Beijing - Some 29 per cent of the world's species are under threat of extinction, a report issued by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) said Friday. Mankind's closest living relatives - apes, monkeys, lemurs and other primates - are under unprecedented threat from destruction of tropical forests, the illegal wildlife trade and commercial bushmeat hunting, the report said.
Climate change is also exacerbating the problem.
The Primates in Peril report compiled by 60 experts from 21 countries warns that failure to respond now will bring the first primate extinctions in more than a century.
Overall, 114 of the world's 394 primate species are classified as threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red List.
"The situation is worst in Asia, where tropical forest destruction and the hunting and trading of monkeys puts many species at terrible risk. Even newly discovered species are severely threatened from loss of habitat and could soon disappear," said the chairman of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Primate Specialist Group Russell A Mittermeier.
The IUCN experts were meeting on the southern Chinese island of Hainan.
The organization is the world's largest conservation network and brings together 83 countries and more than 800 NGOs.
