Partnerships and Information-sharing Spur Ape Conservation This Funding Cycle

Many of the recipients of Arcus’ winter funding cycle are focusing on collaborations and partnerships to share information and influence positive outcomes for the conservation of great apes and gibbons.

Global Wildlife Conservation will use its grant to support the Section on Great Apes of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Species Survival Commission (IUCN/SSC) Primate Specialist Group. The Group works to strengthen the global network of experts in the field to improve research and best practices around great ape conservation. In a similar spirit of information sharing, the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science will consolidate the IUCN/SSC A.P.E.S. Database for monitoring the conservation status of great and small apes. The database, which was created in 2005, has proven to be an important resource to inform global ape trends and research, and improves the knowledge of ape populations and the number of threats they face.

Waxman Strategies is using diplomacy and corporate pressure to rescue the western chimpanzee and Tapanuli orangutan from significant population loss. The organization seeks to influence the development of two dams–the Koukoutamba Dam in the Foutah Djallon of Guinea and the Batang Toru Hydro-electric Dam in Sumatra—that could have potentially devastating impacts on ape conservation.

Bush-To-Base Solutions will support the Tanzanian Mahale Mountains Strategic Chimpanzee Health Management Plan, mitigating the impacts of disease through increased ape-human interaction. It will help fund a plan to help manage several pathogens found at the human-chimp interface, based on data collected in chimpanzee groups in Tanzania’s Mahale region.

Also working with chimpanzees, Liverpool John Moores University will support the Ntakata Forest Tanzanian Chimpanzee Connectivity Project, which is working to establish population distribution baselines to inform conservation efficacy. Wildlife Asia, meanwhile, will support the Javan Gibbon Centre (JGC) in its fight against the illegal trade mitigation, as well as its reintroduction and conservation strategies. The online trade in gibbons continues to be a serious concern.

The Virunga Fund will use its grant for emergency ranger support in Virunga National Park, where unrest led to a suspension of tourism—a main funding source—in 2018. The park is home to approximately a third of the critically endangered mountain gorilla species.

Also receiving grants this funding cycle are Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, HELP INTERNATIONAL (Habitat Écologique et Liberté des Primates), Forest Peoples Programme, International Institute for Environment and Development, and Thinking Animals, Inc.