African great apes to suffer massive range loss in next 30 years
Date:
June 7, 2021
Source:
Wildlife Conservation Society
Summary:
A new study predicts massive range declines of Africa's great
apes - - gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos -- due to the impacts
of climate change, land-use changes and human population growth.
FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new study published in the journal Diversity and Distributions predicts massive range declines of Africa's great apes -- gorillas, chimpanzees
and bonobos -- due to the impacts of climate change, land-use changes
and human population growth.
==========================================================================
For their analysis, the authors compiled information on African ape
occurrence held in the IUCN SSC A.P.E.S. database, a repository that
includes a remarkable amount of information on population status, threats
and conservation for several hundred sites, collected over 20 years.
The first-of-its-kind study quantifies the joint effects of climate,
land-use, and human population changes across African ape ranges for
the year 2050 under best- and worst-case scenarios. "Best case" implies
slowly declining carbon emissions and that appropriate mitigation measures
will be put in place. "Worst case" assumes that emissions continue to
increase unchecked -- business as usual.
Under the best-case scenario, the authors predict that great apes will
lose 85 percent of their range, of which 50 percent will be outside
national parks and other areas protected by legislation. Under the
worst-case scenario, they predict a 94 percent loss, of which 61 percent
will be in areas that are not protected.
This paper examines whether great apes can or cannot disperse away from
where they are currently found, and the best- and worst-case scenarios
in each case.
For example, mountains are currently less suitable than lowland areas
for some great ape species. However, climate change will render some
lowlands less suitable -- warmer, drier, perhaps less food available --
but the nearby mountains will take on the characteristics that those
lowlands currently have.
If great apes are able to physically move from the lowlands to the
mountains, they may be able to survive, and even increase their range (depending on the species, and whether it is the best- or worst-case
scenario). However, they may not be able to travel (disperse) away from
the lowlands in the time remaining between today and 2050.
Joana Carvalho, postdoctoral researcher in the Faculty of Science,
Liverpool John Moores University, lead author of the study says:
"By integrating future climate and land-use changes as well as
human population scenarios, this study provides strong evidence for
synergistic interactions among key global drivers constraining African
ape distribution." Carvalho adds: "Importantly, massive range loss is
widely expected outside protected areas, which reflects the insufficiency
of the current network of protected areas in Africa to preserve suitable habitats for great apes and effectively connect great ape populations."
Fiona Maisels of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and a co-author
of the study, said: "As climate change forces the different types of
vegetation to essentially shift uphill, it means that all animals --
not only great apes - - that depend on particular habitat types will
be forced to move uphill along with the vegetation, or become locally
extinct. And when the hills are low, many species, great and small,
will not be able go higher than the land allows, and huge numbers of
animals and plants will simply vanish." The authors argue that effective conservation strategies require careful planning for each species that
focuses on both existing and proposed protected areas -- the creation
and management of which can be informed by these habitat suitability
models. Additionally, efforts to maintain connectivity between the
habitats predicted to be suitable in the future will be crucial for
the survival of African apes. Conservation planners urgently need to
integrate land-use planning and climate change mitigation and adaptation measures into government policy of great ape range countries.
The study highlights the need for urgent action to combat both
biodiversity loss and climate change if great apes are to continue into
the future.
Governments must protect and conserve the habitats of great apes -- where
they are now, and where they will need to move. Governments attending
the upcoming Convention on Biological Diversity CoP 15 in September and
the UN Climate Change Conference in November should adopt meaningful commitments to protect and conserve great apes and their habitats and
combat climate change.
The results of the study corroborate other recent studies showing that
African ape populations and their habitats are declining dramatically. All African great apes are classified either as Endangered (mountain gorillas, bonobos, Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees, eastern chimpanzees, and central chimpanzees) or Critically Endangered (Cross River gorillas, Grauer's
gorillas, western lowland gorillas, and western chimpanzees) on the IUCN
Red List of Threatened Species, and all are regarded as flagship species
for conservation.
Hjalmar Kuehl, from iDiv in Leipzig, Germany, and senior author of
the study said: "There must be global responsibility for stopping
the decline of great apes. Global consumption of natural resources
extracted from ape range countries is a major driver of great
ape decline. All nations benefitting from these resources have a
responsibility to ensure a better future for great apes, their habitats
and the people living therein by developing more sustainable economies." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Wildlife_Conservation_Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Joana S. Carvalho, Bruce Graham, Gaёlle Bocksberger,
Fiona Maisels,
Elizabeth A. Williamson, Serge Wich, Tenekwetche Sop, Bala
Amarasekaran, Benjamin Barca, Abdulai Barrie, Richard A. Bergl,
Christophe Boesch, Hedwige Boesch, Terry M. Brncic, Bartelijntje
Buys, Rebecca Chancellor, Emmanuel Danquah, Osiris A. Doumbe',
Stephane Y. Le‐Duc, Anh Galat‐Luong, Jessica Ganas,
Sylvain Gatti, Andrea Ghiurghi, Annemarie Goedmakers, Nicolas
Granier, Dismas Hakizimana, Barbara Haurez, Josephine Head,
Ilka Herbinger, Annika Hillers, Sorrel Jones, Jessica Junker,
Nakedi Maputla, Eno‐Nku Manasseh, Maureen S. McCarthy, Mary
Molokwu‐Odozi, Bethan J. Morgan, Yoshihiro Nakashima, Paul K.
N'Goran, Stuart Nixon, Louis Nkembi, Emmanuelle Normand, Laurent
D.Z.
Nzooh, Sarah H. Olson, Leon Payne, Charles‐Albert Petre,
Alex K.
Piel, Lilian Pintea, Andrew J. Plumptre, Aaron Rundus, Adeline
Serckx, Fiona A. Stewart, Jacqueline Sunderland‐Groves,
Nikki Tagg, Angelique Todd, Ashley Vosper, Jose' F.C. Wenceslau,
Erin G. Wessling, Jacob Willie, Hjalmar S. Ku"hl. Predicting range
shifts of African apes under global change scenarios. Diversity
and Distributions, 2021; DOI: 10.1111/ddi.13358 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210607161000.htm
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