Chapter 24 Saving the Small Apes: Conservation Assessment of Gibbon Species at the 2006 Asian Primate Red List Workshop

The body of work assembled in this volume makes it clear that gibbons play an important ecological role in their environment, but unfortunately both gibbons and their habitats are in decline throughout their distribution range. Under-standing the threats to wild populations is an important first step in conserva-tion planning. In September 2006, several gibbon researchers were invited to participate in the Asian Primate Red List Workshop in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Thomas Geissmann has prepared an excellent report of the results of this workshop as it pertains to gibbons (Geissmann 2007), and I will only summarize the overall conclusions of the workshop in this chapter. The researchers who assessed the status of gibbons at theWorkshop include