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The Conservation Working Party (CWP) of the Society is focused on all aspects of primate conservation, including surveys to assess status and understand threats, field research on various aspects of primate biology of relevance to conservation, applied research on human-primate conflict, and promoting better understanding of primates and the problems they face through conservation education and community involvement. All 11 members of the CWP are active in primate conservation, all have worked in the field, and between them they have experience with a wide range of primates (Old World, New World, prosimians, monkeys and apes, diurnal, nocturnal and cathemeral). Many are members of the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group. CWP members draw on experience in non-governmental organizations (NGOs), universities and zoological collections and are active in research, training and hands-on conservation in relation to primates. In this way the CWP can bring insight to a very broad range of primate conservation-related activities and perspectives. The CWP reports to the PSGB Council and brings to its attention any pertinent conservation issues. Members of the CWP meet face-to-face twice a year and maintain frequent contact through e-mail.
Here we describe some of the main activities of the CWP, particularly the administration of the PSGB Conservation Fund, disbursed through several small grants in support of conservation work.
Money donated by PSGB members directly and that raised by selling goods at meetings is, each year, donated to a conservation project selected by Council. This year, 2010, the non-governmental, Malagasy organisation FANAMBY has been selected for PSGB's conservation cause. The mission of the NGO is to maintain biodiversity in unprotected high biodiversity areas by promoting a long-term conservation process that integrates development, research, training and education-outreach activities. More details can be found in the attached poster.
Our project for 2009 was The Lebialem Hunters' Beekeeping Initiative in Cameroon. The aims of this project are to reduce the local people's financial dependence on bushmeat and to reduce bushmeat hunting by providing hunters and their families with an alternative income from beekeeping. The initiative is a partnership of local and international NGOs coordinated by Juliet Wright, a MSc graduate from Oxford Brookes University. More information about the project is available here. Around £500 was raised for this cause.
In 2008, the Hainan
gibbon reforestation project was selected as the recipient of our conservation
funds and received a total of £1426. In the 1950s more than 2000
Hainan gibbons resided in over 8600 km2 of forests across the tropical
island of Hainan, China. Since then, the numbers have fallen drastically
as a result of forest clearance and hunting. Information about the project
is available here.
The project selected for 2007 was one concerned with the conservation
of Callicebus oenanthe, the Andean titi monkey, in the Rio Mayo Valley
in Peru. It is endemic to this one small area and is listed as vulnerable
by IUCN. Details of the project are given here
in a poster produced by past students on the MSc Conservation course
at Oxford Brookes University who have been involved with the project.
This poster was displayed at the PSGB 2006 Winter meeting in Cambridge.
In 2006, Tacugama,
a chimp sanctuary in Sierra Leone, was supported. The sanctuary has received
a donation of £1000 from PSGB and this was matched by IPPL. Details
of this project are available at: http://www.tacugama.com.
A major role of the CWP is to administer the PSGB Conservation Grants. These are small grants (<£750) which support projects involving:
Projects that address known threats to primate populations, or known constraints on population recovery;
Projects that shift incentives in support of conservation (e.g. training; education and awareness-raising; compensation schemes; policy influence);
Surveys that will direct conservation effort to important locations;conservation education relevant to primates;
Other research of direct benefit to primate conservation.
In addition, twice a year, PSGB awards a grant of
£500 from the Born Free
Foundation. This grant is mostly targeted at projects which support
a primate range-state national, working in the field on a project involving
endangered primates or human/non-human primate conflict resolution. Applicants
for this grant apply as for a PSGB grant, through the same channels, and
any project selected by members of the Conservation Working Party as being
suitable for BFF will be passed to BFF for acceptance. In some instances,
a proposal will be supported by both PSGB and BFF.
Although the financial value of these grants is quite small, this money
can make a large difference in local currencies and PSGB Conservation
Grants often act as seed money encouraging others to fund PSGB-supported
projects.
PSGB, being a small society with fewer than 400 members, has little money
available for grants, consequently the members of the Conservation Working
Party are actively seeking funds to give out to people who apply for Conservation
Grants.
In April 2008, Knowsley
Safari Park donated £1500 to this cause. The money will
be used to support two projects from those submitted over the next year.
We would like to thank Knowsley for this support, which is greatly appreciated.
We would like to hear from any other organisation willing to help in
this way. Please contact Dr Caroline Harcourt at cwp@psgb.org.
Grants are awarded twice
a year with deadlines at the end of February and August.
For more information about the application process
please visit http://www.psgb.org/Conservation/grants.html.
These grants, and
indeed much of the work of the CWP, focuses on research applied to solving
conservation problems. Many primates are threatened through human activity
- whether directly by hunting and persecution or by habitat degradation
and destruction. As primate habitats become increasingly fragmented and
as human populations expand, the likelihood of conflict also increases.
Understanding the parameters at the human-nonhuman primate interface can
provide information useful in managing conflict and in helping to protect
primates.
The bushmeat trade and crop raiding are prime examples and we have supported
several short studies investigating these topics:
Other projects assess the impact of human activities, such as fragmentation, and assess different management techniques which might mitigate these impacts:
In order to identify areas important for primate conservation, to evaluate conservation status (distribution, population size, fragmentation and conservation threats) and to monitor primate populations in and outside protected areas, surveys and population assessments are needed. We have supported several short projects on a variety of primates that address these issues:
Increasing understanding of the conservation status of primates and the role they play is important in developing viable conservation programmes. Where people are part of the problem faced by primates (through hunting, conflict, habitat destruction, etc.) people have also to be part of the solution. Increasing awareness (e.g. of the often very limited distribution of many primates, their beneficial role in forest maintenance through seed dispersal), understanding resource use by communities close to primate habitat, and optimizing the role captive primates can play in conservation are all issues that can be addressed under the broad topic of conservation education. The Conservation Grants support these kinds of projects too:
Centre for Education, Research and Conservation of Primates and Nature, Nigeria http://www.cercopan.org/
Endangered Primate Rescue Centre - Vietnam http://www.primatecenter.org/
Gibbon Network and Gibbon Research Lab http://www.gibbons.de/
Great Apes Survival Project GRASP http://www.unep.org/grasp/
IUCN Red List: http://www.redlist.org/
IUCN Conservation Guidelines and Policy Statements http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/pubs/policy/index.htm
IUCN Re-introduction Guidelines http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/pubs/policy/reinte.htm
International Primate Protection League http://www.ippl.org/
Lemur information http://www.tsidy.com/lemurs/index.asp
Primate Info Net http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/
Primate Conservation Inc. http://www.primate.org/
The Primate Foundation of Panama http://www.primatesofpanama.org/
For more information and help please see our grants page or contact:
Dr Caroline Harcourt
National Centre for Zoonosis Research
Leahurst
Chester High Road
Neston
Wirral CH64 7TE
UK
Tel: 0151 795 6059
Fax 0151 795 6066
E-mail: cwp@psgb.org