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Tropical forests are disappearing at an accelerating rate along with the last populations of great apes. There is broad agreement amongst knowledgeable scientists working with great apes and/or nature conservation: if we do nothing, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos will disappear from the wild by the middle of the 21st century. For orang-utans, the situation is even more dramatic: in twenty years time, they may survive only in zoos.

Urgent action is needed to stop this Ecocide! To save great apes we must save tropical forests, which are essential to our planet. The wide-spread disappearance of these forests is the result of excessive and unmonitored exploitation. This endangers not only the survival of the ecosystem but also the associated biodiversity and the indigenous people who depend on it. Deforestation creates enormous environmental problems: it is one of the major causes of greenhouse gas emissions and, therefore, of global warming. The disappearance of tropical forests endangers the very survival of Homo sapiens sapiens: modern humanity. It is time to act and to react before it is too late!

We, citizens of the Earth, ask our governments and international authorities to accept it as their primary duty to save and protect non-human primates and to:

1. Enforce sustainable forest management practices which are respectful of the tropical forest, habitat of great apes (as well as other non-human primates and other valuable wildlife)

2. Ban the import of tropical wood which has not been certified under sustainable logging guidelines. All exported woods must meet the criteria mandated under the FSC certification guidelines

3. Contribute to the enforcement of regulations for mineral resource exploitation (petroleum, diamonds, coltan, iron, etc.) that respects the environment and local populations

4. Stop the poaching of great apes, the associated trade in “bush meat” and the sale of young individuals as “companion animals”

5. Implement strict controls on companies working in tropical regions, especially those headquartered in industrialized countries, to verify that they adhere to points 1, 2, 3 and 4 of this manifesto

6. Invest crucial financial support to enforce clauses 1 to 5 and, in particular, to use this support to develop sustainable management projects with local people.

Neuchâtel (Switzerland), 4.4.2008