An ambitious new project will catalyze conservation efforts for critically endangered primates and deploy scalable tools to transform how biodiversity is documented, modeled and protected worldwide.
The Endangered Primate Information Collaboration (EPIC) will combine on-the-ground expertise and high-tech monitoring to observe and protect populations of diademed sifakas (“dancing lemurs”) in Madagascar as well as western lowland gorillas and chimpanzees across Africa’s Congo Basin.
These iconic primates are under threat from habitat loss, poaching and disease, but it’s not too late to save them, said Crickette Sanz, the James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts and Sciences and co-director of the Living Earth Collaborative, a driving force for conservation that combines the resources of WashU, the Saint Louis Zoo and the Missouri Botanical Garden.
“Traditional approaches have provided an extraordinary foundation of ecological knowledge, but they cannot keep pace with the speed of global change and biodiversity loss. We have the opportunity to work together to implement a new generation of tools that has the potential to transform conservation efforts,” Sanz said. “With tremendous gratitude to Andy Newman, this is the time for EPIC solutions.”
Distinguished Trustee Andy Newman made a $1.5 million pledge to support the project through the Eric & Evelyn Newman Foundation. The gift advances the Living Earth Collaborative’s ongoing mission to protect global biodiversity through research and evidence-based conservation actions.