During the annual meeting of CITES in Bangkok, currently underway in Thailand, the Executive Director of GRASP – UN Programme for the defense of Great Apes, Doug Cress, reported that more than 3,000 great apes are captured each year to supply the lucrative and well armed illegal market of these species in the world.

According to Cress, who was Director of PASA (Pan African Alliance of Sanctuaries) and of GAP International and for years has been fighting for the survival of these species, for each chimpanzee captured another 10 die. Chimpanzees live in large groups and when hunters and traffickers get “into the jungle is not to get one. They have to fight. They have to kill other chimps in the group.”

Cress denounced that this trafficking supplies rich and powerful people who buy these primates to display their power, and zoos of dubious reputation, which use them for public enjoyment.

The meeting of CITES – which is a committee for the protection of Endangered Species – runs until March 14 and one of the goals of the meeting is to prevent semi-legal and illegal trafficking of great apes, as well as other urgent issues, such as the trade of ivory, which is responsible for the killing of hundreds of elephants in Africa. The animals have their teeth sold in Thailand, where this trade is allowed and conceals this massacre of elephants.

Cress made ??a worldwide alert: “at the speed these species are being decimated, the three African species of great apes – chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas – and the only Asian – orangutans – will disappear very quickly.”

Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian

President, GAP Project International

Related news:
http://www.un-grasp.org/news/114-stolen-apes-counts-illegal-trade-toll