Fish and Wildlife Service Supports Landscape Approach to Cross River Gorilla Conservation

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced the development of an updated plan of action to conserve the Cross River gorilla in Cameroon and Nigeria. The Service, in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society, convened a multi-stakeholder meeting on February 21-23, 2012, to develop the 5-year plan that will provide stakeholders with a unified, strategic landscape approach for ensuring the future survival of the subspecies.

Classified as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, fewer than 300 Cross River gorillas remain in 12 discrete mountain refuges across a landscape the size of Connecticut. Just ten years ago, the Cross River gorilla was largely believed to be extinct. Today, however, as a result of support through the Great Ape Conservation Fund administered by the Service