WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords, I – Vt., today introduced the Great Ape Conservation Reauthorization Act of 2005. The legislation reauthorizes and increases funding for the Great Ape Conservation program, established by Congress in 2000 to support the conservation of chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos, gorillas, and gibbons in their wild habitats.
“Despite the overwhelming challenges that jeopardize the continued survival of great apes, we must do our part to sustain efforts to halt their unnecessary extinction,” said Jeffords, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which has jurisdiction over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Every year the strain on these precious species becomes greater and greater and we must ensure that the resources to protect them keeps pace.”
Jeffords authored the Great Ape Conservation Act of 1999, and has also authored legislation to authorize conservation funds for rhinos and tigers, African elephants, Asian elephants, and marine turtles.
Since 2000, the Great Ape Conservation Fund has provided financial assistance for 94 research and restoration projects in 22 countries and leveraged millions of dollars in additional matching and in-kind funds.
The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that fewer than 100,000 Western lowland gorillas currently remain worldwide. Only 30,000 orangutans remain in Southeast Asia. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, whereas more than one million chimpanzees populated the dense forests of Africa in 1960, fewer than 200,000 survive in the wild today.
Dr. Jane Goodall, one of the world’s leading primatologists, said “With the combined threats of habitat loss, bushmeat hunting, disease and lack of protection, the future for great apes is in jeopardy – and too few resources are currently available for governments and conservation organizations to overcome those challenges. The Great Apes Conservation Act has given the United States a central role in shaping the future for wild great apes.”
Jeffords’ bill reauthorizes the Great Ape Conservation Fund, which receives its annual appropriation through the Multinational Species Conservation Fund, for five years and raises the funding authorization from $5 million for each year to $7 million for fiscal year 2008 and $10 million for fiscal years 2009 and 2010.
Cosponsors of the legislation include: U.S. Sens. Lincoln Chafee, R – RI, Frank Lautenberg, D – NJ, Joseph Lieberman, D – Conn., and Patty Murray D – Wash.
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Statement of Senator James M. Jeffords
Great Ape Conservation Reauthorization Act of 2005
June 15, 2005 Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Great Ape Conservation Reauthorization Act of 2005. Over the past decade I have sponsored legislation to establish and reauthorize programs designated for the conservation of several multinational species including African elephants, Asian elephants, rhinoceros and tigers, and marine turtles. Throughout my years in Congress, endangered species conservation has been among my highest priorities, but the recent birth of my first grandson lends new strength to my commitment to preserve the natural world for future generations. The great apes—chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, and gibbons—constitute a group of 14 primate species that share a high percentage of genetic characteristics with human beings. Among them, certain species have demonstrated the ability to learn human behaviors. Left unharmed, they may live for 30 to 50 years and form complex social relationships. As Dr. Jane Goodall said in a BBC News article in 2002, “All [great ape species] have minds that can solve simple problems and all have feelings. So it’s a moral responsibility to save them from extinction.” The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that fewer than 100,000 Western lowland gorillas currently remain worldwide. Only 30,000 orangutans remain in Southeast Asia. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, whereas more than one million chimpanzees populated the dense forests of Africa in 1960, fewer than 200,000 survive in the wild today. In regions of Western and Central Africa and Southeast Asia, where populations of these captivating creatures still remain, the continued existence of great ape species will depend upon finding solutions to various complicated threats including habitat destruction, disease, and poaching. One problem of elevated concern for scientists is the alarming number of new outbreaks of the ebola virus in Africa. As we have become increasingly aware of the substantial risk to human life that ebola and similar viruses pose in parts of Central and Western Africa, few understand the serious impact that these diseases have on great ape populations. A study published in the journal Nature in 2003 reports that when an ebola outbreak affects a given area, more than 80 percent of all great apes living in that area will die of the disease. In August 2004, the International Primatological Society released preliminary evidence that suggests that as many as 20,000 Western lowland gorillas may be at risk as the result of a new outbreak of the ebola virus in the Republic of Congo. Developing vaccines and techniques to prevent the decimation of great ape populations as a result of ebola will require a coordinated effort among conservationists, wildlife biologists, and those responding to human outbreaks. Supported in part by the Great Ape Conservation Fund, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently convened a meeting of experts to begin the process of developing a research and intervention plan. This meeting typifies this kind of collaborative conservation effort that the Great Ape Conservation program was designed to undertake. The Great Ape Conservation Fund has also played an invaluable role in protecting habitat. One of the first such projects to receive support from the Fund, the Goualougo Triangle Chimp Project in the Republic of Congo, is a success story that stands out among what can often be disheartening news from the frontlines of chimpanzee conservation. In 1993, scientists first discovered a small population of chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle that had never been hunted and were therefore not afraid of humans. The presence of such chimps is extraordinary given that their habitat coincides with a region that is rife with logging and bushmeat hunting. With help from the Great Ape program, scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society produced scientific evidence to document 272 individual chimps and acquired rare video footage of their social interactions. As a result of this study, conservationists convinced the government of Congo to protect the Goualougo chimps and their habitat from the eminent threat of logging and hunting and to cede the Goualougo Triangle to a national park. Over the course of merely five years, the Great Ape Conservation Fund has provided financial assistance for 94 research and restoration projects in 22 countries and leveraged millions of dollars in additional matching and in-kind funds. My legislation reauthorizes the Great Ape Conservation Fund, which receives its annual appropriation through the Multinational Species Conservation Fund, for five years and gradually raises the funding authorization from $5 million for each year to $7 million for fiscal year 2008 and $10 million for fiscal years 2009 and 2010. The bill raises the top threshold cap on administrative expenses from $80,000 to $150,000, though I should note that over the past five years, Federal appropriations have yet to bring the cap on administrative expenses to the top threshold amount. Additional provisions of the bill will expand the variety of conservation projects eligible for assistance to include those that address the root causes of threats to great apes in range states, including the illegal bushmeat trade, diseases, lack of regional or local capacity for conservation and habitat loss due to natural disasters. The bill also amends an existing requirement in the law that requires that the US Fish and Wildlife Service annually convene a panel of experts. My bill exempts expert panels under this law from the Federal Advisory Committee Act and provide the Administrator with greater flexibility to determine when it is appropriate to convene an expert panel. I remain hopeful that despite the overwhelming challenges that jeopardize the continued survival of great apes, we can do our part to sustain efforts to halt their unnecessary extinction. Federal assistance for the conservation of rare, threatened and endangered international species through the use of species conservation funds has received bipartisan support from Congress for nearly fifteen years. I ask you to please join me in maintaining this longstanding commitment to wildlife protection. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be printed in the record.
