Evolutionists believe that man had evolved from the great apes. And now biodiversity activists argue that protection of gorillas is quite important, as they will save the earth. Conservation of the habitat of gorillas will help in improving the health of humans as major challenging diseases often emerge from great apes and transmit to humans, point out experts from the Great Apes Survival Partnership (Grasp), a UNEP/Unesco partnership. Human health issues are often the selling point for great apes conservation, they said, adding that gorillas play an important role in disease monitoring. They emphasise the need to lift the threat of extinction faced by gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans.
At a presentation at the 11th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity here, Douglas Cress of GRASP described great apes as a “flagship species” as they are also relevant for livelihoods and revenue generation.
He said great apes are critically endangered due to habitat loss and fragmentation, illegal logging and mining, poaching, bush meat trade, encroachment and disease. Great apes could be used as a “calling call” to leverage conservation. Cress said the most deadly diseases emanate from great apes and they can be transferred back and forth between humans and apes. Human pathogens are negatively affecting wild apes.
Cress said in Central Africa, human encroachment and habitat loss are bringing human and great apes populations into regular contact, blurring the buffer zones that used to exist. An additional threat to great apes is from the extremely mobile human population in the region and lack of barriers into the national parks, which are consistently breached by refugees.