[26.10] :: WORLD'S 25 MOST ENDANGERED PRIMATES NAMED
SSC and IPS, in collaboration with Conservation International (CI) release 2007 report. Read More
[20.10] :: TWYCROSS ZOO FOUNDER DIES Molly Badham was a surrogate mum, with a big difference for over 40yrs. Read More
[06.10] :: WORLD MOVES INTO ECOLOGICAL RED We have reached the point at which human consumption exceeds the ability that the earth can sustain. Read More
[05.10] :: AMAZON RAINFOREST AT RISK
Development plan to link South America’s economies. Read More
[02.10] :: PRIMATE LESSONS, CALCUTTA
Forest officials training at Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in Jorhat on conservation of the hoolock gibbon. Read More
[01.10] :: AL GORE
Climate Change Policy should decide Australian Election. Read More.
[30.09] :: EU TAXPAYERS
Contributing to the slaughter of wildlife and the Bushmeat Trade. Read More .
The World Environment Center’s (WEC) Twenty-Fourth Annual Gold Medal for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development has been awarded to Marks & Spencer for linking sustainability extensively with its supply chain, operations, and customers. Marks & Spencer’s signature contribution, known as “Plan A”, was cited by the independent international Gold Medal Jury as an extraordinary and successful model of sustainability practice. Plan A is a magnificent commitment from such a large UK retailer.
Following the success of their 2005, “Look behind the label” campaign, leading UK retailer, Marks and Spencer launched a £200m ethical campaign in 2006, entitled Plan A. The 100-point, five year sustainable development program, covers all aspects of Marks & Spencer’s business. Through it, the UK retailer aims to become carbon neutral and send no waste to landfill from its own operations; extend sustainable sourcing; set new standards in ethical trading and help its customers and employees live a healthier lifestyle. Read more »
The UN Climate Change Conference in Bali was concluded this week on a high after the long awaited submission of the United States to the agreement that will form the basis of the successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The United States was proving the biggest hurdle in reaching a common agreement among the 10,000 participants to this conference, which was called to identify and form targets for a global warming pact.
The US was blocking progress by refusing to agree to the ‘Bali Roadmap’, which effectively is an agreement containing schedules on emission cuts and transfer of clean technology to poor and developing countries. The US submission came after a very public statement from ex-vice president Al Gore blaming the US for blocking progress in Bali for their own economic gain.
The intense conference lasted 11 hours and caused emotions to run high at some points, but we have walked away with an agreement which applies to all 190 nations involved, and has paved the way for a new schedule after the Kyoto Protocol runs out in 2013 – including emissions reductions from developing countries, and fair and equal contributions from developed countries. The things that are missing, however, are points on deforestation, and actual targets agreed for emissions cut. At the moment the agreement is non-binding, and it is thought the real battle will come in 2009 when agreements for official numbers and targets are to be set. I think it is then that we shall see just how sincere the US are about this issue, or whether it was lipservice brought about by fear of losing face under mass peer objection. After all, the US never does like to admit it’s wrong…..
As we all know, illegal logging is one of the major factors contributing towards species loss, decreasing biodiversity, habitat destruction and increased greenhouse gases. However, there are no laws or regulations in any country that stops the wood produced from this corrupt exploitative trade from being imported and used by any and all companies.
Finally, American Senator Ron Wyden has recognised the need for government to become involved in this issue and made a long overdue stand by introducing the 2007 ‘Combat Illegal Logging Act’ – or S.1930. It will make it illegal in America to knowingly import, sell, buy or transport illegally-sourced wood and wood products.
This is a massive step forward for an issue like this to be brought to the forefront of politics, especially by a world superpower, and especially by the country that is responsible for 25.2% of the world’s greenhouse emissions. the only problem is, this bill has to be voted in not only by Senate, but by the President aswell, and with George W. Bush’s long standing stubbornness to blatantly, not even skillfully, ignore climate change and global warming, we may be in for the long ride with this one.
Think outside the box this Christmas, with a gift that could brighten up a stocking and save an endangered species! WWF are offering adoption packages for a range of animals, such as Snow Leopards, Pandas, Elephants and Polar Bears.
Not only are these gifts simply adorable, but the money used to buy them will go towards conservation projects to help save them from threats such as climate change, habitat destruction and poaching. The recipient will learn a little from the information provided with the adoption certificate, and you have the option to include a token soft toy to personalise it. Educational and cute!
Ever since I decided to enrol on the Animal Behaviour and Welfare MSc at QUB, I have had my heart set on going abroad to study Primates in the field for my thesis research. I have been lucky enough to be offered a place at the University research centre in Loskop Dam Nature Reserve in South Africa by Peter Henzi, currently working on the De Hoop Baboon Project.
