UNESCO supports the creation of frameworks for dialogue in order to share knowledge about great apes and their habitats. UNESCO is improving knowledge about great apes and their habitats by documenting traditional cultural knowledge and practices related to great apes and their territories for their protection, mapping their habitats and observing their populations. It encompasses all the values and missions of the MAB Programme: research programmes centred on nature, conservation efforts, ecosystem restoration, reconciliation between nature and people, sustainable development through controlled tourism, participation of the local communities in the biosphere reserve management and projects and above all, involving youth and raising awareness to protect biodiversity for future generations.
Jane Goodall began her research on chimpanzees in 1960. The Gombe Masito Ugalla Biosphere Reserve (Tanzania), designated in 2018, is the historic site where Dr. UNESCO is working with Cameroon and Nigeria to designate the Cross-River area as a transboundary biosphere reserve.Īmong these, the Gunung Leuser Biosphere Reserve and Sumatra Rainforest World Heritage site cover 100% of the range of Sumatra's Orangutan. Although they cover only a fraction of the great apes' natural habitat, Biosphere Reserves and World Heritage sites protect all but one Great Ape species through its 36 UNESCO-designated sites in 23 countries: the Cross-River Gorilla. National and transboundary protected areas are becoming a last bastion for many great ape taxa. Through World Heritage sites and Biosphere Reserves, UNESCO is involved in the protection and sustainable management of Great Ape habitats. Genera Threats Protecting habitats Raising awareness Improving knowledge Behind the protection of our closest cousins and their habitats, it is "one health" that we are protecting. The protection of these species, which play a fundamental role in the ecological balance of tropical forests and ecosystems, and thus in adaptation to climate change is essential. With an estimated population of between 518,000 and 688,000 gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans living in the wild, all Great Ape species are either Endangered or Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and CITES Appendix 1, indicating that they are at very high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future, probably within our own lifetime. They are all endangered, at a high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future, probably within our own lifetime. In addition to humans, there are 3 genera of great apes: chimpanzees and gorillas in Africa, and orangutans in Asia.
With a common gene pool of between 97% and 98.5%, great apes are our closest cousins in the animal kingdom. The seventh is Homo sapiens, our species. The hominid family is the smallest mammalian family with 7 living species, 6 of which live in the tropical forests of Africa and Asia.