Chimpanzees headed for extinction.

Chimpanzees, who share 98 percent of their DNA with humans, will be extinct within the next 50 years, according to a study presented at the Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance conference on June 8, 2004. With only 8,000 individuals remaining, the most vulnerable sub-species, Pan troglodytes vellerosus, could face extinction in just two decades if deforestation and illegal hunting continue at current levels. And while extinction may not be quite as imminent for the other three chimpanzee sub-species, they are still projected to disappear within 41 to 53 years, at their current rate of decline.

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The study, by California State University-Fullerton anthropologist Norm Rosen, is based on the remarkable increase in the number of orphans arriving at sanctuaries throughout Africa. "We gathered material on over 600 orphan chimpanzees and ascertained that most of them were a result of the bushmeat crisis," Rosen said. He explained that hunters tend to kill female chimpanzees in groups of five to 10, so for each orphan that comes into the sanctuaries, the study assumes between five and 10 female chimpanzees were killed. "If you start multiplying those numbers times the number of orphans, it becomes obvious that most populations cannot sustain themselves," he said.

The study did not come as a surprise to Nona Gandelman, the Jane Goodall Institute's director of communications. "The situation is really critical," said Gandelman, who agrees that bushmeat and deforestation are the top threats. "But there is also a deeper issue and that is the poverty and suffering of human beings."

According to Gandelman and George Strunden, JGI's director of Africa Programs, the root of the problem is in the lack of alternative sources of income in communities bordering chimpanzee habitats. Indigenous people used to hunt bushmeat for subsistence. Now they are paid to hunt in order to feed logging camps, which in turn are cutting further into formerly non-accessible parts of the forest and destroying chimpanzee habitat. Hunters also sell chimp meat to the black markets in port cities throughout Africa, and to specialty markets all over the world.

"People who live near chimpanzee habitats need alternative livelihoods such as agriculture and microfinance," said Strunden. "So, we also need to work with governments to increase education and improve health care."