I will be researching vigilance and social dominance in Vervet Monkeys, and cannot wait to see these beautiful creatures behaving naturally in the wild. I will be spending two months over there, however must the fund the trip myself. Therefore, if anyone knows of any funding avenues, I would be very grateful if you could contact me julesq82@googlemail.com. Many thanks all, I will be supplying regular updates on my progress including pictures, so stay online!
Prime Concern would like to thank Graphic Designer Peter Fong for his design for the Prime Concern blog header.
Fong, 25 graduated from Bowling Green State University and is now working as a designer at an advertising agency in downtown Cleveland. His animal and primate illustrations are just wonderful. Thanks Peter.
New research has suggested that a rare mammal called a colugo is the closest genetic relative of all primates, including humans. Over the past decade, several candidates for the closest mammalian relative to primates have been suggested, including the small tree shrews of Asia and the colugos – sometimes called flying lemurs.
By using new molecular and genomic data, gathered by a team from Penn State University, it has been shown that the colugos are the closest surviving relative of all primates.”
The first-ever law in Africa guarding against the discrimination, exploitation and violence endured by indigenous peoples could be passed in the Republic of Congo by the end of 2007.
The Rainforest Foundation need our help now to safeguard the basic human rights of indigenous peoples who play a crucial role in protecting Congo’s rainforests. Please sign the Rainforest petition urging Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso to support this vital legislation affecting the lives of tens of thousands of indigenous peoples.
Russell Mittermeier, president of Conservation International, said: “You could fit all the surviving members of these 25 species in a single football stadium. That’s how few of them remain on Earth today.”
The report warns that failure to respond to the mounting threats now exacerbated by climate change will bring the first primate extinctions in more than a century. Overall, 114 of the world’s 394 primate species are classified as threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red List.
The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates, and the countries where they are found:
1. Greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus), Madagascar
2. White-collared lemur (Eulemur albocollaris), Madagascar
3. Sahamalaza Peninsula sportive lemur (Lepilemur sahamalazensis), Madagascar
4. Silky sifaka (Propithecus candidus), Madagascar
5. Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli), Nigeria, Cameroon Read more »
The remaining wild elephants, tigers and bears in Myanmar’s forests are being hunted down slowly and sold to China. Nestled in hills in a rebel-controlled enclave on the Chinese border, the “Las Vegas in the jungle” casino town is clearly branching out from narcotics and prostitution into the illegal wildlife business. Besides row upon row of fruit, vegetables and cheap plastic sandals, the market offers a grisly array of animal parts, as well as many live specimens, to the hundreds of Chinese tourists who flock across the border each day. Read more »
Carbon Dioxide emissions are 35% higher in 2006 than 1990 – a much higher growth rate than previously anticipated by the Climate Change Panel. 3 factors were cited as mostly responsible for this unprecedented rise; global economic growth, the global economy becoming more carbon intense, and a decline in the ocean and land’s ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. “Weakening lands and ocean sinks are contributing to the accelerating growth of atmospheric CO2″ said co-author Chris Field. Read more »
Traveling from Ecuador to Africa, Jane Goodall takes the audience on an ecological journey, discussing highlights and low points of her experiences in the jungle.
She shows how progress is helping research (DNA analysis) and hurting the environment (clear-cutting). And she draws a dozen parallels between primate and human behaviour, making the point that we really aren’t all that different. Our big advantage, she says, is the ability to communicate with sophisticated spoken language – yet, sadly, we are abusing this power and destroying the planet. She urges the TED audience to behave differently, and use their higher powers to correct the planet’s course.
Dutch ecologist Willie Smits says he will never forget the day in October 1989 when he saw the desperately sad eyes of an orangutan baby looking at him from a dark cage on a market in the Indonesian seaport of Balikpapan.
Smits was so disturbed that he returned to the market that same evening, just in time to find the limp body of the orangutan lying on a rubbish heap where the trader had dumped it. It was the start of a lifelong mission to save one of the world’s last surviving great apes from extinction and to preserve its rainforest habitat that is rapidly being destroyed in Borneo.
“Time is running out. We have less than two years to save the last 40,000 wild orangutans from extinction,” Smits said during an interview in the German port city of Hamburg, pointing that there were once more than three million of the apes.
The State University of New York and East Stroudsburg University are running Primate Behaviour and Conservation Field Courses in their research centre in North-East Costa Rica. The course is aimed at undergraduates or early level graduates who have little or no experience in the field, and 3 separate courses are being run over Winter and Summer.
