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September 18, 2002 Wednesday 8:27 AM Eastern Time

HEADLINE: In the shadow of the apes: Vietnam's near-extinct gibbon
BYLINE: BEN ROWSE
DATELINE: HANOI, Sept 18

Conservationists are calling for urgent action to prevent the
extinction of the world's most endangered primate, after 26 eastern
black crested gibbons were discovered last month in Vietnam.
Frank Momberg, country director for Fauna and Flora International
(FFI), said the gibbon, thought to be extinct, was first spotted in
the impoverished northeastern province of Cao Bang at the beginning
of the year by two Vietnamese biologists.
A five-member team, including Momberg and Swiss primatologist Thomas
Geissmann, one of the world's leading expert on gibbons, travelled
to the mountainous province last month to carry out a population
study.
There, in the forest-clad district of Trung Khanh along the border
with China, sparsely populated by ethnic minority hill tribes, they
documented what is believed to be the remnants of a once abundant
species -- 26 gibbons in five family groups. "Given that those left
are divided between males and females, there is a chance that this
population can recover. But it will literally be a case of pulling a
species back from the brink of extinction," Momberg told AFP.
The rare gibbon, scientifically known as Nomascus nasutus nasutus,
and weighing between seven and 10 kilograms (15 and 22 pounds), used
to live in forests across northeastern Vietnam and southern China.
However, it became extinct on the Chinese mainland in the 1950s.
The last reliable sightings in Vietnam, where they are locally known
as cao-vit because of their distinctive morning songs used as mating
calls and to mark their territory, were in the early 1960s and it
was feared that they had become extinct.
A subspecies, the Hainan gibbon or Nomascus nasutus hainanus, exist
on China's Hainan island but the recorded population there has
dropped to 20.
"There are 12,000 Sumatran orangutans, and around 70,000 gorillas
and more than 100,000 chimpanzees in Africa, but the total known
global population for the eastern black crested gibbon is 26,"
Momberg said.
"It is essential that more attention and resources are focused on
these highly endangered animals. They need to emerge from the shadow
of the great apes."
However, he warned that formidable obstacles lined their survival
path, particularly since "Cao Bang is one of the poorest provinces
in Vietnam and conservation is not high on their priority list".
Momberg said the primary concern was the dwindling size of their
habitat, which has been reduced to just 2,500 hectares (6,250 acres)
as a result of logging and deliberate mass deforestation by Chinese
troops during their brief but bloody border war with Vietnam in
1979.
"Can this area support an increase in population? We don't know at
the moment but we are not optimistic."
Dang Ngoc Can, a biologist at the Institute of Ecology and
Biological Resources, said the international community had an
obligation to ensure their survival.
"This is a very rare subspecies that as far as we know only exists
in Vietnam. They are the property of Vietnam as well as of the world
and so we have to protect them," he told AFP.
"But first of all, we need the government to declare this region a
species habitat conservation area so we can develop a comprehensive
scientific programme to protect them and their forest."
Unlike a nature reserve in which local people are relocated, a
species habitat conservation area seeks to address the needs of the
area's inhabitants while protecting the endangered animal.
Momberg added: "Without the help and desire of the local people, we
cannot prevent the gibbons from becoming extinct."
He said FFI has secured a commitment from the provinical goverment
to submit a proposal to the central goverment for its establishment.
Among other initiatives needed to address the gibbon's shaky future,
conservationists say substitutes for timber, used by locals for fuel
and house construction, need to be made available to prevent any
further loss of habitat.
Momberg also called for more strenuous efforts by border security
forces to prevent the infiltration of poachers from China hunting
the rare primate for its bones, which are used in Chinese medicine
to cure back pain.
His concern was echoed by Can: "It's fortunate that the gibbons are
living in a remote area. The local people told us they have no
intention to hunt them, but the danger comes from the illegal
hunters crossing the Chinese border."
Vietnam officially recognises 54 species of mammals and 60 species
of birds as endangered, but its wildlife population is in a
precipitous decline due to deforestation, pollution of waterways and
poaching.
Their calls in the past may have been drowned out by wars and
economic doldrums, but this time round the message is loud and clear
from the conservation lobby: without immediate and meaningful
action, the singing gibbon may be the first primate in over a
millennium to become extinct.

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