The Myanmar snub-nosed monkey Rhinopithecus strykeri was discovered in 2010 on the western slopes of the Gaoligong Mountains in the Irrawaddy River basin in Myanmar and subsequently in the same river basin in China, in 2011. Based on 2 years of surveying the remote and little disturbed forest of the Gaoligong Mountains National Nature Reserve in China, with outline transect sampling and infrared camera monitoring, a breeding group comprising > 70 individuals was found on the eastern slopes of the Gaoligong Mountains in the Salween River Basin. Given the Critically Endangered status of this primate (a total of < 950 individuals are estimated to remain in the wild), efforts to protect the relatively undisturbed habitat of this newly discovered population and to prevent hunting are essential for the long-term survival of this species.

Primates, 69% of which are threatened with extinction, are the third most specious order of mammals. We used primates as model taxa to examine the umbrella effects of primates on ecosystem services and the protection of other vertebrates and seed plants in Yunnan Province, China. We identified areas of conservation priority for 16 primate species and determined which other threatened and endemic terrestrial vertebrates and seed plants would be protected through a program targeting primate conservation. Areas of high primate species richness were spatially correlated with the distribution of 601 species of threatened and endemic vertebrates and 4010 seed plants. Primate species richness was positively correlated with carbon sequestration and enhanced water and soil conservation and coincided with future areas of climate refugia. If 30% of Yunnan's land area were designated as primate conservation priority areas, then 52.3% of the province's average annual carbon sequestration, 51.7% of its water conservation, 54.1% of its soil retention, and 30‐33% of its climate‐stable areas would be protected. Protecting primates as umbrella taxa uniquely contributes to maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services that promote ecosystem stability. Although we focused on a single mammalian order in a single region, our approach for umbrella taxa evaluation has broad applicability and can help achieve multiple conservation targets of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.