The field station is set over 1000 hectares of lush rainforest, and the wildlife you will see and study includes white-faced capuchins, mantled howling monkeys, black-handed spider monkeys, tapir, jaguar, collared peccary, keel-billed toucans, great green macaws, brown caimans just to name a few. During your time there you will learn field techniques that can be used in tropical research in areas of ecology, behaviour and conservation.
To find out more about this amazing opportunity, please contact Kimberely Dingess on kdingess@danta.info, or read more at Primate-Jobs.
A new scheme has been put into place in Tanjung Puting National Park, Indonesia, to help curb the massive illegal logging problem. The park covers 416,000 hectares and is home to 4000 Orangutans, 30 other mammal species, 260 bird species and 17 different reptiles.
A new network of guard posts has been set up to enable anyone heading up the river or into any of these watched areas to be stopped, checked ad turned away if they have no permission to be there. “These new guard post will protect a large area of the park that could otherwise be exposed to illegal activities,” said Ashley Leiman (OBE), director of the Orangutan Foundation. They are also cheap to run by western standards. Four guard posts funded by the Orangutan Foundation cost £800 per month and provide 11 local jobs. Read more »
Experts at Brookfield Zoo, Chicago, have called on us all to recognise the plight of the rare and diminishing species, the Orangutan. In a conference held on Thursday, Cheryl Knott, a leading Orangutan expert on a project at Harvard University, explained how something as simple as buying the right brands can truly make a big difference.
The main threat to the Orangutan species is the loss of habitat in their only native countries of Burma and Sumatra, Indonesia. A report earlier this year from the United Nations’ Environment Programme [UNEP] said Indonesia’s forest habitat for orangutans may be gone by 2022 without intervention. Boycotting retail products that source Palm Oil from an unsustainable source, can cut down on the massive rainforest loss.
RETAIL RESPONSIBLY
Read the labels of your grocery and toiletry shopping, choose brands that either do not use Palm Oil at all, or use a sustainable source.
Do not buy any wood materials from an uncertified tropical hardwood – it will have come from an illegal logging site. Anything from toothpicks to furniture…..
Next time you pass a charity box at a zoo or otherwise aimed at underfunded conservation efforts – drop £1 in. If we all made a small contribution the difference would be huge.
Not only are the trees destroyed, but the mothers killed and the babies taken away to be sold as illegal pets, forcing them into a new life of captivity and misery. Please do a little something to help – a little change for you could make a massive change for them.
Pittsburgh Zoo has started a new program called One Degree of Change, which is aimed at the local people of Pittsburgh or any community – to give them hints and tips on how they can help climate change in their every day lives.
Dr Peter Fashing is the founder of this initiative, following a trip to Ethiopia, where he saw the devastating effect of global warming on the native populations of Gelada Baboons. The program is run through workshops at the Zoo and a website, which gives excellent, easy tips for every household.
Walk, ride a bike or take public transport
Change the light bulbs in your home to energy efficient
The Zoological Society of London [ZSL] is celebrating the birth of a new baby black-tailed marmoset – the very first of it’s kind in a Zoo! Only a few weeks old, the Marmoset only measures 12cm long. The keepers have kept well away to prevent upsetting the parents, so are yet to find out whether it is male or female.
Native to South America, Marmosets feed on insects and plants, and have characteristic curved claws which allow them to swing easily from tree to tree in the wild. If you wish to see this little bundle of joy, please wander on down to the New World Monkey enclosures at London Zoo.
The World Wildlife Federation is offering the trip of a lifetime through the Amazon Rainforest between 7th-16th March 2008. You will sail down the river through the rainforest, on your way encountering many beautiful and rare species such as dolphins, monkeys, macaws, butterflies and frogs. There is no work involved, and it is simply a chance for you to be guided through the unexplored Amazon and watch the wildlife bustling around you in its natural and diverse environment.
The whole trip costs $3698, or £1805, and all travel, accommodation and activities are planned out for you, allowing you to relax and enjoy the view! Its a great holiday, with a BIG difference.
International Animal Rescue [IAR] have released a new factsheet, concerning the number of exotic animals captured and exported in the illegal pet trade.
The trade in wild animals as pets causes suffering to millions of animals, disrupts ecosystems and drives species to extinction. The trade also provides a route for disease transmission, which poses a risk to human and animal health. Read more »
The World Wildlife Federation ad campaigns consistently utilize their existing surroundings very well. Here we have a paper dispenser with South America cut out, and green foil to tint your view… “clearly conveying that with every piece of paper you take, you’re taking away from the greenness of south america. How multisensory and engaging beyond a simple sticker/poster. By Saatchi & Saatchi, Copenhagen, Denmark.”
