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201813Jan13:28

New hope for crit­i­cally endan­gered Myan­mar snub-​nosed monkey

Infor­ma­tion
pub­lished 13 Jan­u­ary 2018 | mod­i­fied 13 Jan­u­ary 2018
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Eight years after the dis­cov­ery of a new pri­mate species in Myan­mar, sci­en­tists have released a new report reveal­ing how the ‘snubby’ is faring.

Sci­en­tists and con­ser­va­tion teams from Fauna & Flora Inter­na­tional (FFI), Dali Uni­ver­sity and the Ger­man Pri­mate Cen­ter (DPZ) just pub­lished the report of a com­pre­hen­sive con­ser­va­tion sta­tus review of one of the world’s most threat­ened pri­mate species, the Crit­i­cally Endan­gered Myan­mar snub-​nosed mon­key (also known affec­tion­ately as the ‘snubby’ by sci­en­tists, and as the black snub-​nosed mon­key in China), Rhino­p­ithe­cus stryk­eri.

Myanmar snub nosed monkey adultMale Myan­mar or Black snub-​nosed mon­key.
Photo: Shao­hua Dong.

The species was dis­cov­ered in Myan­mar in 2010 by Ngwe Lwin, a local sci­en­tist work­ing for FFI. The fol­low­ing year, sci­en­tists in China con­firmed that these pri­mates are also found in the neigh­bour­ing forests of Yun­nan province. In 2012, research by FFI and part­ners led to the species being for­mally des­ig­nated as crit­i­cally endan­gered due to its small pop­u­la­tion size and threats from hunt­ing and habi­tat loss.

Eight years after its dis­cov­ery, the con­ser­va­tion sta­tus review sought to uncover how the species is far­ing. The report con­firms that while the sta­tus of the snub-​nosed mon­key remains crit­i­cal due to its frag­mented, small pop­u­la­tion and ongo­ing threats, pos­i­tive actions by com­mu­ni­ties, gov­ern­ments and NGOs have resulted in a dra­matic improve­ment in the out­look for the species.

Pro­tected area des­ig­na­tion and trans-​boundary col­lab­o­ra­tion, com­bined with the active par­tic­i­pa­tion of local com­mu­ni­ties in both bio­di­ver­sity con­ser­va­tion and sus­tain­able eco­nomic devel­op­ment, have sub­stan­tially improved the chances for the snubby to be saved from the brink of extinction.

Frank Momberg, Direc­tor of Fauna & Flora International’s Myan­mar programme

Joint action to reduce threats
Strad­dling the bor­der lands of the East­ern Himalayas between Kachin state in Myan­mar and Yun­nan province in China the Myan­mar snub-​nosed mon­key has been seri­ously threat­ened by hunt­ing and wildlife trade, ille­gal log­ging and for­est destruc­tion linked to hydropower schemes and asso­ci­ated infra­struc­ture development.

The good news, how­ever, is that this sit­u­a­tion is begin­ning to turn around. Inten­sive community-​based con­ser­va­tion aware­ness work has reduced the local hunt­ing pres­sure in Myan­mar, while the imple­men­ta­tion of a trans-​boundary agree­ment between China and Myan­mar, signed in 2015, has sig­nif­i­cantly reduced ille­gal trans-​boundary wildlife trade and ille­gal logging.

Both the Myan­mar and Chi­nese Gov­ern­ments have also begun the process of estab­lish­ing new pro­tected areas on both sides of the bor­der: Imaw­bum National Park in Myan­mar and the Nujiang Grand Canyon National Park in China. Cru­cially, both gov­ern­ments recog­nised the impor­tance of inte­grat­ing the socio-​economic needs of local com­mu­ni­ties within the plan­ning process, and the new pro­tected areas will reflect this.

Fur­ther­more, in Myan­mar, the For­est Depart­ment has worked with FFI to com­plete the country’s first fully par­tic­i­pa­tory des­ig­na­tion and bound­ary delin­eation process for a new pro­tected area with the free, prior and informed con­sent of the local indige­nous peo­ple. The offi­cial noti­fi­ca­tion decree by the Min­istry of Nat­ural Resources and Envi­ron­men­tal Con­ser­va­tion is expected to be issued this year.

(Source: FFI, DPZ and Dali Uni­ver­sity joint press release, 11.01.2018)


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