Conservation Working Party

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 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 Â£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.

Conservation grants

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.

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:

Modelling Primate Crop-Raiding - Perceptions of Risk, Actual Risk and the Implications for Conservation (Nancy Priston, 2009 Abstract) (Final report here)
Primate Conservation and Bushmeat Hunting in Rio Muni, Equatorial Guinea (Janna Rist, 2007)
The value and significance of bushmeat to rural communities in the Lebialem Highlands of Cameroon (Juliet Wright, 2007)
Primate crop-raiding: A study of local perceptions in four villages in North Sumatra, Indonesia (Valérie Marchal, 2005)
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)
Crop-raiding: Human-wildlife conflict in Nigeria (Kate Hill, 2001)
Trade in primate meat in the Oban Hills region of Nigeria (Edem Eniang,1999)

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

Ecology and Status of the Drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus) in Korup National Park, Southwest Cameroon: Implications for their Conservation. (Christos Astaras Abstract)
First assessment of the population of two sympatric lemurs in fragmented forests of South-eastern Madagascar (Josia Razafindramanana, 2009)
Habitat Evaluation and conservation of Capped langur in Manas Biosphere Reserve (Pranjal Bezbarua, 2009)
ERuDeF/ Cross River Gorilla Conservation Project: The Status of the Cross River Gorilla in the Lebialem-Mone Forest Landscape (including Bechati-Mone Forest Corridor) (Louis Nkembi, 2009)
The Balance between Human Resource Use and Primate Conservation within Iwokrama Forest and the North Rupununi, Guyana (Tallulah Bygraves, 2007)
Comparing Nesting Ecology of Chimpanzees in Two Isolated Populations in Lebialem Division, South West Province, Cameroon (David Lekeaka)
The interaction between local people and habituated chimpanzees around Kibale National Park, Uganda (George Owoyesigire, 2007)
Habitat requirements and the effects of forest fragmentation on the western hoolock gibbon (Hylobates hoolock hoolock) in Lawachara National Park, Bangladesh (Petra Osterberg, 2006)
Pilot study on the conservation status of the hairy-eared dwarf lemur (Allocebus trichotis) in Eastern Madagascar (Karla Biebouw, 2005)
Status of the barbary macaque in the Djebala region of Morocco (Sian Waters, 2004)
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)

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:

Population Density Surveys and Taxonomic Assessment of the Western Tarsier (Tarsius bancanus borneanus) and Bornean Slow Loris (Nycticebus menagensis) in the Lower Kinabatangan Floodplain, Sabah, Malaysia. (Rachel Munds Abstract)
Conservation Assessment of Taï Monkey Fauna from Two Survey Methods and a Bushmeat Market Study: How Hunting Impacts Taï National Park. (Ryan Covey Abstract; Final Report)
Population of the Javan gibbon (Hylobates moloch) at Gunung Simpang Nature Reserve West Java, Indonesia (Entang Iskandar, Abstract and Final report, 2009)
Population survey, socioecological study and conservation of proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus) in Balikpapan Bay, Indonesia (Stanislav Lhota, 2009)
Population Status, Threats and Conservation Measures of Assamese Macaques (Macaca assamensis) in Langtang National Park, Nepal (Ganga Ram Regmi & Kamal Kandel, 2008) Final Report
Assessment of the Density and Composition of the Nocturnal Lemur Population of Andasibe, Eastern Madagascar (Karla Biebouw, 2006)
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)
Identification, Abundance, and Behaviour of Galagos in Mulanje and Thyolo Districts, Malawi (Graham Wallace 2005)
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)
A Survey of White-cheeked Gibbons (Nomascus leucogenys Ogilby, 1840) in Dakrong Nature Reserve, Quang Tri Province (Nguyen Manh Ha, 2004)
Survey of habitat quality of golden langur Trachypithecus geei in neglected disturbed forest near Manas Biosphere Reserve (Pranjal Bezbuara, 2004)
Surveys of populations of the endangered primates of the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania, living outside of the Udzungwa Mountains National Park (Trevor Jones, 2003)

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:

Identifying the CITES Appendix I-listed Asian Slow Loris Nycticebus spp: A Training Programme for Enforcement Officials and Rescue Centres in Southeast Asia. (Tricia Parish Abstract; Final Report)
Primates for Posterity: Assessment of a Primate Conservation Education Programme on 15-17 Year Old Students in Schools in Tamilnadu, India. (Martina Anandam Abstract)
Primate conservation awareness programme in Annapurna Conservation Area of Nepal (Manij Upadhyay, 2009 Abstract; Final Report)
La Esperanza, Peru: Community Based Conservation Project for the Yellow-Tailed Woolly Monkey (Oreonax flavicauda, Humboldt 1812) (Fanny Cornejo, 2007 abstract)
Local perceptions of the Mount Heycock Buffer Zone Project and endemic primates, southwestern Sri Lanka (Alex Boulton, 2006). See also: Bangamukande Education Pack
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)
Building an education room at the Centre of Rescue and Rehabilitation of Primates, Peñaflor (sigloxxi) Chile (Elba Munoz Lopez, 2003)
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)
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)