, there are projects involving baboons and red colobus monkeys as well. And the research projects of organizations involving other range state populations increase understanding of the role of chimpanzees in forest ecology.
With a more robust population than the other great apes, the chimpanzee is less in danger of imminent extinction but it is important to stop the downward population trend and protect important habitat before their numbers become critical.
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