PSGB Conservation Working Party

Pan paniscus Copyright © 2004 Jo Thompson

Gorilla gorilla Copyright © 2004 Caroline Harcourt

Loris lydekkerianus nordicus Copyright © 2004 Lilia Bernede

Southern bearded saki Copyright © 2004 Liza Maria Veiga

Education materials Copyright © 2004 Sally Walker

Wooly monkey Copyright © 2004 Lucy Molleson

Introduction

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.

Conservation Projects supported by PSGB

Money donated by PSGB members directly and that raised by selling goods from the online shop and at meetings is, each year, donated to a conservation project selected by Council. 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 .

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.

This year (2008) the Hainan gibbon reforestation project has been selected as the recipient of our conservation funds. 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. A comprehensive survey in October 2003 and subsequent monitoring suggest that now no more than 20 remain, restricted to a 16 km2 patch of forest in Bawangling National Nature Reserve. Reforestation is urgently needed to expand the habitat suitable for gibbons. To reforest one hectare costs around £350. A donation of just £10 would recreate a tennis-court sized area of habitat for the gibbons and thousands of other forest species. More information about the project is available here.

Conservation grants

A major role of the CWP is to administer the PSGB Conservation Grants. These are small grants (<£750) which support projects involving:

research of benefit to primate conservation
short surveys to identify locations of value to primate conservation
conservation education relevant to primates

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.

Grants are awarded twice a year with deadlines at the end of February and August.
For more information follow the blue links.

Research which benefits primate conservation

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:

Trade in primate meat in the Oban Hills region of Nigeria (Edem Eniang,1999)
Crop-raiding: Human-wildlife conflict in Nigeria (Kate Hill, 2001)
Human conflicts with wildlife: A case study of human attitudes towards crop raiding vertebrates in two villages in Sumatra, Indonesia (Gail Smith, 2003)
Discontinuous great ape density in hunting areas versus protected research areas: Trying to understand the causal factors for a better conservation strategy (Jef Dupain, 2003)
Primate crop-raiding: A study of local perceptions in four villages in North Sumatra, Indonesia (Valérie Marchal, 2005)
The value and significance of bushmeat to rural communities in the Lebialem Highlands of Cameroon(Juliet Wright, 2007)
Primate Conservation and Bushmeat Hunting in Rio Muni, Equatorial Guinea (Janna Rist, 2007)

Other projects assess the impact of human activities, such as fragmentation, and assess different management techniques which might mitigate these impacts:

Reduced-impact logging and spider monkey conservation: The co-dependence of black spider monkeys (Ateles chamek) and timber trees species in a tropical lowland forest in Bolivia, South America (Annika Felton, 2003)
Ecology and social organization of the endangered black saki (Chiropotes satanas): Potential for its long-term survival in the context of habitat fragmentation (Liza Maria Veiga, 2003)
A Radio-Tracking Study of the Social and Behavioural Ecology of the Red Slender Loris (Loris tardigradus tardigradus) in the Masmullakele Proposed Forest Reserve, Sri Lanka (Lilia Bernede, 2004)
Status of the barbary macaque in the Djebala region of Morocco (Sian Waters, 2004)
Pilot study on the conservation status of the hairy-eared dwarf lemur (Allocebus trichotis) in Eastern Madagascar (Karla Biebouw, 2005)
Habitat requirements and the effects of forest fragmentation on the western hoolock gibbon (Hylobates hoolock hoolock) in Lawachara National Park, Bangladesh (Petra Osterberg, 2006)
The interaction between local people and habituated chimpanzees around Kibale National Park, Uganda (George Owoyesigire, 2007)
Comparing Nesting Ecology of Chimpanzees in Two Isolated Populations in Lebialem Division, South West Province, Cameroon (David Lekeaka)
The Balance between Human Resource Use and Primate Conservation within Iwokrama Forest and the North Rupununi, Guyana (Tallulah Bygraves, 2007)

Short surveys

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:

Snub-nosed monkey research and conservation project, China (Gregor MacLennan, 1999)
Short survey into the ecology and behaviour of Otolemur argentatus, Kenya (Nadine Svoboda, 2000)
Eco-ethological study of Cercopithecus erythrogaster, Benin (Georges Nobime, 2001)
Hatinh langur Trachypithecus francoisi hatinhensis conservation, Vietnam (Nguyen Manh Ha, 2002)
Surveys of populations of the endangered primates of the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania, living outside of the Udzungwa Mountains National Park (Trevor Jones, 2003)
Survey of habitat quality of golden langur Trachypithecus geei in neglected disturbed forest near Manas Biosphere Reserve (Pranjal Bezbuara, 2004)
A Survey of White-cheeked Gibbons (Nomascus leucogenys Ogilby, 1840) in Dakrong Nature Reserve, Quang Tri Province (Nguyen Manh Ha, 2004)
Habitat use and behaviour of two groups of northern muriquis (Brachyteles hypoxanthus) in an Atlantic forest fragment at the Biological Station of Caratinga – RPPN Feliciano Miguel Abdalla, Caratinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil: Phase II (Carla de Borba Possamai, 2005)
Identification, Abundance, and Behaviour of Galagos in Mulanje and Thyolo Districts, Malawi (Graham Wallace 2005)
Census of the brown-headed spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi fusciceps) in the Andean cloud forest of the Los Cedros Biological Reserve, Ecuador (Fionn Magnusson, 2006)
Assessment of the Density and Composition of the Nocturnal Lemur Population of Andasibe, Eastern Madagascar (Karla Biebouw, 2006)

Conservation education

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:

Primate Sanctuaries Education pack containing: folder, video, slide sets, CD and posters - translation into French for distribution to primate sanctuaries in 12 francophone African countries (Stephen Brend, 2002)
Educating policy-makers, wildlife professionals and the public about the 40 species of South Asian primates using the output of a Conservation Assessment and Management Plan Workshop, 2002 - materials distributed in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh (Sally Walker, 2002)
Building an education room at the Centre of Rescue and Rehabilitation of Primates, Peñaflor (sigloxxi) Chile (Elba Munoz Lopez, 2003)
Production and distribution of educational material on the ecology, behaviour and conservation of the Buton macaque Macaca ochreata brunnescens, in villages surrounding a proposed National Park (Nancy Priston, 2004)
Local perceptions of the Mount Heycock Buffer Zone Project and endemic primates, southwestern Sri Lanka (Alex Boulton, 2006). See also: Bangamukande Education Pack