Today the Natural Resources Committee approved my Great Ape Conservation Act of 2010.

The world’s great apes are disappearing at an alarming rate due to their vulnerability to habitat loss, poaching, deforestation, war, and other human threats.

The Great Ape Conservation Fund focuses on the most critically endangered of these wild species around the world while advancing enormously successful and cost effective methods, making it a key part of American involvement in many high-conflict, high-poverty parts of the world.

My legislation will:

• Reauthorize this highly successful program for another five years.


• Allow for multiyear grants provided the project is an effective long-term conservation strategy for great apes and their habitats.


• Create an “Excellence in Great Ape Conservation” award program to recognize individuals who go above and beyond their duty to protect and conserve great apes.


• Convene a panel of experts every five years to make recommendations on conservation plans and strategies.

This program has been directly responsible for numerous gains in great ape conservation, including the discovery of the Cross River Gorilla, a subspecies previously thought to be extinct, and the 2007 discovery of more than 125,000 western lowland gorillas in northern Congo. Additionally, this program has attracted more than $20 million in matching and in-kind funds to supplement the $8.1 million appropriated by Congress. The program also works with USAID, organizations in the field, and local government and citizens to spur regional economic development in a way that promotes great ape survival.

Read more about my Great Apes legislation here.

Read Jane Goodall's letter of support here.

See the letter sent by 22 international wildlife conservation organizations in support of the Great Ape Conservation Act of 2010.

Read the World Wildlife Fund's letter supporting Great Apes.