Claudine André created Friends of Bonobos in Congo more than 25 years ago and passed the torch to her daughter, Fanny Minesi, in 2016. Her association rehabilitates and releases bonobos orphaned because of illegal game trafficking. Educational programmes to learn more about the species are created in the hope that their species will grow back in the wild.
Friends of Bonobos (ABC) has been rescuing, rehabilitating, and re-releasing into the wild, bonobos orphaned by the illegal bushmeat trade. They work with local law enforcement agencies and other conservation NGOs to locate and rescue bonobos needing assistance. They then rehabilitate these bonobos at their sanctuary, the only one of its kind. The bonobos which are able to return to the wild are released into Ekolo ya Bonobo, a government recognized protected area consisting of 120,000 acres of rainforest habitat managed and protected in partnership with the local communities living in the area.
The guardians of the bonobos are the local people who live in and around the bonobo’s rainforest habitat. To help them accomplish their goal of protecting the bonobos, while developing their own community, they work with volunteers who build and implement programs that improve lives. ABC has delivered medical equipment, supported the birthing clinic, provided medicine for the village pharmacy as well as educational materials for schools. In addition to their work saving bonobos, ABC has also made education and awareness building a priority in its conservation model. Each year, thousands of Congolese children and adults visit the sanctuary and participate in their educational outreach programmes to learn about bonobos and why we should conserve them.
Bonobos (Pan paniscus) are endangered great apes found only south of the Congo river in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Years of political instability and war have resulted in widespread poverty that has forced people to resort to bushmeat hunting to survive, decimating wild bonobo populations in the process. While the exact number of bonobos left in the wild is unknown, some estimate there could be as few as 5,000. If no efforts are made to conserve them, they may go extinct in our lifetime.
The work of ABC has largely shaped what is possible with bonobo conservation. Before Lola ya Bonobo, there was no place for bonobo orphans to be rehabilitated or find sanctuary, leaving them vulnerable to the bushmeat trade. The organisation has led the global re-release of bonobo’s into the wild, from the bonobo population rehabilitated at Lola. Through the reintroduction program, ABC ensures that fewer bonobos are permanently lost from the wild, with a goal of seeing the populations of wild bonobos rise in the future. Their community development and educational programs have proven successful as well. Since ABC’s establishment over 25 years ago, they have noticed significant improvements in local attitudes towards bonobos and conservation with more people taking action to help them rescue and protect them.
The work of ABC is focused in the Democratic Republic of Congo in areas where bonobos live and are most heavily trafficked. The educational programs cover the sanctuary, the nearby city of Kinshasa, as well as Sankuru province and other areas with high bonobo trafficking. ABC made education and awareness building a priority: each year, thousands of Congolese children and adults visit the sanctuary and participate in educational outreach programs to learn about bonobos and why we should conserve them.
Educational work around the Ekolo ya Bonobo community reserve, in Equateur Province, is also undertaken and managed in partnership with the indigenous Ilonga-Poo and Baenga people.
In addition to their work saving bonobos and improving local attitude towards them, ABC has delivered medical equipment, supported the birthing clinic, provided medicine for the village pharmacy and educational materials for schools.
There were and continue to be, severe challenges to saving bonobos. Bonobos are only found in one place in the entire world – the Democratic Republic of Congo – a country that has experienced war and political instability throughout much of its history. It is also a country which remains one of the poorest in the world. Widespread poverty is the main driver of poaching and the bushmeat trade that both severely threaten the population of bonobos in the wild. Over time, they have worked to address these issues through community development initiatives aimed at promoting conservation through human well-being.
The DRC is itself a difficult landscape to navigate, both environmentally and politically. The limited infrastructure in the remote rainforests of the DRC, makes transportation and access to electricity difficult. ABC works with both local and national authorities to utilise the law to strengthen protection for bonobos and their habitat, which can be a slow and tedious process. Doing conservation in this environment takes patience, persistence and the ability to adapt to constantly changing circumstances, including the threats of Ebola and other life-threatening illnesses. It takes a deep knowledge of the history, people, and culture of the Congo and the ability to build strong coalitions and partnerships. Simply put, when told ‘no,’ which is very often, they just kept looking for the solution that will be given a ‘yes.
In order to save biodiversity, Djibone Sissoko mobilises young people to stop bushfires from spreading in Mali and educates inhabitants from his commune Kita-Ouest about the dangers these fires pose for animals and for the environment. He acts to raise awareness among small farmers and their families about the harmful effects that bushfires can have if poorly managed, devastating fauna and flora in their path.
Friends Sam Teicher and Gator Halpern have co-founded Coral Vita, a high-tech coral farming solution to protect the dying reefs in The Bahamas and around the world. Through high-impact coral reefs restoration, Coral Vita helps preserve reefs for future generations while spurring the blue economy’s growth locally and globally.
Coral Vita’s land-based farms integrate breakthrough methods to accelerate coral growth up to 50x (micro fragmenting) while enhancing their resiliency to warming and acidifying oceans (assisted evolution). Coral Vita’s model scales: one land-based farm can potentially supply an entire nation’s reefs with sufficient capital investment.
Alongside this novel form of high-tech coral farming, Coral Vita is deploying an innovative for-profit model to sustain large-scale restoration. Given reefs’ tremendous value, they are working to transition restoration to a commercial industry. This unique model facilitates revenue generation and better scalability than any current restoration practitioners. Coral Vita sells reef restoration as a service to customers that depend on reefs’ benefits. As the farms grow diverse, resilient, and affordable coral for restoration projects, they also function as eco-tourism attractions and education centres. Guests pay to visit the farms, where they learn about the importance of protecting reefs, and how they can help, including by adopting coral or planting them with Coral Vita’s teams and local dive shops. Students, fishermen, and community members also visit the farm to build local capacity for future jobs in the blue economy, and Coral Vita emphasizes hiring locally as much as possible.
Patrick Kilonzo Mwalua is acting to tackle a fundamental problem: water scarcity in wildlife zones!
The project is all about water for wildlife as one way of conservation and reducing human-wildlife conflict for competing for the same water resource. Indeed, as the number of conflicts between humans and wild animals started to rise due to water scarcity, Patrick decided to bring in an efficient solution through re-watering the dry wildlife zones. Moreover, Patrick is also looking for innovative methodologies to make sure that animals have plenty of water into the wildlife zones.
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