Skip to content

Wild heritage

20 January 2001

Chimps and other great apes should be
recognised and protected as “heritage species” in the same way that the Taj
Mahal is recognised as a heritage site, says the International Primatological
Society. The society voted in Adelaide last week to petition UNESCO, which
confers World Heritage status on sites of outstanding natural or cultural value,
to do the same for great apes. All sites can be given emergency assistance if
they are in danger. IPS president Toshisada Nishida says that without special
conservation efforts, great apes “will be extinct in 20 years”.