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Jungles disappear 30yrs Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-403253,00.html http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-403253,00.html Apes' jungles 'will be lost in 30 years' By Anthony Browne, Environment Editor THE jungle homes of the great apes will all but disappear in 30 years unless human beings slow down the rate at which they are destroying the animals’ habitats, the UN said yesterday. Logging, mining, human settlement and the trade in ape meat were wiping out gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos in Africa and the orang-utans of Asia, according to a United Nations report launched at the Earth Summit. UN officials called for urgent action to save mankind’s closest relatives, saying that their fate was crucial to the success of the Earth Summit’s plans to reduce biodiversity loss by 2010. “The great apes will be the litmus test of whether the world succeeds in this important goal,” Klaus Töpfer, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said. The report looked at each of the four great ape populations and mapped out the likely impact on their habitats if development was not slowed down. “Less than 10 per cent of the remaining habitat of the great apes of Africa will be left relatively undisturbed by 2030 if road-building, mining camps and other infrastructure developments continue at current levels,” the report said. The future of the orangutans of South-East Asia looks even bleaker. In 28 years there will be almost no pristine habitat left. The shrinking habitat has been accompanied by a sharp decline in great ape populations. Some estimates put the chimpanzee population at 200,000, compared with more than two million a century ago. There are a few thousand lowland gorillas left and only a few hundred mountain gorillas on the volcanic slopes of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Researchers say that the great apes are highly intelligent with sophisticated social structures. Chimpanzees share 98.4 per cent of human DNA, more than any other mammal. “They are like us in more than their biological composition,” Jane Goodall, the leading primatologist, said.

belize Apes jungles { September 4 2002 } Apes will be extinct in a generation { September 1 2005 } Arizona wild fires { June 22 2003 } Arnolds epa pick critical bush healthy forest initiative { November 14 2003 } Arson suspected in most of 10 fires { October 29 2003 } Burning [jpg] Bush says kindling causes forest fires { December 3 2003 } Bush seeks shifts in logging rules { July 13 2004 } Bush to gut roadless rule { June 10 2003 } Cattle grazing causing more extensive rainforest damage { October 21 2005 } Deforestation paves way in brazil { January 8 2005 } Denies natural cycles { May 24 2003 } Ease logging { August 22 2002 } Ethanol will destroy rainforests Excuse to log { June 19 2003 } Federal judge overturns roadless ban Forests pay the price for biofuels Governor says roadless unlawful { August 20 2003 } House passes bill to speed post fire timber sales { May 18 2006 } House passes forest thinning bill { May 20 2003 } In the line of fire Judge roadless accused ethics violation Jungles disappear 30yrs Logging forest fires New forest rules help loggers { December 23 2004 } Non burned undergrowth threat People use 83pc { October 23 2002 } Rainforest destruction { June 25 2001 } Roadless plan upheld San bernardino wild fires { October 26 2003 } Smokey bear revamps fire message Smokey the bear was wrong { August 21 2000 } Wild fires then ice storms { November 14 2003 } Files Listed: 33

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