How Giant Fence Could Save Apes

Throwing a huge fence round the Virunga mountains in Africa that would straddle the borders of three countries might be the only way of saving some great apes from extinction, Richard Leakey, the eminent wildlife expert, said yesterday.

Dr Leakey warned that the threat to man's nearest relatives was greater than those faced by giant pandas and elephants.

He said that vital areas of forest in Africa and Asia needed to be fenced off to protect them from human incursion, adding: "I think fences can work. Private property remains private because it's fenced, and people don't cross the line. We've tried this in Kenya, and it's been successful.

"I think you could create a transnational park in the Virunga mountains straddling the borders of Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC [Congo], and if it were fenced it would greatly ease the pressure on that ecosystem."

Dr Leakey, former director of Kenya's wildlife service, said many great ape species were in a critical state.

But he said there need not be any conflict between saving wildlife and alleviat ing poverty. "There's no question that Africa's people have a plight that bears comparison to nobody else for poverty, disease and repression.

"But allowing gorillas and chimpanzees to die, or killing them off, won't improve people's lives: it will impoverish them. Ignoring wildlife doesn't help anyone, and in places like western Uganda the apes are a hugely important revenue stream for the government, because of tourism."

Dr Leakey is an adviser to the UN environment programme's great apes survival project (Grasp), and is to be the guest speaker at a fundraising dinner in London this month.

The project is appealing for £15m over three years.

Last November Grasp said all the great apes - gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos (pygmy chimps), and orang-utans - faced a high risk of extinction within 50 years at most.