Arcus and IPPL Continue Support of Ape Sanctuaries

September 2006

This past July, IPPL received the welcome news that the Arcus Foundation's Great Apes Fund would continue to support the work of six overseas ape sanctuaries, via a grant award to IPPL of $183,764 for one year. This amount represents 20 percent of the combined annual operating budgets of the six sanctuary projects, all of which are located in Africa or Asia. The funds will be used to provide continued quality care for apes who have been rescued from the bushmeat and wildlife pet trades and to promote an appreciation for apes by local peoples, who ultimately have control over these animals' lives.

IPPL has applied for and received funding from Arcus for ape sanctuaries since 2002. As always, IPPL does not retain any of these funds for administration or overhead, preferring to send the entire award to where it is needed most: in those countries where apes are native. IPPL’s last Arcus grant, which was awarded in 2004, was for a two-year funding period. This year, as in the past two years, the Arcus grant will be providing support to the following six ape rescue projects:

• The Endangered Primate Rescue Center, Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam, which cares for 20 gibbons belonging to three highly endangered species.
• The Friends of Bonobos Association, Kinshasa, The Democratic Republic of Congo, which cares for 50 confiscated bonobos (or pygmy chimpanzees) at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary.
• HELP Congo, Brazzaville, The Republic of Congo, which looks after a group of 40 chimpanzees, of which 22 are being carefully monitored during their reintroduction to the wild.
• Highland Farm Gibbon Sanctuary, Amphur Prop Pra, Tak Province, Thailand, which is home to 42 gibbons, many of them with "special needs;"
• Kalaweit Gibbon Sanctuary, Indonesia, which cares for 200 gibbons and about 60 siamangs while operating a radio station that broadcasts pro-wildlife messages.
• Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Sierra Leone, which houses about 80 chimpanzees rescued from the bushmeat and pet trades, now living in four social groups.

In the two years since Arcus last awarded IPPL funding to support these projects, all six partner organizations have worked hard to maintain and improve their operations. Tacugama has increased the number of its resident chimpanzees by a third (up from 64 in 2004), while Kalaweit has doubled the population of apes in its care (from 100 to 200 gibbons), as has The Friends of Bonobos Association (from 26 to 50 bonobos). Other exciting developments are continuing elsewhere. Highland Farm has been engaged in an active program to replace its older stock of gibbon enclosures, while HELP Congo is planning to help another African sanctuary rehabilitate and release some of its chimps back into the wild—a feat that HELP has already accomplished with a number of its own chimps. And the Endangered Primate Rescue Center, the only primate sanctuary in Vietnam, continues to impress its visitors and collaborators with its commitment to the gibbons in its care. All this is thanks to Arcus’s meaningful support for ape protection where it really matters—on the animals’ home ground.

IPPL, as well and the six ape rescue projects to be funded by this grant, are all extremely grateful for this ongoing financial assistance. The effort to save apes from extinction in the wild relies on the long-term commitment of organizations like Arcus.