BCG - The Boston Consulting Group

Melanie Virtue Team Leader Great Ape Survival Project BCG Office: Auckland, 1989-1990

Wild monkeys eat from the fruit bowl in Melanie Virtue's kitchen. The open windows of her third-floor apartment in Nairobi offer little challenge to the primates' climbing prowess or larcenous inclinations. Over time, Melanie, a BCG Auckland alumna, has learned to either eliminate the temptation or accept the task of wiping away sticky footprints. Such is the tolerance her love of animals fosters. But the true beneficiaries of Melanie's work are these simians' genetic cousins—the primates that include the world's gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans.

As team leader for the Great Ape Survival Project (GRASP), Melanie works to inform, coerce, and cajole governments, corporations, and local populations into acknowledging that these creatures are more than just telegenic reminders of our own evolutionary background. Her approaches may include appealing to conscience on behalf of future generations or emphasizing the unique heritage a country's biodiversity represents. But there are also occasions where GRASP's desired outcome can be achieved only by illustrating the economic advantages of preserving these gentle creatures and their habitats for a world eager to experience them first-hand.

GRASP is an innovative and ambitious project of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The idea was to form a new entity that could bring together representatives from UN agencies, governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), foundations, and private-sector interests. GRASP was created in 2001 to rescue the great apes from imminent extinction, a threat caused primarily by the loss of their habitat. In Southeast Asia, for example, orangutans are disappearing as their forests are cleared for palm oil plantations. In the Congo basin, logging by timber giants is wiping out large tracts of land that are home to both gorillas and chimpanzees. And, in many of Africa's teaming cities, bush meat, which can include anything from elephant to chimpanzee, remains a highly prized staple among people who still consider it part of their cultural legacy.

Most of Melanie's work is done at a global level, and her Nairobi team closely coordinates its efforts with those of its counterparts at UNESCO's Paris headquarters. GRASP complements the efforts of many well-known NGOs, such as the World Wide Fund for Nature, The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, and the Jane Goodall Institute, serving as a liaison between them and governments through the offices of the UN. GRASP is uniquely placed to both inform policy makers and mobilize resources in ways that maximize collective efficiency. Some of the projects GRASP has supported are educating local people in the Ivory Coast on the benefits of forest preservation and the rarity of the region's chimpanzee population and funding the training of park guards in the Virunga volcanoes on the border of Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Other recent success stories include the repatriation of two female western-lowland gorillas from Nigeria to their homes in Cameroon. Their rescue represented an important step in demonstrating the commitment of African governments to act on vital conservation issues.

Fortunately, the governments of Rwanda and Uganda have come to realize the value of their great apes in an age of ecotourism. In Rwanda, the apes have become the country's third-largest source of foreign currency. "Rwanda has only 650 gorillas left. It now intends to keep every one of them alive." By way of illustrating the dollar amounts involved, Melanie pointed out that securing a permit for just one day of viewing costs approximately $400. Groups of up to eight people are escorted by both a ranger and a guide into the forest. Once the gorillas are located, the tourists are allowed to sit in their presence for approximately an hour. Cameras are permitted, and people are able to glimpse the infants playing, the older gorillas sleeping, and the huge silverback sitting there looking out over the group. The rangers work to prevent any direct contact between the gorillas and humans, and they move people back if the gorillas begin to approach them.

These once-in-a-lifetime experiences further solidify the viability of an economic model that a number of less-developed countries with endangered species can emulate without expending a huge amount of outside capital. And every snapshot the tourists take home will ultimately help Melanie's cause—creating awareness of both the great apes' value to humanity and the perilous nature of their current circumstances. Ultimately, there will also emerge a new generation of budding primatologists like Melanie who work to turn a passionate curiosity about animals into a lifelong cause. And just maybe, BCG will again be lucky enough to have spent some time in their presence.