Johannes Refisch

• United Nations Environment Programme

The rapid growth of clean energy technologies is driving a rising demand for critical minerals. In 2022 at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), seven major economies formed an alliance to enhance the sustainability of mining these essential decarbonization minerals. However, there is a scarcity of st...

Non-human great apes-chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, and orangutans-are threatened by agricultural expansion, particularly from rice, cacao, cassava, maize, and oil palm cultivation. Agriculture replaces and fragments great ape habitats, bringing them closer to humans and often resulting in conflict. Though the impact of agriculture on great apes i...

The rapid growth of clean energy technologies is driving a rising demand for critical minerals. In 2022 at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15), seven major economies formed an alliance to enhance the sustainability of mining these essential decarbonization minerals. However, there is a scarcity of studies assessing the threat of mining to globa...

Non-human great apes – chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, and orangutans – are threatened by agricultural expansion particularly from rice, cacao, cassava, maize, and oil palm cultivation. Agriculture replaces and fragments great ape habitats, bringing them closer to humans and often resulting in conflict. Though the impact of agriculture on great ape...

Hunting of primates is an important source of nutritional and economic sustenance for many tropical rainforest inhabitants. However, this reliance has become one of the major drivers of species loss and disappearance. This therefore requires a review of the drivers of the hunting of primates, addressing unsustainable levels of off-take, as well as...

Over the last half-century, the world’s human population has doubled, impacting almost all ocean and land areas. The threats facing primates in the wild have never been greater or more complex. Primatologists have long been aware of these threats and, since the 1970s, have coordinated efforts to safeguard these threatened species, through the Inter...

Water plays a vital role in many aspects of sustaining life, including thermoregulation. Given that increasing temperatures and more extreme weather events due to climate change are predicted to influence water availability, understanding how species obtain and use water is critical. This is especially true for endangered species in small isolated...

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused global disruption, with the emergence of this and other pandemics having been linked to habitat encroachment and/or wildlife exploitation. High impacts of COVID-19 are apparent in some countries with large tropical peatland areas, some of which are relatively poorly resourced to tackle disease pandemics. Despite thi...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biaa082.].

Threats to biodiversity are well documented. However, to effectively conserve species and their habitats, we need to know which conservation interventions do (or do not) work. Evidence-based conservation evaluates interventions within a scientific framework. The Conservation Evidence project has summarized thousands of studies testing conservation...

Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission. An evidence-based scientific assessment for policy makers. Unite human, animal and environmental health to prevent the next pandemic – UN Report ● COVID-19 is just one example of the rising trend of diseases – from Ebola to MERS to West Nile and Rift Vall...

Advancing technology represents an unprecedented opportunity to enhance our capacity to conserve the Earth's biodiversity. However, this great potential is failing to materialize and rarely endures. We contend that unleashing the power of technology for conservation requires an internationally coordinated strategy that connects the conservation com...

Report on the Status of Great Apes to the CITES Standing Committee by United Nations Environment Programme Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

The bonobo, Pan paniscus, is an Endangered species of primate endemic to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and found only in the dense, equatorial forests south of the Congo River. Its historic range is estimated to have been around 565,000 km², but the species is now severely threatened, particularly by poaching and the commercial bushmeat trade,...

As a result of forest modification, primates are increasingly having to rely on fragments; so too are the human populations that have historically relied on continuous forest for critical resources. The role of primates in seed dispersal is increasingly understood to have significant unique effects on plant demography and forest regeneration. Our a...

We studied the effect of market hunting on primate species in the Ta National Park and adjacent forests in Cte d’Ivoire. We assessed the impact of hunting by comparing the calculated maximal reproduction rate with the current off-take rate. We assessed the average bushmeat consumption per capita/per year from weekly investigations on bushmeat avail...

We studied the impact of hunting on monkey species in the Taï National Park and adjacent forests in Côte d'Ivoire. The average wild meat consumption per capita per year was assessed from market surveys and interviews. We determined that the amount of primate wild meat being extracted in the Taï National Park and surrounding forests was 249 t in 199...

A population census of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) was conducted in the original part of Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Zaire. The census provides the first estimate of the density of chimpanzees in montane forests of Equatorial Africa. At least three unit groups of chimpanzees were identified in the census area during the 1990 bamboo...