Home > Grasp international
Grasp international
In this section:
The Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP)
GRASP
is an innovative and ambitious project of the United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP) and the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) with an immediate
challenge - to lift the threat of imminent extinction faced by gorillas
(Gorilla beringei, G. gorilla), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), bonobos
(Pan paniscus) and orangutans (Pongo abelii, P. pygmaeus) across their
ranges in equatorial Africa and south-east Asia.
Great ape
populations are declining at an alarming rate worldwide. The continuing
destruction of habitat, in combination with the growth in the
commercial bushmeat trade in Africa and increased logging activities in
Indonesia, have lead scientists to suggest that the majority of great
ape populations may be extinct in our lifetime. Even if isolated
populations were to survive, the long-term viability of great apes is
in doubt due to their limited numbers and the fragmentation of their
habitat. Drastic action is needed. Time is not on our side.
In May
2001, in response to this crisis, Dr. Klaus Toepfer, the Executive
Director of UNEP, launched GRASP as a new approach to save the great
apes and their habitat. GRASP has a unique role to complement existing
great ape conservation efforts through intergovernmental dialogue and
policy making, conservation planning initiatives, technical and
scientific support to great ape range state governments, flagship field
projects and fund and awareness raising in donor countries..
As
co-sponsors of GRASP, UNEP and UNESCO are jointly and equally
responsible for co-coordinating fund raising, budgetting, operations,
staffing, secretariat and functioning of the GRASP team.
By
capitalizing on close links with governments through the UN, the GRASP
Partnership can promote its message at the highest political levels. As
such, it is uniquely placed to inform policy makers, to mobilize and
pool resources for effective action, to ensure maximum efficiency and
provide a communication platform in order to bring the decline of great
ape populations to a halt.
The endangered great apes share their
habitat with millions of people in west, central and east Africa and in
southeast Asia. The majority of these people live below the poverty
line. The need to link the welfare of humans and wildlife is a central
objective of GRASP.
Since its inception, the activities of GRASP
partners have helped define what strategy GRASP might adopt to address
the threats facing the great apes, given its unique position as a truly
international alliance among a diversity of stakeholders (see Appendix
1). Intergovernmental dialogue and events, meeting with key GRASP
Partners and other forms of policy implementation have consolidated the
GRASP Partnership and linked it to relevant biodiversity-related
mechanisms and multilateral agreements.
Technical support to the
range states has catalyzed government action to respond to the crisis.
National Great Ape Survival Plan (NGASP) workshops and support to other
planning mechanisms have helped great ape range countries develop
conservation strategies. Information and awareness activities through
such media as TV and newspapers articles, publications, documentary
films and side events have raised the profile of the plight facing the
great apes at the global level.
UNEP, UNESCO and donor funding of
non-governmental partner projects has involved local communities and
achieved much in the field. GRASP Patrons Jane Goodall, Russell
Mittermeier, Toshisada Nishida, Richard Leakey and Richard Wrangham
have provided their world-renowned expertise and reputation to bring
further attention to the plight facing the great apes.
For further information go to http://www.unep.org/grasp/
Photos on this website courtesy of William Calvin, Jeff Canin, Aleisha Caruso, Debby Cox, Furuichi c/o JGI Uganda, Kris Descovich, Lola Ya Bonobo sanctuary, Tony Gilding, Selby King, Carlos Schuler, Jodie Sheridan
Contact us: email help@grasp.org.au