Nature Blog Network Future Earth: Primates in peril

Tuesday 5 August 2008

Primates in peril

No laughing matter this, whatever the orang art featured here might indicate.

A report released today by the IUCN (World Conservation Union - howzat for a branding nightmare) revealed that 48% of the world's primates are in severe trouble. 303 of the 634 species are now listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered on the IUCN threat risk scale.

The report is being picked up by the media
but will the news be taken seriously by the primate responsible, the human kind? There are heros and advocates battling against the odds, and there are some good news missives from the front line. The cost of saving an orang utan has been (simplistically but interestingly) calculated as £568.48 - a better investment in the future than a year's car tax or an airline flight one might, equally simplistically, assume.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thought you might be interested to know we are no longer called the World Conservation Union, just IUCN. If you need to explain it, it stands for International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Sarah Horsley
Media Relations Officer
IUCN