Dublin - An international project to save the Great Apes from extinction has been launched by the UN Environment Programme, writes Science Editor, Dick Ahlstrom.
Called the Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP), the scheme will target key areas in Africa and south-east Asia where humankind's closest relatives are on the brink due to war, habitat destruction, poaching and the capture of live infants.
The programme was launched yesterday by the UNEP's executive director, Mr Klaus Toepfer, who said that the Great Apes could disappear from their natural habitats in less than 10 years. Some species share more than 98 per cent of the DNA found in humans, he said. Their loss would represent "a hole torn in the ecology of our planet".