A LOCAL MP has added his voice to a campaign to save Africas's great apes.
South West Herts MP Richard Page is calling for action on the bushmeat crisis, which could see the apes, our closest animal relatives, driven to extinction within a decade.
More than four million tons of bushmeat are estimated to be caught each year in the Congo Basin alone and bushmeat can be found on sale in European cities with large African communities such as London.
Mr Page attended a parliamentary reception held by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) on Monday. He is one of 300 MP's from all parties who have signed an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to do more to tackle the crisis and prevent the illegal trade of bushmeat in the UK.
Mr Page said: "Bushmeat hunting is also leaving the region's poorest indigenous people, who genuinely depend on wild meat for survival, without an important food source."
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