Who Will Save Them?
The gorilla stares out searchingly, a slight quiver on its lip, as it folds its fingers and holds its own hands. The image is strikingly real. But it's also a painting. Coquitlam resident Daniel Taylor worked for months, painstakingly recreating the critically threatened primate he encountered in Cameroon last year.
What he was painting were the very things that have led to the animal's near-extinction: the Cross River gorilla is the most critically endangered gorilla in the world - suffering from a shrinking habitat and poaching for its head and hands, which are valued as totems - but few are aware of its plight.
There are only 200 to 300 left in the jungles and highlands of Cameroon and Nigeria, and only one in captivity. Without serious intervention, they will likely disappear in a decade.
People think there's always more bush, always more primates, but that's no longer true because of deforestation," Taylor says.
Lack of habitat, deforestation and human development, he says, have pushed these animals up against the mountainside. Their numbers are so sparse and the terrain so degraded by man that, "the chances of them mating is almost nil now."
The Cross River gorilla has had no animal-rights champion in the way that the mountain gorilla (in Rwanda, Uganda and Congo) had Dian Fossey to advocate for its survival through the 1970s and 1980s, so its fate has remained a relative secret.
That's something that Daniel and his wife, Ginette, want to change.
Following their month-long trip to Cameroon in November, the Taylors came back committed to advocating for the Cross River gorilla and fundraising for an African Conservation Foundation's plan to save it. They hope to raise money through sales of Daniel's portrait, dedicating 80 per cent of the profits to its protection.
"Why not put it to some use to create a benefit, rather than just for art's sake?" Daniel says.
Ginette says she, too, was inspired to action during the trip.
"When I see that picture, I see the soul in its eyes. Because I've seen that animal up close. I see the people, I see the jungle, and I fear the end. If we wait five years, there aren't going to be any more gorillas left. It has to be done now. We're trying to be a voice. We have aresponsibility. The gorilla doesn't have a voice. It can't speak for itself."
The Cross River gorilla is one among many of the world's primates that are in grave danger.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, which is the recognized international authority on animal conservation, revealed in its latest "red list" report that at least 29 per cent of all of humanity's closest genetic relatives are in danger of extinction.
Of the world's 394 primate species, 114 are classified as at-risk, and experts say you could fit all the surviving members of the top 25 most endangered species into a single sports stadium, like an ark. It's a chilling image. The Cross River gorilla is the fifth most endangered primate in the world, the most endangered African primate and the most at-risk great ape, according to the 2006-2008 assessment of the world's 25 most endangered primates.
It is one of four known subspecies of gorilla. The others are the western lowland gorilla, the most populous with 94,000 spread among Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Congo; Grauer's gorillas, which live in the eastern lowlands in the Congo, with an estimated 16,000 left; and the mountain gorilla, with an estimated 700 left in the wild.
The Cross River gorilla is named for the river that winds through the Lebialem highlands. Less than a dozen groups of no more than 20 live there in clusters 10 kilometres apart, and also in the Bechati-Mone forests in areas along the Cameroon-Nigeria border. Their combined habitat is less than 8,000 square kilometres.
The Cross River gorilla is distinguished from other species by red fur crests on their heads. They are highly intelligent: scientists recently documented their use of tools (testing river depth with sticks before crossing) and weapons (throwing sticks at humans to keep them at bay, where other gorillas charge or flee) in the wild.
The greatest threats to the gorilla's survival are logging, slash-andburn agriculture and poaching and hunting for bush meat. It is illegal to kill gorillas in both Cameroon and Nigeria, but enforcement is lax. The limited number of mature adults - estimated at 50 - and their fragmented range put their future reproduction - females have offspring every three years - at risk of inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity.
Yet dramatic rescue efforts are under way.
The Great Ape Project, a consortium of international scientists founded in 1993, is lobbying to secure a United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Great Apes.
The project hopes to secure higher primates the legal rights to life, the freedom of liberty and protection from torture to ensure their protection and survival.
The Spanish government signed on last week.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian government has preserved Cross River habitat in a series of parks, including the Cross River National Park and Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary.
