Thirty to 40 years ago, studies by Nishida (1972) and Horn (1981) confirmed the presence of bonobos in the Lac Tumba region,and concluded that the few remaining bonobo populations in the region were under serious threat and might disappear within a few decades. In the 1990s, international scientific research at Lac Tumba came to a halt,due to the war raging throughout Congo. Over 4 million Congolese died as a result of this conflict, and unpaid soldiers and hungry civilians drew upon forest wildlife for their daily food, decimating bonobo populations.
During the war, scientific researchers from the DRC national government’s Center for Research in Ecology and Forestry (CREF), based at the Mabali Scientific Centeron the shores of Lac Tumba, struggled to survive and continue their research, but could not go deep into the forests to search for bonobos. When BCI teams first visited Mabali, they were the first outsiders to visit Mabali in over 30 years. In 2002, BCI responded to CREF’s request to the international community to support their research programs at Lac Tumba, and provided funding for the first bonobo studies in the region since 1981. .
CREF teams were excited to find that bonobos had survived the war, discovering at least 8 bonobo groups. [Report]. This find was especially exciting as these groups lived near humans in a heavily hunted area. This knowledge, combined with input from local community partners, strengthened the commitment to conservation in the region, and reinforced our belief that many more bonobos were living in the more remote forest to the south.
Since this initial research, BCI has worked with CREF over the years to implement additional surveys, discovering new bonobo groups and motivating local communities to become engaged in conservation. In 2005, BCI introduced the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to the region after WWF received USAID funding under the Congo Basin Forest Partnership to support cooperative conservation efforts in the Lac Tumba Landscape. WWF teams later worked with CREF to confirm additional bonobo populations to the south.
BCI has signed accords with the local communities to establish three linked community-based reserves in Botuali, Nkosso, and Mbie Mokeli. The people of the region are fighting the imminent encroachment of logging companies; bushmeat hunting is also a serious threat. BCI supports three local monitoring teams who work daily to protect the bonobo populations with whom people share their forests. While BCI’s monitoring teams and these Lac Tumba area communities are now successful in protecting local bonobo populations from poachers, they are frightened for the future of their forests.
URGENT APPEAL:
The people of Mbie Mokeli have just sent an urgent request to BCI to help protect their forests and bonobos from loggers who have entered the region. They desperately need more equipment,supplies, training , regular salaries and legal support. Just as in the US, justice is often a luxury of those who can afford it. BCI has trained and educated local people of their rights under the new DRC Forest Code, and while this has given them hope, without additional funds and legal support, their rights are not guaranteed. As there is no mail system in the DRC, and the transport and communications infrastructure is basically non-existent, it took many months to pass this letter hand -to-hand across hundreds of miles of rainforests and rivers. [see original letter from the people of Mbie Mokeli]
An AP reporter joined BCI at Lac Tumba in 2006 and wrote about the people of Mbie Mokele. [see article].
Please help us help the people of Lac Tumba.
Link to ABC News Bonobo Story [Click here]
