As part of this scope, the two organisations would host a Mangabey Awareness Day at the Endangered Primates Breeding Centre at Accra Zoo on Tuesday, August 1, from 1000 hours to 1600 hours.

 Mangabey Awareness Day is a worldwide event that aims at raising global awareness regarding the plight of the poorly understood primate.

The Mangabey consists of 10 species, under constant threat from habitat destruction and the bush and pet trade.

Few of the species can be found in viable breeding programmes throughout the world’s zoos to raise the understanding of the status and importance of the species.

The Day will include educational talks, Mangabey-themed games for children and an exclusive raffle with a precious prize. 

Proceeds from the programme would be used to support the conservation efforts of WAPCA and the Wildlife Division in the Mangabey’s natural habitat range and the Accra Zoo Endangered Primates Breeding Centre, to help conserve the species in the wild.

WAPCA is a local NGO working with the Wildlife Division to protect the endangered primates of West Africa.

It was formed in 2001, by Heidelberg Zoo in Germany, to address the decreasing populations of the primates.

WAPCA operates at the Endangered Primates Breeding Centre at the Accra Zoo, where primates are rescued and rehabilitated.

In the Western Region, WAPCA works with communities to save the last fragments of rainforest that the wild population of monkeys call home.

In the context of large-scale conservation such breeding programmes are important to support wild populations that are small and unstable, to ensure that the species does not go extinct in the future.