If you want to know what will prevail in the mid- and long-terms, just follow the money. Do not bet on the apes.

If there are more bucks in killing apes, they're gone. If a local can make more money chopping down rain forest, it's history. Rhinoceros horns are valuable? There go the rhinoceri.

It takes a very powerful force, such as a government which will enforce enlightened laws, to prevail over the money.

Even so it's tough to stop. Elephant tusks. International cooperation eliminated the legitimate market for them, local laws prohibited killing elephants, and still there was poaching. Not as much, not nearly as much, but some. Let the barest niche of a market open, and you can kiss them goodbye.

Good rule of thumb. Not what "should" be, not what would be nice, not what posterity will respect.

Arf