The Cameroonian government has recently followed suit, pledging to create two protected areas: the Takamanda National Park and the 19.5-square-kilometre Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary in the highlands.
The Taylors are doing their part.
The couple's path to the Cross River gorilla began when Daniel, a professional high-realist painter who had completed several animal portraits in support of conservation charities, decided to paint a
gorilla.
With a fellowship from the Ontario-based Artists for Conservation group, the couple joined the U.K. charity African Conservation Foundation to paint the animal, fundraise for its preservation and raise awareness.
During their trip, they trekked into the gorilla's jungle habitat, studied and sketched the only Cross River gorilla in captivity at the Limbe Wildlife Centre, held workshops with local artists, staged media
events and taught local schoolchildren about gorilla conservation with art classes.
They visited several local villages, including M'ockbi-Alou, where residents were the most involved in hunting the gorilla and other primates. They encountered locals selling dead monkeys on sticks.
"The villagers had the traditional belief that the gorilla was a totem," Ginette explains, adding that killing one confers power and prestige.
The ACF has a director on the ground in Cameroon and has formulated a plan to help villages surrounding the gorilla's habitat in Cameroon to develop sustainable farming and livestock practices to decrease pressure on the gorilla.
Already, 11 local chiefs, or "fons," have signed an agreement pledging to stop poaching the gorilla. To ensure they keep their word, the ACF wants to introduce small livestock projects (raising cane rats and porcupines) to reduce village reliance on bush meat, to hire locals as gorilla trackers and guides and to educate youth about conservation.
"You have to include the government. You have to include the local villagers," Daniel says. "You have to recognize the politics involved, whether traditional or government politics. If you work together to
include all of that, then you have more of a chance of success."
The gorillas, he says, "deserve their place on this planet. Why should we destroy them out of greed or need when the need can be met in other ways?"
The Taylors say the project will cost $10,000 per village. They hope sales of Daniel's paintings will help get some of the projects started.
According to the ACF, the ultimate aim is to learn more about the apes through research and set up protected habitats managed by locals.
"Daniel and Ginette Taylor are true ambassadors for the Cross River gorilla," said ACF director of conservation Arend de Haas. "They have understood that if we don't act now, this species will disappear from our planet."
ACF president Jeffrey Whitting has called the Taylors' expedition "particularly important given the critical state of this little-known population of gorillas."
The Taylors say they are happy to have seen the gorilla and proud to offer their help.
"Very few people have seen these gorillas," Ginette says.
"The way they look at you: it gave me chills. It's an endangered animal, and to finally get to see it and go into its jungle . . . it's a privilege. You can't go and see them and not want to try to help. And you can't help the gorilla unless you help the people. We're showing people over here that something can be done."
By Elaine O'Connor, Vancouver Province
(C) Vancouver Province 2008
Posted by admin on 22 July 2008 13:28:51 GMT #
Saving gorillas, one print at a time
Tracking the extremely elusive and endangered Cross River gorilla is an activity best done in silence.
Daniel Taylor and his wife, Ginette, barely spoke as they took careful steps over treacherous ground in the jungle of southwestern Cameroon's Lebialem Highlands.
Led by a former poacher and accompanied by three or four other people, the Coquitlam couple was hoping to get an up-close look at the Cross River gorilla.
Single file, they quietly negotiated the dense, humid forest, their footsteps masked by mossy ground.
"It almost comes down to the point where you can't even sweat -- they can smell you a mile away," Daniel says.
Suddenly, at the base of a tree, a gathering of branches, grass and shrubs catches their attention: the nest of a male gorilla. Dung left nearby signalled his recent exit. Looking up, they see large nests high in the jungle canopy. These are where the females sleep with their offspring.
However, all of the nests they saw were empty.
As Daniel puts it, the gorillas are "forever on the move, two steps ahead of us, due to the encroachment of farmlands and logging."
Private farming and logging on government land are endangering the gorillas' habitat, which is how, via a circuitous route, Daniel and Ginette ended up in Cameroon last November.
