UN says 90 per cent of great apes' habitat will be destroyed

More than 90 per cent of the homes of our nearest relatives in the animal kingdom will be destroyed within 30 years, according to a report published at the Earth Summit yesterday.

The report, by the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) says less than 10 per cent of the habitat of the great apes will be left by 2030, if road building, mining camps and other developments continue at their present rate. The orang-utan of South-east Asia is in even greater peril, the report says. By 2030 they will have only 164 square miles of "relatively undisturbed habitat", less than 1 per cent of the present area.

Orang-utans and gorillas share about 97 per cent of their DNA with humans; bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees) share 98.4 per cent.

The Foreign Office said yesterday it would give an extra £300,000 over the next three years to a Unep campaign, the Great Apes Survival Project. Michael Meacher, the Environment minister, promised £175,000 earlier this year.

Dr Klaus Töpfer, Unep's executive director, said: "Roads are being built in the few remaining pristine forests of Africa and South-east Asia to extract timber, minerals and oil. Uncontrolled road construction in these areas is fragmenting and destroying the great apes' last homes, and making it easier for poachers to slaughter them for meat, and making their young more vulnerable to capture for the illegal pet trade.

"It is not too late to stop uncontrolled exploitation of these forests. By doing so, we may save not only the great apes but thousands of other species.

"By conserving the great apes we will also protect the livelihoods of the many people that rely on the forests for food, medicine and clean water."

Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for the Environment, said: "If great apes are to be anything more than a memory, this is a fight that we have to win."