Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to increase global public awareness of the extinction crisis facing primates, as set out the global study <i>Impending Extinction Crisis of the World's Primates: Why Primates Matter</i> published in Science Advances on 18 January.

The UK is a member of the Great Apes Survival Partnership, a United Nations conservation programme which aims to bring worldwide attention to the crisis facing great apes.

The Flagship Species Fund, a joint initiative between Defra and Fauna and Flora International, supported a project in 2014 to 2015 to promote awareness by local communities in Cameroon of the need to conserve the cross-river gorilla.

The global study “Impending Extinction Crisis of the World's Primates: Why Primates Matter” identifies habitat loss as one of the main threats facing primates. The UK is committed to tackling deforestation and promoting the sustainable management of the world’s forests for the protection of biodiversity, and to support our climate and international development aims. Defra has implemented EU Regulations designed to tackle the trade in illegal timber and prevent illegal logging as well as invested £170m of the International Climate Fund in forestry projects around the world.

Defra’s Darwin Initiative is a UK Government grant scheme which helps to protect biodiversity and the natural environment through locally-based projects worldwide. Over the last 25 years, the Darwin Initiative has supported biodiversity projects in developing countries which have benefitted primates either directly focussing on specific species or indirectly through tackling habitat loss. These include a current project in Uganda looking at how gorilla-based tourism generates increased benefits for poor people living around Bwindi Forest, improving local support for the park and for conservation of gorillas. Another project worked with local communities in Madagascar to reduce hunting of lemurs.

Defra has also funded Darwin projects on sustainable forest management, to improve the natural habitat for many primates, including a current project in the Manu Biosphere Reserve, Peru showing how rainforest regeneration can deliver high priority biodiversity conservation as well as enhanced livelihoods for local communities.

The primate study also identified the illegal trade of primates as one of the drivers to their extinction. The UK remains committed to playing a leading role in tackling illegal wildlife trade (IWT) and working with our international partners to bring about its end. In the run-up to the Hanoi IWT conference in November 2016, the UK Government ran an online campaign to raise awareness of the threat of IWT, highlighting the damage it does globally, that it is moving many species towards extinction, and alerting the public to the fact that it is a crime. At the conference, the Government announced an additional £13 million to new measures tackling IWT around the world, doubling its investment.