Organized by the State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution of the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (KIZ-CAS) and the China Primate Specilist Group (CPSG), the Annual Meeting 2012 of CPSG and the International Symposium on the Black Crested Gibbon Protection was held between September 30th to October 2nd, 2012 in Jingdong County, Pu’er City in the west of Yunnan Province. The symposium was supported by the Pu’er Municipal Government, Jingdong County Government, Jingdong National Nature Reserve Administration, the Nature Conservancy (TNC), Fauna and Flora International (FFI) and other orgaonizations.

This year’s topic at the symposium is “To Save Chinese Apes - Let the Sounds of the Nature Not Be a Swan’s Song”. In total, more than 100 scholars from China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzland, Germany, Australia and Nepal participated in this year’s the symposium, including Prof. Warren Brockelman (Mahidol University), Mukesh Chalise (Tribhuvan University), Prof. Paul Garber (University of Illinois), Prof. Xue-Long Jiang (KIZ-CAS), Dr. Paul Insua-Cao (FFI), Prof. Bao-Guo Li (Northwest University), Prof. Yong-Cheng Long (TNC), Ms. Connie Rogers Roosevelt (TNC), Dr. Tilo Nadler (Frankfurt Zoological Society).

At the symposium, the committee adopted the Pu’er Declaration on Saving the Chinese Apes and the Pu'er Gibbon Conservation Association, and the Chinese Primate Protection Special Fund were set up, which has collected more than 8 million RMB during the symposium. Jidong County was a part of two national nature reserves where 89 groups consisting in aggregate of sum 500+  western black crested gibbons live. By 2011, 3 polygynous groups of western black crested gibbons (one male two female) were habituated. Fortunately, the 3 groups could be monitored closely near the station, which makes the station as an important place for scientific study and monitoring, also operating ecotourism. The local government, reservation administrations, scientific institutions and non-government organizations have committed to the protection and study on the black crested gibbons over the past 30 years. The preserves are renowned as “the hometown of the black crested gibbon in China.”

To understand further the work on the Chinese primate protection, participants visited the Da-Zhai-Zi Monitoring Station at Wuliang Mountain, where the western black crested gibbons could be observed. The Da-Zhai-Zi Monitoring Station was co-established in 2002 by KIZ and Jingdong National Nature Reserve Administration. Over the past 10 years, 3 of KIZ’s Ph.D. students and 1 master student worked there, and more than 20 papers studying the western black  crested gibbons at Wuliang Mt. were published in SCI journals, making a profound contribution to worldwide research on gibbons.