Due to the visit of executive director of GAP Project Spain, Pedro Pozas Terrados, on April 28 to a lecture at Spain School at Paris International University, it was launched a new delegation of GAP Project in France. The representatives will be led by Helena Haibakelena, an environmentalist who has been fighting for many years for the rights of great primates in her country.

The lecture by Pedro Pozas, whose title was ”The future of GAP Project , the protection of great primates and the fight against the destruction of tropical forests”, alerted about the lack of action of governments against the destruction of tropical forests, which are the main habitat of great primates and many other animals.

Pedro Pozas also pointed that United Nation FAO is covering the destruction of the forests by announcing that the deforestation is dropping. This is not true because the deforestation for palm planting, for the production of palm oil and eucalyptus, is not regeneration. It represents, in fact, its destruction. According to Pedro Pozas, the monoculture of these trees, for commercial exploitation, is the same thing of a desert full of poison, due to the herbicides used and where the biodiversity, the man reason for the forests to be alive, no longer exists.

During the lecture it was presented a video filmed at Ivory Coast about a project of production of a substitute for vegetal coal, avoiding forests firing. GAP Project donated six machines to produce this sustainable coal and trained several groups of people to use them. It is important to offer an economical alternative for local population, so they abandoned the practice of destructing the forest and biodiversity as a way to survive.

Pedro Pozas also presented his critical point of view about the consequences suffered by great primates who live in zoos, which put profits in the first place, not the conservation of the species. He also condemned the constant exchange of primates among institutions of European Community, taking no consideration for the family boundaries of the primates.

He finished his presentation affirming that GAP Project will continue to fight for the rights of great primates in every place and levels.

Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian
President, GAP Project International