International Primate Protection League

The International Primate Protection League is a grassroots charity that has worked since 1973 to protect the world's primates from cruelty, neglect and exploitation, while giving rescued gibbons a permanent home.

More than half of all primate species are now at risk of disappearing. The pressures are relentless: forests cleared for logging, mining and farmland, animals taken for the pet trade, traditional medicine, tourism and bushmeat, and others caught up in laboratories, disease and conflict. These are creatures strikingly close to us, and IPPL argues their loss would be a failure we could have prevented.

The charity works on two fronts. At its sanctuary in South Carolina it cares for gibbons, the smallest of the apes, many of whom arrived after years as laboratory subjects, unwanted pets or surplus zoo animals. Each is offered a lifetime of considered, compassionate care. Internationally, IPPL backs rescue centres and field projects in the countries where primates live, offering funding and advice to those doing the work on the ground.