The Aspinall Foundation Java Primate Project
For 8 years the Aspinall Foundation has been working in Java, Indonesia, to help protect some of the endangered primates that live there. Animals such as the Langur and Gibbon have been the main benefactors of the Java Primate Project, who’s team have been working towards reintroducing the animals into new areas for them to flourish and grow in numbers.
The Aspinall Foundation has also been working alongside local communities to help raise awareness and educate people on the need to care for the local animal populations, as well as speaking with the local governments to help protect the surrounding forestery.
In September 2012, The Aspinall Foundation released 13 wild born Javan langurs into the forest in the east of Java. Their frontline team will now be monitoring them every day for a whole year to see how they get on. There will also be newly employed forest rangers to patrol their area to ensure they come to no harm through poachers.
Chairman Of The Foundation, Damian Aspinall, said –
The Javan langur is listed by the IUCN as vulnerable. The reasons for population decline include hunting, deforestation and the illegal pet trade. Our team has carried out extensive population surveys which have produced disturbing results and it is now thought that the wild population is less than 2700 individuals. These langurs have been held in captivity in cramped and unsuitable conditions for up to nine years each, after they were taken from the forest to supply the demand for primates as pets. Thanks to the work of our team in Indonesia in collaboration with local communities, forestry commissions and the Indonesian Government, these primates will have a second chance of life in the wild.
The Java Primate Project will continue into 2013, with plans to translocate and eventually release an entire group of captive born langurs and a Javan gibbon. The animals are currently at The Aspinall Foundation park in Kent, but will next year be in the forests of Java thanks to the charities ‘Back To The Wild’ initiative.