The multibillion-dollar trade in illegal wildlife – clandestine trafficking that has driven iconic creatures like the tiger to near-extinction – is also threatening the survival of great apes, a new UN report says.
Endangered chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas and bonobos are disappearing from the wild in frightening numbers, as private owners pay top dollar for exotic pets, while disreputable zoos, amusement parks and traveling circuses clamour for smuggled primates to entertain audiences.
More than 22,000 great apes are estimated to have been traded illegally over a seven-year period ending in 2011. That’s about 3,000 a year; more than half are chimpanzees, the UN report said.
“These great apes make up an important part of our natural heritage. But as with all things of value, great apes are used by man for commercial profit and the illegal trafficking of the species constitutes a serious threat to their existence,” Henri Djombo, a government minister from the Republic of Congo, was quoted as saying.
The UN report paints a dire picture of the fight to protect vulnerable and dwindling flora and fauna from organised criminal networks that often have the upper hand.
Apes are hunted in their own habitats, which are concentrated in central and western Africa, by sophisticated smugglers who transport them on private cargo planes using small airstrips in the African bush. Their destination is usually the Middle East and Asia.