“Bonobo Peace Forest” Announced at 8th World Wilderness Congress

First Reserve of its Kind for Endangered Great Ape

ANCHORAGE, AK — The creation of the Bonobo Peace Forest was just announced at the 8th World Wilderness Congress, held in Anchorage. Designed to protect the highly endangered great ape, the bonobo, the Bonobo Peace Forest will consist of a linked constellation of community-based forest reserves and sustainable development zones in the heart of the Congo Basin rainforest, the second largest in the world.

“It is often in places around the world where native people still control their lands that we find some of the largest areas of untouched wilderness,” announced Albert Lokasola, a leading indigenous conservation advocate from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and spokesperson at the Congress. “The core anchor zones of the Bonobo Peace Forest are places where the local people are working to protect their cultural values, their forests and the species within those forestsÑespecially the bonobos, who our ancestors have respected for many generations.”

Bonobos are the ape most closely related to humans, yet little known as of yet. They live only in the deep rain forest of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Compared to other endangered “mega-fauna” on the planet, bonobos have received the least funding and attention of all. Bonobos are distinguished by their peaceful, cooperative matriarchal society, remarkable intelligence, and open sexuality. Thus, bonobos can serve as a powerful flagship, not only for conservation, but also for tolerance and peace.

Spearheaded by the Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI), a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC and Kinshasa, DRC, the Bonobo Peace Forest currently includes conservation agreements with local communities and concessionaires covering over 20,000 km2 (about 5 million acres) of the bonobo habitat, in one of the largest blocks of contiguous rainforest left on Earth. Lokasola’s indigenous organization, Vie Sauvage, is a leading partner in this initiative.

“We have been working on the ground in the Congo for several years, developing the Bonobo Peace Forest vision and implementing programs to raise awareness and facilitate protection of bonobos, as well as the rainforest they share with indigenous Congolese people,” said Sally Jewell Coxe, co-founder and president of the Bonobo Conservation Initiative. “Now we are seeing very exciting tangible results...benefiting bonobos and local communities, while at the same time protecting a vast area of rainforest, vital to the whole planet.”

DRC President Joseph Kabila has personally endorsed the Bonobo Peace Forest and has been supportive of the Bonobo Conservation Initiative since 2001. “The President is dedicated to environmental protection and wise natural resource management, which is also the key to lasting peace,” said Mulegwa Zihindula, advisor to President Kabila.

“Our country is just recovering from a war, fought over natural resources, which took the lives of 3.5 million people–more than any war since WWII. The Bonobo Peace Forest, created with the indigenous people of the Congo, is a new model for conservation and sustainable development that we believe will work.”

He continued, “These peaceful, intelligent bonobos are a very special treasure for DRC and all humanity. We need to protect themÉand we might learn some valuable lessons from them tooÑabout how to live in cooperation and harmony with each other.”

BCI and Vie Sauvage are receiving assistance for their work from Conservation International, the Global Conservation Fund, the Great Ape Conservation Fund of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and USAID; the group is seeking further aid for this important project.

“It is appropriate that the announcement of the Bonobo Peace Forest was made at the 8th WWC, especially as this Congress has highlighted indigenous involvement in conservation and wilderness area protection,” said Vance Martin, President of the WILD Foundation, organizer of the conference.

Lokasola concluded, “It is our hope that the Bonobo Peace Forest will attract greater international investment to the region as well as promote greater international cooperation and support of conservation and sustainable development efforts. We also hope that the success of this model will be an inspiration to other African and worldwide communities.”

The 8th WWC hosted more than 1,200 delegates from around the world including 30 indigenous groups from Asia, Africa and South America who came together for the first time to share their experiences of protecting their lands. The WWC is the worldÕs longest-running, public environmental forum, which has catalyzed breakthroughs in science, policy, fundraising and capacity building and has, over the years, inspired the formation of wilderness conservation NGOs around the world.

More information: Environment News Service article about Peace Forest

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