Leakey, chairman of Wildlife Direct and former head of Kenya’s wildlife service, said human activity was directly responsible for the deaths of millions of gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos around the world.
Conservation of forests in south-east Asia, Africa and Latin America would help to reduce global warming as well as to preserve endangered apes, he added. Carbon dioxide released by deforestation is believed to account for 25% of all human greenhouse-gas emissions, second only to the energy sector.
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