Snub-Nosed Monkey’s Habitat Gets Reprieve

A logging plan has been temporarily suspended in an old-growth forest in southwestern China that is home to the endangered snub-nosed monkey.

Ministry of Forestry investigators recommended against cutting 40 square miles of an ancient forest in Yunnan province, the China Daily reported Friday.

Local officials in Deqin County, Yunnan, however, say they will go ahead with the logging plan if they do not get economic help. The local government wants to use timber revenue to pay off its $1-million deficit, the China Environmental News reported.

The monkeys depend on a band of centuries-old forests in southwestern China. About 1,000 remain in the wild, including about 200 in the area Deqin officials want to log, news reports say.