Local Communities Key to Saving the Endangered Mexican Black Howler Monkey Claire Salisbury - Mongabay.com
go to original February 15, 2014

Two students enjoy their masks during Monkey Week. (Juan Carlos Serio Silva)

For conservation initiatives around the world, community involvement is often crucial. An additional challenge is how to conserve species once their habitats have become fragmented. A primatologist in Mexico is bringing these together in a celebration of a Critically Endangered primate species: the Mexican black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra).

Juan Carlos Serio-Silva, of the Instituto de Ecología, AC (INECOL) - Xalapa, Veracruz, and the Estación de Investigación Primatológica y Vida Silvestre - Balancán, Tabasco, has worked with Mexican primates for 25 years. In 2013 he was part of a team that not only helped to secure the establishment of a protected area for the Mexican black howler monkey, but also engaged local communities in a week of festivities, dubbed the First International Black Howler Monkey Week. Here thousands of locals participated in workshops, tours, educational efforts, and reforestation activities.

"Probably the most important and urgent activity is to promote more environmental education in all places where scientific research is conducted. It is very important to spread the value of wildlife (including primates) and the forested areas where they survive," Serio-Silva exlained in a recent interview, adding that, "We cannot be only spectators but we must act, researching, protecting, and restoring. Only then will our primate diversity and communities be able to live in harmony."

In an interview with Mongabay.com, Serio-Silva shares his experiences from decades of primatology research, habitat restoration and connecting communities with conservation. Read it here

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