He's always had an interest in wildlife, but three or four years ago Daniel wanted to paint a gorilla. He got in touch with the African Conservation Foundation (ACF) and during that contact a partnership was created. The goal was to help save the gorilla Daniel was painting: the mountain gorilla, of which there are only 700 left in the wild.
Then, the plight of another, more endangered gorilla was brought to his attention. There are fewer than 300 Cross River gorillas living in the wild, making it the most endangered of all the gorillas.
Daniel was asked to do a painting, but decided that he should see the animal first. "It lends us more credibility," says Ginette.
The month-long trip was partly sponsored and organized through a partnership of Artists for Conservation and the ACF. The Taylors were joined by a team of field workers, conservationists and biologists.
When they weren't traipsing through the jungle, Daniel and Ginette visited three primary schools to teach art workshops for schoolchildren. Most of the children have never seen a gorilla.
"It was an amazing experience," Daniel said.
They also learned about the efforts of the African Conservation Foundation in the Lebialem Highlands by a man named Louis Nkembi for the past six years.
Eleven village leaders, or fons, have signed an agreement that asks them to complete a number of actions to help save the gorillas.
Field workers are gridding the area to find where the gorillas are nesting -- recent studies show most of them live in 11 separate locations, each at least 10 kilometres apart -- and help come up with a management plan for their survival.
In a country where it's illegal to hunt gorillas, poachers kill the animals to feed their families and make money. Instead of poaching, the ACF is paying many of these men to become conservationists who lead groups into gorilla habitats. A plan is in the works to have them breed cane rats and porcupines for food.
There is also a plan to buy back farms so the rainforest can be replanted, install a central water system in each village and cultivate plants for medicine, nutrition and fuel.
The socioeconomic aspect will be addressed through a concept much like micro banking, where money is lent interest free to people in the villages and paid back after a business is up and running.
"It's a circle of life. If you're going to help the gorillas ... everybody has to be looked after, not just one or the other," says Ginette. "It's an impressive project that's never been done before."
"It has nothing to do with being noble," says Daniel. "It's about doing something with your heart that means so much to so many people."
For more information visit the 'Art for Africa' website at:
www.art-for-africa.net
Source: The Now
Posted by admin on 6 February 2008 21:56:02 GMT #
Cross River Gorilla Art Workshop in Limbe
This highly focussed event hosted by the Limbe Wildlife Centre comprised of a unique workshop with Cameroonian artists featuring the Cross River Gorilla.
The workshop was part of the AFC Flag Expedition in Cameroon, a collaborative project of Canadian high realist artist Daniel Taylor, Artists for Conservation, ERuDeF and the African Conservation Foundation.
The workshop was a great success: more than 15 art works were created by 13 artists from Buea and Limbe, including prominent artists such as Max Lyonga and Eyabi Lambert, Pet Lyonga, Tang Ngong Emmanuel (Tango), Ralph Che, Eris Ngong Youngha (Chamas), Jujen Julius (Toshman), Ibain Emile-Aime Chah (Chahyibain), Dante Besong, Christian Yuh, Mbakwa Fonewe (Valentine), Samen Roland and Somo Somo.
There was an extraordinary attention of the national and local media, including 2 TV stations, the government radio as well as 4 journalists of the local newspapers.
At the beginning of the workshop, the artists were welcomed by Daniel Taylor, Louis Nkembi and Arend de Haas of the African Conservation Foundation. This was followed by a tour and introduction by Felix Lankerster, the wildlife vet, and Vincent Fombah, the conservator of the Limbe Wildlife Centre.
As part of this opening, the artists visited the gorilla enclosure and were able to get very close to their subjects. While observing the behaviour of gorillas, Felix explained the precarious situation of the critically endangered Cross River Gorilla, but also the case of the âTaiping Fourâ lowland gorillas which would arrive at the end of the month. Daniel Taylor pointed out that the visuals arts can play an important role in community education and awareness raising.
