The project has alarmed conservation scientists, who point out that many previous species introductions have proved disastrous to native wildlife.The threat has grown worse since the toppling of President Marc Ravalomanana's government two years ago, which allowed illegal logging to flourish.
"We've been helping to try and preserve lemurs, and sadly in Madagascar because of the government being overthrown the space for lemurs is getting less and less," Sir Richard told BBC News from his Caribbean property.
"Here on Moskito Island we've got a beautiful rainforest - we brought in experts from South Africa, and they say it would be an absolutely perfect place where lemurs can be protected and breed."
Moskito (also spelled Mosquito) Island is one of two that Sir Richard owns in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Several luxury houses, including one for the boss of the Virgin business empire himself, are being built on it.
The plan has aroused a lot of interest locally, with the bulletin boards of BVI news websites buzzing with comments for and against, and politicians locking horns.
"Maybe [Sir Richard] has got some people to say it is all right - but what else lives on the island, and how might they be affected?" asked Simon Stuart, chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC).
Dr Stuart suggested the project could contravene the IUCN's code for translocations - designed to prevent the repetition of disastrous events such as the introduction of rabbits and cane toads to Australia.
When they do happen into areas that have already been altered by human hand, there should be a controlled trial period with continual assessment.
And Christoph Schwitzer, who co-ordinates the Madagascar work of the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group, said the lemurs should really be kept in some kind of confinement.
"The project would only be acceptable if he intended to keep them in a controlled environment - that is, in some kind of fenced-in enclosure where they cannot become a problem to the native fauna and flora," he said.
"It's crucial that this move does not send the wrong message to people that it may be a good idea to keep lemurs as pets for their own personal pleasure."
While some species of lemur are faithful to a diet of fruit, others will grab whatever is around, including lizards and other small animals.
"There may be birds nesting, and if there are some of the lemurs would attempt to predate on their eggs - or there may be small invertebrates that they'd go for," said Dr Schwitzer.
Necker and Moskito Island are home to reptiles such as the stout iguana, the turnip-tailed gecko and the dwarf gecko that local conservationists have identified as being of specific concern.
Sir Richard told BBC News that an environmental impact assessment had been carried out for Moskito Island; but critics in the BVI said it did not include evaluation of "introduced exotic species".
Sir Richard said that if it were seen that the lemurs presented any danger to local creatures, measures to protect them would be taken.
One of his principal advisers is Lara Mostert, one of the managers of the Monkeyland Primate Sanctuary, a South African facility where many species of monkey and lemur live together in a patch of forest.
She said Sir Richard's lemurs would have a much better life than in the zoos where they currently live - some, she said, in "horrific" conditions.
"Unfortunately, primates have become rather like a business - the animals are seen as a commodity, and apart from that they don't really have an identity," she said.
Sir Richard sees the project as bringing conservation benefits, envisaging that at some point in the future, lemurs could be reintroduced from Moskito Island to Madagascar.
The first consignment, consisting of about 30 ring-tailed lemurs, is due to arrive within a few weeks, moved from zoos in Sweden, South Africa and Canada.
The much more imperilled red ruffed lemur may follow, possibly alongside some of the sifakas, famed for their calls and their jumping.
As threats to natural diversity multiply around the world, transporting species from place to place for conservation is one of the "extreme schemes" that conservationists are talking about and even beginning to implement.
But almost without exception, these translocations are taking place within the ecological region where the animal originated, rather than halfway across the planet.
The project has alarmed conservation scientists, who point out that many previous species introductions have proved disastrous to native wildlife.
The threat has grown worse since the toppling of President Marc Ravalomanana's government two years ago, which allowed illegal logging to flourish.
"We've been helping to try and preserve lemurs, and sadly in Madagascar because of the government being overthrown the space for lemurs is getting less and less," Sir Richard told BBC News from his Caribbean property.
"Here on Moskito Island we've got a beautiful rainforest - we brought in experts from South Africa, and they say it would be an absolutely perfect place where lemurs can be protected and breed."
Moskito (also spelled Mosquito) Island is one of two that Sir Richard owns in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Several luxury houses, including one for the boss of the Virgin business empire himself, are being built on it.
The plan has aroused a lot of interest locally, with the bulletin boards of BVI news websites buzzing with comments for and against, and politicians locking horns.
"Maybe [Sir Richard] has got some people to say it is all right - but what else lives on the island, and how might they be affected?" asked Simon Stuart, chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC).
Dr Stuart suggested the project could contravene the IUCN's code for translocations - designed to prevent the repetition of disastrous events such as the introduction of rabbits and cane toads to Australia.
When they do happen into areas that have already been altered by human hand, there should be a controlled trial period with continual assessment.
And Christoph Schwitzer, who co-ordinates the Madagascar work of the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group, said the lemurs should really be kept in some kind of confinement.
"The project would only be acceptable if he intended to keep them in a controlled environment - that is, in some kind of fenced-in enclosure where they cannot become a problem to the native fauna and flora," he said.
"It's crucial that this move does not send the wrong message to people that it may be a good idea to keep lemurs as pets for their own personal pleasure."
While some species of lemur are faithful to a diet of fruit, others will grab whatever is around, including lizards and other small animals.
"There may be birds nesting, and if there are some of the lemurs would attempt to predate on their eggs - or there may be small invertebrates that they'd go for," said Dr Schwitzer.
Necker and Moskito Island are home to reptiles such as the stout iguana, the turnip-tailed gecko and the dwarf gecko that local conservationists have identified as being of specific concern.
Sir Richard told BBC News that an environmental impact assessment had been carried out for Moskito Island; but critics in the BVI said it did not include evaluation of "introduced exotic species".
Sir Richard said that if it were seen that the lemurs presented any danger to local creatures, measures to protect them would be taken.
One of his principal advisers is Lara Mostert, one of the managers of the Monkeyland Primate Sanctuary, a South African facility where many species of monkey and lemur live together in a patch of forest.
She said Sir Richard's lemurs would have a much better life than in the zoos where they currently live - some, she said, in "horrific" conditions.
"Unfortunately, primates have become rather like a business - the animals are seen as a commodity, and apart from that they don't really have an identity," she said.
Sir Richard sees the project as bringing conservation benefits, envisaging that at some point in the future, lemurs could be reintroduced from Moskito Island to Madagascar.
The first consignment, consisting of about 30 ring-tailed lemurs, is due to arrive within a few weeks, moved from zoos in Sweden, South Africa and Canada.
The much more imperilled red ruffed lemur may follow, possibly alongside some of the sifakas, famed for their calls and their jumping.
As threats to natural diversity multiply around the world, transporting species from place to place for conservation is one of the "extreme schemes" that conservationists are talking about and even beginning to implement.
But almost without exception, these translocations are taking place within the ecological region where the animal originated, rather than halfway across the planet.
0 Comments
Posts
