Like orangutans, bonobos are already living at Great Ape Trust of Iowa. Thus it is timely for The Trust to support conservation of wild bonobos. All wild populations of bonobos live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has vast expanses of tropical forests rich with rare primates, and other animals and plants. Again, habitat conversion, here in the form of timber harvesting, has displaced bonobos and other animals. Further, the timber harvesters need food, and hunting wild animals is a major source. Finally, logging roads have made it feasible to transport the meat of wild animals to distant cities where it fetches high prices. Armed conflict, political instability, and extremely low standards of living combine to make environmental protection difficult.

The Great Apes of Congo Center (GACC) is assessing the status of bonobos in some remote areas, working with the managers of logging concessions to provide better protection for these apes, promoting conservation-consistent livelihoods of people living in and near bonobo habitats and offering community education programs about conservation in the capital of Kinshasa.

The President of GACC is Esombo Botamba, who co-authored DRC’s national great ape survival plan in 2005 and is helping to draft the forestry code for DRC’s department of environment. The Trust provided some administrative support for GACC in 2005, and also funded a survey of the bonobo population living in forests around Lake Maindombe. During a preliminary visit to the Lake Maindombe site, Mr. Botamba met with representatives of the logging company working in the area to make a case for leaving some forest areas intact so that the bonobo population could persist. He also met with local government officials and local tribal leaders to raise awareness of bonobo conservation efforts. That set the stage for his return trip to conduct the bonobo census, which is underway with Great Ape Trust support. Eventually he hopes to begin a local community conservation education program at Lake Maindombe.

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