It's our silver anniversary! To celebrate this milestone, First Light Foundation has generously offered a $25,000 challenge grant. Help us reach our $25,000 goal and double the impact of your donation!
Enjoy a slideshow of this year’s activities in the Bonobo Peace Forest!
Keep up to date with BCI's activities
Bonobos stand at the brink of extinction. One hundred percent of our programs are dedicated to protecting bonobos and their rainforest home.
Check out this video spotlight on our Equator Prize-winning friends at Vie Sauvage, produced by @oneearth and the @equatorinitiative
This music video by Congolese musician Werrason is part of a campaign aimed at raising awareness and stopping bonobo hunting throughout the DRC.
The Congo rainforest is vital to all life on Earth. BCI is already protecting more than 12,000 square miles of rainforest on two large nature reserves, and the Bonobo Peace Forest is still growing.
Ashley Judd explains why bonobos are special and how the Bonobo Peace Forest is helping to protect them. Photo: Frans Lanting
Bonobos are on the closest branch of the human family tree, sharing more than 98% of the same DNA. Learn more about our relatives and how you can help them.
The Congolese people are the ultimate stewards of the bonobo habitat. BCI and partners provide livelihood programs, educational opportunities, health care, and more to Congolese communities.
15,000 bonobos
remain in the wild.
Humankind’s sister species. Peaceful.
Intelligent. Loving. Endangered.
9 million acres
of officially protected rainforest, and 2 million more on the way in the Bonobo Peace Forest.
20+ years
of collaboration with indigenous communities and organizations to protect the Congo Basin.
Latest News from BCI
Hunting is the greatest threat to bonobo survival. While the solution may seem straightforward, the consumption and trading of wild-caught meat is actually an incredibly complex and multi-layered issue. Theodore Trefon’s new book, Bushmeat: Culture, Economy and Conservation in Central Africa, analyzes the trade and consumption of bushmeat...
9 Min Read
We love sharing updates with you on the research program in the Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve, and we especially love it when we get to share news of a brand new bonobo baby. We are absolutely over the moon to report that there have been not one, not two, but THREE new additions to the Kokoalongo bonobo group this summer!
2 Min Read
In June of 1998, Sally Jewell Coxe launched the Bonobo Conservation Initiative along with Alison Mize and a small group of bonobo enthusiasts. Twenty five years later, what started as a brainstorming session in a living room in Washington, DC has grown to nine million acres of protected land in the DRC.
1 Min Read
On June 16, 1998, twenty-five years ago, Alison Mize and I co-founded the Bonobo Conservation Initiative, together with our founding board members, Bill Meade, Ted Green, and Steve Hamblin. We reached out to an amazing group of dedicated and talented people from a range of disciplines
1 Min Read
Interconnected Challenges... Interconnected Solutions
Bonobos, humans, and the rainforest need each other to survive. Read more about how BCI's programs are tackling this challenge.
Our founder and President Sally Coxe discusses the critical issues facing bonobos and what we're doing to help.