Rebecca has been working at FFI since September 2007. Though she studied conservation in her BA and MSc, she decided that the life in the jungle just wasn't for her. Having grown up in New York City, she has experienced more pigeons and squirrels than parrots and spider monkeys. So she decided to write about the impact that FFI's projects have on the ground.
Her current role as Communications Officer (Business & Biodiversity) has allowed her to focus her energy towards FFI's innovative Business & Biodiversity Programme. Rebecca helps to get the message out about FFI's strategic corporate partnerships and what they have helped to achieve for global biodiversity.
A gathering of the world’s gibbon experts, led by Fauna & Flora International (FFI), has declared a call to action to save the crested gibbons of South East Asia during the XXIII Congress of the International Primatological Society.
“The crested gibbons are the most threatened group of primates and all species require urgent attention to save them from extinction”
Thomas Geissmann, the world-renowned gibbon expert from Zurich University and FFI gibbon advisor.
All seven species of crested gibbons are highly threatened and some are among the world’s most endangered mammals.
The plight of crested gibbons is exemplified by the world’s rarest ape, the Hainan gibbon. There are about 20 individuals remaining in two family groups on China’s Hainan Island.
The Hainan gibbon’s closest relative is the cao vit gibbon, which survives in a patch of forest on the Vietnam – China border and numbers not much more than 100 individuals.
“Current efforts by FFI appear to be turning round the fortune of the cao vit gibbon at the eleventh hour,“ said Paul Insua-Cao, FFI China-Indochina Primate Programme Manager.
“FFI has been championing conservation of several of the world’s rarest gibbon species for more than a decade. The organisation is working with local communities and government authorities across the range states of these gibbons to protect them and their habitat”.
The efforts of FFI and other like-minded organisations will need continuous investment and support for the foreseeable future to ensure the gibbons’ survival.
FFI’s China Programme is publicising its work through the production of materials such as these 2011 calendars.
Photo credits: Bill Bleisch / FFI China Programme
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