How effective are primate conservation measures?

With about 60 per cent of the world's primate species threatened with extinction, conservation efforts are now more important than ever. However, research by a team of world-renowned experts in 21 countries including one of our anthropology experts at Durham, has found that conservation measures are hardly ever evaluated, meaning we rarely know which ones work and which ones don't. Primate conservation The team examined 13,000 primate studies and found that only 80 of these investigated the effectiveness of primate conservation interventions - less than one per cent. Despite great protection efforts, extensive research and conservation funding, the world's populations of primate species are still dramatically declining. The researchers suggest the lack of evidence-based conservation plays a role in this pattern. The team recommend several actions to address the problem, including funding specifically aimed at testing the effectiveness of interventions and guidelines on how best to do this. Threatened species Although primates receive a lot of research attention and conservation funding compared to other taxonomic groups, the study found that only 12 per cent of threatened primates and only 14 per cent of all primate species were covered by the intervention studies.