The Sustainable Furniture Council is a non-profit industry association founded at High Point, NC in October 2006 to promote sustainable practices among manufacturers, retailers, and consumers alike.
The SFC recognizes the overwhelming scientific consensus that our world is experiencing dangerous global climate change. SFC members acknowledge the tremendous urgency, and will take immediate steps to minimize carbon emissions, waste stream pollutants, un-recyclable content and primary materials from unsustainable sources from any product platform under our control. Read more »
Reptiles are up, wild birds are down, chickens are getting better but monkeys aren’t moving, according to a ground-breaking report from the RSPCA published Monday.
The charity’s second annual statistical look at animal welfare in the UK, taking in wildlife to farming, research animals to pets, highlights several stories including: Read more »
A group calling itself the ATM Azionefuturista 2007 threw a bucket of red paint into one of Rome’s most famous monument, turning it into a bloodied protest canvas.
A man threw the bucket of red paint into the Trevi Fountain on Friday, in an attempt to highlight the impending climate change disaster to an audience of intensive carbon-producing tourists!!
Prime Concern is pleased to announce it now has it’s own profile on Social Design Network Design21.
Prime Concern founders, Julia and Kate, are present and active amongst the community of Socially Conscious Designers and Social Organisations, so take a look and join the Prime Concern Design21 group for more information.
Two zookeepers from Utah’s Hogle Zoo are planning to speak to Primate caregivers around the world in an attempt to increase knowledge of Primate husbandry and hopefully improving conservation efforts.
Their best success to date, was a mother-daughter Orangutan reunion: Mother Eve gave birth to daughter Acara in captivity, and with immediate problems having been orphaned herself when she was young, had no idea what having a baby entailed, how to be a mother, or even that she was pregnant! Mother Eve gave birth by cesarean, but had no natural instincts and baby Acara had to be taught the simplest of things such as how to cling to Eve for safety and transportation. Eve has become more comfortable with Acara now, which has allowed her to learn essential skills, ensuring she has successful future pregnancies. Read more »
Molly Badham, the inspired animal lover who co-founded Twycross Zoo and turned it into one of Britain’s best-loved attractions, has died.
Molly Badham was a surrogate mum, with a big difference. For over 40 years Molly played mother to baby chimps in Twycross Zoo. 40 years after opening and Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire is still going strong.
Back in September, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk launched a very clever “gorilla marketing” commercial, literally. Their 90 second Dairy Milk bar video doesn’t feature chocolate once, not verbally or visually, but profiles a Gorilla playing the drums along to a certain Phil Collins “classic”.
Guerilla marketing is a low-budget, unconventional spin on marketing that often doesn’t feature the actual product at all. Also known as stealth marketing, this type of campaign tricks the consumer into thinking about a certain product, without them realizing they have been exposed to commercial advertising.
“The film opens with a title, ‘A Glass And A Half Full Productions presents’”, the Independent reported. “Then we hear the opening bars of the Phil Collins hit ‘In the Air Tonight’. The camera pulls back slowly to reveal that the new face of Cadbury Dairy Milk is in fact a gorilla. The effect is spooky and primal. As the big drum break starts, the camera pulls further back to reveal that the gorilla is hammering an enormous drum kit in a karaoke-style bangalong.” Read more »
Humans may have more in common with monkeys, chimpanzees and other non-human primates than they think, according to Frans de Waal, C.H. Candler professor of primate behaviour.
De Waal, whom TIME magazine designated as one of “100 People Who Shape Our World,” described the uncanny similarities between human and ape behavior in the inaugural lecture for Emory Universities Life of the Mind lunchtime lecture series this month.
The lecture, entitled; “Our Inner Ape: What Primate Behavior Teaches Us About Human Nature”, heard De Waal speak of the results of new experiments he had carried out, focusing on such shared behaviours as social reciprocity, communication and cultural transmission. De Waal went on to link human social organisation and leadership behaviour, to that of Chimpanzee dominance, comparing behaviours from politicians such as George Bush to our ape cousins! Read more »
The African Conservation Taskforce is currently seeking a Volunteer Assistant Conservation Manager, to work in the Virunga National Park in the DR Congo.
The volunteer will cover 2 roles; Administration for the African Conservation Taskforce, and Primate Care Assistant. The main areas of the job will include feeding, behavioural observations and health checks, and giving talks to tourists and members of the public. Volunteers may also be asked to help in other aspects of the running of the camp. Read more »
