CMS Executive Secretary Robert Hepworth was amongst more than 200 delegates who agreed the historic "Kinshasa Declaration" at the High Level Meeting of Governments and other stakeholders in the Democratic Republic of Congo on 9 September, 2005. UNEP's Executive Director Klaus Toepfer, and more than a dozen African and European Ministers or Ambassadors were the first to sign the Declaration in a historic ceremony hosted by the Vice President of DRC.

Hailed in the international media as a 'Kyoto for Great Apes", the landmark declaration recognizes that man's closest relatives face a high risk of extinction and that we have "a moral duty to conserve" gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans as flagship species for future generations. For the first time, Governments in range and donor states, voluntary bodies, UN bodies including UNEP, and Conventions like CMS, have come together through the GRASP Partnership to make a united commitment. The Kinshasa Declaration commits them not only to reduce the rate of great ape losses in line with the WSSD Biodiversity target of 2010, but also to secure the future of all species and subspecies of great apes in the wild by the year 2015 through various measures such as a series of site and corridor protection measures, improved law enforcement and poverty-reduction strategies, including ape-related ecotourism.

Before joining CMS as Executive Secretary in 2004, Robert Hepworth helped to launch the GRASP partnership in 2001 and headed UNEP's GRASP unit for its first 3 years. Retaining his links with GRASP, he has working with several CMS partners to produce an Agreement and Action Plan for African gorillas under Article IV of the Convention over the last year. The new CMS project, which is designed to promote the protection of transfrontier areas, capacity building and inter-state scientific and technical co-opertaion, has attracted several co-sponsors : the Joint UNEP/UNESCO GRASP Secretariat, the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) and the Royal Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels, Belgium. Both Italy and the United Kingdom have provided funds, ad discussions are under way to bring other partners into the project.

Announcing the project in his speech at Kinshasa, Robert Hepworth said "We are sending a strong message by illustrating how, through the conservation and sustainable use of endangered species like gorillas, it is possible to reduce biodiversity loss, improve local economies, and enhance livelihoods. Ecotourism has an important role to play in conservation as part of the earnings go to wildlife authorities, help implement action plans, ensure the effective guarding of protected areas, create income and reduce pressure from poaching, bush meat hunting and illegal logging"

The Executive Secretary also congratulated the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo for their energy and commitment in hosting the conference, which he described as a "personal dream come true".

Further Information:

Statement from Robert Hepworth, Executive Secretary, UNEP/CMS Secretariat at the 1st Intergovernmental Meeting on Great Apes, 5-9 September 2005, Kinshasa, DR Congo

Information and documents for the meeting

Daily Web Coverage of the Meeting

Information on the "CMS Mountain Gorilla Safari” in Rwanda immediately after COP 8