Amis des Bonobos du Congo / Lola ya Bonobo
Support this projectClaudine 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.
Initial Problem
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 positive impacts that the project has made:
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 impacted areas and population
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.
The obstacles and challenges
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.
Similar projects
The Widou Thiengoly multi-purpose gardens
Coumba Dady KA is fighting for positive change in Senegal through the creation of polyvalent gardens with fellow women. The garden’s final goal is to ensure food diet diversification and increased financial autonomy thanks to the engagement of these women. It’s inspiring!
The polyvalent gardens are parallel projects to the great green wall project in order to combat desertification. These gardens were set up and are managed in consultation with the women living in the villages across the Great Green Wall. These determined women have formed various Economic Interest Groups. The aim of these gardens is to allow the cultivation of fruits and vegetables throughout the year, to provide food security to different villages across the Great Green Wall.
These gardens should provide enough food for self-consumption as well as enabling villagers to diversify theIR diet. What’s more, they have the possibility to sell their surplus crops at weekly markets. This initiative thus enables the women to achieve a new social and financial autonomy, as well as to develop their expertise in agriculture.
Planeta Océano: protecting the Giant Manta
Kerstin Forsberg is determined in engaging coastal fishermen communities of Peru in protecting the giant manta ! To do so, she created the marine educator’s teacher network as well as participatory research or community-based manta ray ecotourism. Planeta Océano engages coastal communities in marine conservation through research, marine education and sustainable development initiatives. These initiatives include:
1. Participatory research and citizen science: Local volunteers (fishermen, children, youth, among others) actively investigate local ecosystems, fisheries, and marine species, thus supporting local management efforts. Projects have included assessing shark and ray fisheries, pioneering manta ray conservation in Peru, assessing Traditional Ecological Knowledge on critically endangered sawfish, and supporting Marine Protected Areas.
2. Marine education: Incorporating and institutionalizing marine education and Ocean Literacy. Projects have included setting up Peru’s “Marine Educators Teacher Network” with over 50 schools, leading incubators for youth-lead environmental initiatives, game-based education and their Connecting Schools program, which aims to bring together students across borders through online technology and community engagement.
3. Sustainable development: Fostering environmental entrepreneurship and market-based approaches that contribute to marine conservation and socio-economic development. For example, pioneering community-based manta ray ecotourism in Peru as an alternate livelihood for low-income fishermen and local artisans.
Ultimately, these multidisciplinary and participatory efforts serve as a platform to connect multiple sectors in marine conservation, thus bringing together government, academia, youth, children, local fishermen, and many others.
Sustainable Cupuaçu in the Amazon
The Sustainable Cupuaçu in the Amazon project, the result of a partnership established between the Klorane Botanical Foundation (KBF), L’Institut de Recherche Pierre Fabre (IRPF) and Beraca Institute for the Valorization of Sociobiodiversity (IB), was born with the intention of providing farmers and quilombola extractivists a new economic opportunity through the production of cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum), a native species to the Amazon, through the Agroforestry System (SAF).
The project was conceived from KBF’s three missions: to protect; to explore; to educate. These missions were the guiding elements for the construction of the project’s objective and action areas, which have the following propositions:
PROTECT – Main element of the project that aims to protect the Amazon biome from the restoration of degraded areas through the implementation of agroforestry systems (SAF) in Bela Aurora Community. The project foresaw the planting of 3,000 feet of cupuaçu (in addition to other Integrated species) in the expectation of a production of around 6 tons of seeds in 3-4 years. The strategy adopted to achieve this objective is to transfer technology between family farmers in the community of Bela Aurora and the community of Santa Luzia, in Tomé Açu, which has a history of production in SAFs.
EXPLORE – The pillar aims to systematize and disseminate knowledge from the project’s learning and results, through scientific publications, congresses, etc.
EDUCATE – Consists on conducting workshops with children and young people from the Bela Aurora community, seeking to reinforce the element of environmental education in SAF cultures. This formal moment aims to help develop a more theoretical and critical perception of reality, focusing on the role of human beings in nature, the dynamics of trees in the forest and the importance of preserving biodiversity to maintain the balance of the biome. Within the initiatives aimed at implementing the SAFs, Six training workshops were planned, which involve activities to raise awareness of the importance of restoring degraded areas, preserving the environment and agro-ecological production with family farmers in Bela Aurora.
Support the project
Discover meaningful projects
Choose your preferred project to embark on
Contact the project owner
Discover inspiring initiatives around the world and find innovative solutions
Duplicate the proposed sustainable solutions
Establish new partnerships
Find inspiration and discover new ideas
Connect and share experiences with other innovators around the world
Contact us to propose your project
Discover the innovations carried out by citizens in your CSR fields of action and in the regions of your choice
Support through funding or by providing skills in your areas of expertise
Contact the project leaders
Find inspiring stories of engaged citizens to enrich your editorial work
Help local projects increase their impact and make them known to your audience
Contact the project managers
Discover citizen initiatives around the world
Invest in local projects aligned with your strategy for sustainable development
Contact the project managers