About GRASP

The Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) is an innovative and ambitious partnership comprised of great ape range states faced with an immediate challenge: to lift the threat of imminent extinction faced by gorillas (Gorilla beringei, G. gorilla), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), bonobos (Pan paniscus) and orangutans (Pongo abelii, P. pygmaeus) across their ranges in Equatorial Africa and Southeast Asia.

GRASP's Work

GRASP's mission is to work as a coherent alliance to conserve wild populations of every great ape in their natural habitats, and to ensure that where apes and people interact, their interactions are both positive and sustainable.

GRASP also seeks to reduce the threats facing the same biodiversity-rich ecosystems which share the forests with the great apes and to illustrate what can be achieved through a genuine global partnership between myriad stakeholders.

To achieve these goals, GRASP targets the objectives outlined in the Global Strategy for the Survival of Great Apes , which was adopted at the Intergovernmental Meeting on Great Apes, held in Kinshasa, DR Congo, in 2005 (PDF available below).

Where GRASP Works

Of the 23 great ape range states of Africa and Southeast Asia, 13 are Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and 10 are conflict or post-conflict states. Governments and civil society actors in these areas are faced with serious capacity, material and funding constraints, limiting the effectiveness of their biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management efforts. GRASP benefits from a partnership of international and local NGOs, country focal-points, multi-lateral environmental agreements and conventions, governments, and other interested parties operating on a global-scale beyond the 23 beneficiary range states.

Regional and country level support for the implementation of GRASP projects are provided by national GRASP range state focal points and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) throughout Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas, in coordination with the UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) and the Regional Office for Africa (ROA).

Great Ape Range States

GRASP: Immediate Objectives

To promote the Global Strategy for the Survival of Great Apes and their Habitat;

To determine the potential of sites, monitor populations of great apes and establish a database of great ape population information;

To collate and analyze existing projects and initiatives at different levels, in order to identify gaps and set priorities in action and to encourage coordination and cooperation;

To encourage range states to prepare and implement national action plans for the survival of great ape populations and their habitat and ensure that they have the necessary resources to do so;

To prioritize the use of resources for optimum effectiveness and identify funding areas that are currently neglected and underfunded;

To promote and enforce a legal framework for the survival of great apes and their habitat in the countries concerned;

To identify and support income-generating initiatives for the benefit of communities living in and around great ape habitat and protected areas, with due consideration for indigenous communities and to ensure, where it becomes imperative to resettle indigenous people in conformity with United Nations guidelines, that compensation is paid with international support;

To educate and raise awareness among local populations;

To help generate new and additional funds for the survival of great apes and their habitat and to ensure that the international community in the widest sense (donor States, international organizations and institutions, non-governmental organizations and representatives of private business and industry) provides effective and coherent support to the efforts being made by the great ape range states.

GRASP: Long-Term Objectives

To carry out scientific research to generate information necessary for the survival of great apes and their habitat and to disseminate such information in an easy and accessible manner;

To encourage countries to enter into or enforce relevant conventions and agreements for the conservation of great apes and elimination of their illegal trade;

To work with relevant international networks of intelligence on great apes aimed at eliminating illegal transboundary traffic;

To promote the development and transfer among range States, partners and other interested parties of appropriate technologies, training programmes and best practices for planning, finance, monitoring and delivery of outcomes;

To promote the inclusion of information highlighting the importance of great apes and their habitats in national education curricula and the dissemination of such information through the media.

Key GRASP Achievements

Added Value