Great Ape Conservation Reauthorization Act of 2005
June 15, 2005 Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Great Ape Conservation Reauthorization Act of 2005. Over the past decade I have sponsored legislation to establish and reauthorize programs designated for the conservation of several multinational species including African elephants, Asian elephants, rhinoceros and tigers, and marine turtles. Throughout my years in Congress, endangered species conservation has been among my highest priorities, but the recent birth of my first grandson lends new strength to my commitment to preserve the natural world for future generations. The great apes—chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, and gibbons—constitute a group of 14 primate species that share a high percentage of genetic characteristics with human beings. Among them, certain species have demonstrated the ability to learn human behaviors. Left unharmed, they may live for 30 to 50 years and form complex social relationships. As Dr. Jane Goodall said in a BBC News article in 2002, “All [great ape species] have minds that can solve simple problems and all have feelings. So it’s a moral responsibility to save them from extinction.” The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that fewer than 100,000 Western lowland gorillas currently remain worldwide. Only 30,000 orangutans remain in Southeast Asia. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, whereas more than one million chimpanzees populated the dense forests of Africa in 1960, fewer than 200,000 survive in the wild today. In regions of Western and Central Africa and Southeast Asia, where populations of these captivating creatures still remain, the continued existence of great ape species will depend upon finding solutions to various complicated threats including habitat destruction, disease, and poaching. One problem of elevated concern for scientists is the alarming number of new outbreaks of the ebola virus in Africa. As we have become increasingly aware of the substantial risk to human life that ebola and similar viruses pose in parts of Central and Western Africa, few understand the serious impact that these diseases have on great ape populations. A study published in the journal Nature in 2003 reports that when an ebola outbreak affects a given area, more than 80 percent of all great apes living in that area will die of the disease. In August 2004, the International Primatological Society released preliminary evidence that suggests that as many as 20,000 Western lowland gorillas may be at risk as the result of a new outbreak of the ebola virus in the Republic of Congo. Developing vaccines and techniques to prevent the decimation of great ape populations as a result of ebola will require a coordinated effort among conservationists, wildlife biologists, and those responding to human outbreaks. Supported in part by the Great Ape Conservation Fund, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently convened a meeting of experts to begin the process of developing a research and intervention plan. This meeting typifies this kind of collaborative conservation effort that the Great Ape Conservation program was designed to undertake. The Great Ape Conservation Fund has also played an invaluable role in protecting habitat. One of the first such projects to receive support from the Fund, the Goualougo Triangle Chimp Project in the Republic of Congo, is a success story that stands out among what can often be disheartening news from the frontlines of chimpanzee conservation. In 1993, scientists first discovered a small population of chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle that had never been hunted and were therefore not afraid of humans. The presence of such chimps is extraordinary given that their habitat coincides with a region that is rife with logging and bushmeat hunting. With help from the Great Ape program, scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society produced scientific evidence to document 272 individual chimps and acquired rare video footage of their social interactions. As a result of this study, conservationists convinced the government of Congo to protect the Goualougo chimps and their habitat from the eminent threat of logging and hunting and to cede the Goualougo Triangle to a national park. Over the course of merely five years, the Great Ape Conservation Fund has provided financial assistance for 94 research and restoration projects in 22 countries and leveraged millions of dollars in additional matching and in-kind funds. My legislation reauthorizes the Great Ape Conservation Fund, which receives its annual appropriation through the Multinational Species Conservation Fund, for five years and gradually raises the funding authorization from $5 million for each year to $7 million for fiscal year 2008 and $10 million for fiscal years 2009 and 2010. The bill raises the top threshold cap on administrative expenses from $80,000 to $150,000, though I should note that over the past five years, Federal appropriations have yet to bring the cap on administrative expenses to the top threshold amount. Additional provisions of the bill will expand the variety of conservation projects eligible for assistance to include those that address the root causes of threats to great apes in range states, including the illegal bushmeat trade, diseases, lack of regional or local capacity for conservation and habitat loss due to natural disasters. The bill also amends an existing requirement in the law that requires that the US Fish and Wildlife Service annually convene a panel of experts. My bill exempts expert panels under this law from the Federal Advisory Committee Act and provide the Administrator with greater flexibility to determine when it is appropriate to convene an expert panel. I remain hopeful that despite the overwhelming challenges that jeopardize the continued survival of great apes, we can do our part to sustain efforts to halt their unnecessary extinction. Federal assistance for the conservation of rare, threatened and endangered international species through the use of species conservation funds has received bipartisan support from Congress for nearly fifteen years. I ask you to please join me in maintaining this longstanding commitment to wildlife protection. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be printed in the record.
