International Primate Protection League (UK)

We are a grassroots organisation, rescuing primates and working with local organisations to protect wild populations and habitats. Our work includes:

• Supporting a network of worldwide primate sanctuaries, offering practical expertise and financial assistance.
  
  
• Investigating illegal international primate trafficking. Our work has resulted in lengthy prison sentences for smugglers.
  
  
• Rescuing and re-homing neglected and abused primates in the UK and overseas.
  
  
• Monitoring primates in zoos and laboratories. We have raised public alarms about improper conditions and cruel experiments.
  
  
• Helping local NGOs to carry out field research, decrease reliance on the primate trade, and develop rescue and reintroduction programmes.
  
  
• Working with governments to ban exportation, preserve habitat, and control poaching.
  
  

Primates are disappearing at an alarming rate.  Every primate species is listed on the appendices of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.  All apes, (gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gibbons), all lemurs, and many monkeys appear on the Convention’s Appendix I, the list reserved for the most endangered species.  All other primates are listed on Appendix II.

In countries where primates live, IPPL’s Field Representatives work to create and preserve national parks and sanctuaries, and for bans on primate hunting, trapping, and local and international trade.

IPPL’s educational and campaigning efforts have contributed to decisions by many countries to ban or restrict primate trade and to establish programs to protect primate habitat.

IPPL has raised funds to help sanctuaries working to provide a safe and enriching environment for primate victims of deforestation and poaching.  Examples include the Limbe Wildlife Centre, a sanctuary located in Cameroon, and Tacugama, located in Sierra Leone.  Despite being in a war zone, the brave staff at Tacugama have managed to keep the animals safe and nourished.  Our IPPL headquarters in the US also has a sanctuary for unwanted gibbons obtained from research laboratories.  Currently, the sanctuary has 30 residents.

IPPL aims to act in loco parentis to any primate in trouble, whether at home or overseas.