After observing the gorillas and in particular Nyango, the only Cross River gorilla living in captivity in the world, the artists returned to their easels and worked out their creative visions. Many of the artists worked with acrylics on canvas, but some also used paints made from organic materials or mineral soils. Each of the artists had a unique style and way of working. The results were stunningly beautiful and very special considering that many of the artists are usually not painting wildlife.
Daniel Taylor worked on a painting of Nyango while discussing techniques and materials with the artists and visitors of the centre. One of the challenges during this workshop was the drying of the different layers of acrylic, because of the high humidity.
Goal of the AFC Flag Expedition was to study, photograph and sketch the natural habitat of the Cross River Gorilla and chimpanzees and to raise awareness for their conservation. This workshopâs objective was not only to create a series of unique artworks, but also to educate the general public and raise funds through the visuals arts. The workshop also leads to the establishment of the Cameroonian Wildlife Art Society.
At the end of the workshop, a press conference was scheduled which turned out to be a great success with the presence of Cameroon Radio-Television Corporation (CRTV), Max TV, and journalists of the major newspapers such as The Post and The Sun. The media attention offered an unparalleled opportunity to reach thousands of people and educate the general public about the situation of the Cross River Gorilla. At the same time it was promoting wildlife arts and the work of Cameroonian artists, while demonstrating social responsibility and community involvement.
CRTV did several broadcasts of the event, each lasting over 10 minutes, and we received an overwhelming response from across the nation congratulating us with the projectâs achievements.
As Emmanuel Tango, one of the artists, expressed it: "The Limbe workshop acted as a turning point in my artistic career. I felt some deep pain and emotion for those animals ⦠I just asked myself: why should we have these fellow-beings facing extinction right before our eyes, and foreigners will travel thousands of miles to come and rescue this species when we sit back and watch?".
Limbe Wildlife Centre was proud to host this workshop in a collaborative effort to save the Cross River Gorilla from extinction. The workshop was followed by an exhibition of the created artworks. 50% of the proceeds raised through the paintings will benefit the local artists while the other half will support the conservation of the Cross River Gorilla and its habitat, the highland rainforests of South West Cameroon.
The art works can also be bought through this website. For more information please contact us: info@art-for-africa.net
Posted by admin on 16 January 2008 12:35:54 GMT #
Canadian artist Daniel Taylor is travelling to Africa
As Daniel and Ginette Taylor pack their bags for a month-long trek through western Cameroon, they're doing their best to prepare for the unpredictable.
The Coquitlam couple will leave B.C.'s cold, wet fall behind for the stifling heat and humidity of the tropical jungle as they search for the Cross River gorilla. With fewer than 300 living in the wild, it's the most endangered of all the gorillas, hemmed in by farmland and hunted by poachers.
Daniel plans to get as close as he can, hopefully just a few feet away. He has to if he's going to get the kind of detailed sketches and photographs he needs to create the kind of high-realist art he's known for.
"Apparently it"s safe enough," he said, brushing off concerns about possible encounters with less than friendly poachers. "The only thing that would really threaten us would be the animals and the bugs."
Ginette doesn't care for hot weather or bugs, though she expects to experience the extremes of both in Africa.
The trip is partly sponsored and organized through a partnership of Artists for Conservation and the African Conservation Foundation. Daniel and Ginette will be joined by field workers, conservationists and biologists who are studying the Cross River gorilla and its habitat.
The Cross River gorilla lives in the remote and densely forested mountains along the Nigeria-Cameroon border. Recent studies show most of them live in 11 separate locations, each at least 10 km apart.
Part of the trip will be a tour of nearby primary schools, where the group will teach kids about their environment, the Cross River gorilla and its preservation. Daniel is packing art supplies for the children to use in his workshops and some of their gorilla drawings will be made into posters and distributed to 30 schools dotted along the forest borders.
The aim of the trip - a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as Daniel describes it - is to use art to help save a critically endangered animal in a place where residents are understandably more concerned with immediate survival than the environment's long-term sustainability.
And when he returns, Daniel's artwork will be turned into a display scheduled to tour throughout North America, Europe and Africa to raise further awareness and much-needed funds for conservation efforts.
