Pan African Sanctuary Alliance: securing a future for the African great apes

The Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) is the unified voice of primate rescue and rehabilitation pro- jects in Africa, and includes 23 member organizations in 13 countries. PASA improves animal welfare by regularly evaluating these sanctuaries to ensure that they operate at a high standard of care, building the capacity of sanctuary staff and providing crisis support to mitigate emergencies. Moreover, PASA works with its member organizations to raise awareness globally about wildlife issues and to conduct other large-scale conservation projects. In these endeavours, PASA ben- efits greatly from the local experience and connections of its member organizations. Finally, nearly all PASA- member sanctuaries host researchers, thereby contribut- ing to our knowledge of the great apes and other Afri- can primates. Much of PASA’s work is made possible by support from zoos around the world. A brief precis of the current work carried out by PASA and its mem- ber organizations is given, along with descriptions of conservation programmes that are planned for the future.