For more information or to donate, visit
http://www.natureartists.com or
http://www.africanconservation.org
Posted by admin on 25 October 2007 22:24:39 GMT #
Daniel Taylor wins AFC Flag Expedition Fellowship
Artist's Expedition to be First Time World's Most Endangered Primate will be Sketched in the Wild
Canadian artist Daniel Taylor wins Artists for Conservation Flag Expedition Fellowship to paint the critically endangered Cross River Gorillas of western Cameroon.
Vancouver, B.C., CANADA -- (October 15, 2007) -- The Artists for Conservation Foundation (AFC), is pleased to announce its sixth fellowship involving a grant of $5,000 US, under the AFC Flag Expeditions Program, awarded to wildlife artist Daniel Taylor, of Coquitlam, BC, Canada.
The objective of the AFC's Flag Expeditions Program is to make possible the artistic field study and rendering of endangered species or habitats deserving of greater public attention, particularly in remote parts of the world.
Taylor will undertake a five-week expedition to Western Cameroon beginning on October 28th, 2007, in order to raise funds and awareness for the conservation of the Cross River Gorilla, a species threatened with extinction. Taylor will participate in field surveys in the rainforest and visit sanctuaries for detailed field studies, sketching and photographing of the Cross River Gorilla and its habitat. He will be working in collaboration with the African Conservation Foundation and will be consulting with professional field workers, biologists and conservationists, while capturing the gorillas for the first time, in a painting.
The Cross River Gorilla remains the most endangered primate in Africa with 250-300 individuals left in the wild. They differ from other gorillas due to the size of their heads, their small thumbs, and their red crests. The name of these primates is derived from the Cross River that rises in several branches in the highlands of Western Cameroon. The remoteness of this nearly impenetrable biodiversity hotspot has ensured the survival of this small isolated population of gorillas.
The project will involve a visit to the Limbe Wildlife Center where a lone captive Cross River Gorilla is found. Following his expedition, Taylor plans to raise funds for the Primate Rescue Center and the protection of the gorillas in the wild through the donation of his art works and a traveling exhibition.
As well, in collaboration with the African Conservation Foundation, Taylor will visit three local primary schools in order to organize art workshops and competitions for schoolchildren. He will create educational murals inside and outside the schools with sketches and paintings used to create posters for primary and secondary schools in the area.
Jeffrey Whiting, The AFC's president and founder adds, "Daniel's expedition is not only a great example of the type of project our Flag Expeditions program was created for, it is particularly important, given the critical state of this little known population of gorillas. This is yet another expedition that we are extremely proud to help realize."
About the Artists for Conservation Foundation (AFC):
The Artists for Conservation Foundation (AFC) is the world�â??s leading artist collective, dedicated to the preservation of our natural heritage. Its membership represents 500 of the world�â??s top artists from 27 countries, who focus primarily on nature and wildlife. It reads like a "Who's Who" of nature art, and includes the top names in the field, such as Robert Bateman, John Banovich, Guy Coheleach, Pollyanna Pickering and David Shepherd. For more information about the AFC�â??s innovative initiatives, visit www.natureartists.com.
About the Flag Expeditions Program:
The objective of the Flag Expeditions Program is to make possible the artistic field study and rendering of species or habitats deserving of greater public attention with strong emphasis on unique and threatened habitats and rare or endangered species in remote parts of the world. For more information on the AFC Flag Expeditions Program, or sponsorship opportunities, please visit the Expedition Web site at www.natureartists.com/flagexpeditions/.
For further information:
Artists for Conservation (AFC):
http://www.natureartists.com
AFC Flag Expeditions Program:
http://www.natureartists.com/flagexpeditions
Daniel Taylor:
http://www.natureartists.com/daniel_taylor.asp
African Conservation Foundation:
http://www.africanconservation.org
Media Enquiries:
Ermelinda Mancini
Communications Manager
(613) 256-8434
emancini@natureartists.com
Posted by admin on 16 October 2007 07:42:40 GMT #
