Ekolo ya Bonobo Reserve Doubling in Size

Efforts to expand Ekolo ya Bonobo Community Reserve made significant progress over the last year, thanks to leadership support from The Rainforest Trust and additional support from conservationists like you.

The 120,000-acre reserve in DR Congo's Équateur Province is poised to double in size!

Ekolo is a community reserve. This means local communities with traditional rights of access to the forest and its resources are full participants in the expansion project.

In one community meeting, participants review possible reserve boundaries.

Through a lengthy process, Friends of Bonobos of Congo is seeking the full, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of communities that will be most affected by the reserve expansion.

ABC began by holding a series of meetings with more than 130 individuals in 29 villages to discuss the reasons and scope of the project, their ideas for development to benefit their communities, and the ways in which forest uses may be restricted when the area is set aside for the protection of wildlife and natural resources.

Communities Support Expansion

Subsequently, more than 100 representatives of the Bokakata communities convened (pictured at left), along with the Basankusu Territorial Administrator, to give their first formal approval to move forward with the process, and leaders of each community signed the agreement (right).

Preliminary maps of each community’s forest boundaries have been drawn and discussions are ongoing.

Understanding the Forest & Its Uses

Teams departing for forest use survey. (Photo by Papy Itambala).

To understand the ways local people are using the forest and how the reserve may affect their livelihoods, ABC is conducting several surveys. A systematic survey of plant and animal species in the proposed expansion area will establish the conservation value of the forest, as well as human encroachment and uses.

A socio-economic survey and an ongoing study of non-timber forest products looked at how people rely on the forest for their livelihoods. The surveys found gender, community, and age differences in local people's reliance on forest resources. For instance, youth are more involved in timber and charcoal production; both men and women fish but at different times of the year and with different methods.

For all, collection of forest products such as caterpillars is an important source of income and food. The non-timber forest products study is being supported by the European Union and the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States through the BIOPAMA Program.

The vital information being collected will guide future participatory management of the reserve.

Why is it Important to Protect this Forest?

Bonobo Conservation: Ekolo ya Bonobo Community Reserve is home to more than 30 rewilded bonobos, and the future home of more. It gives orphaned bonobos who are rehabilitated at Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary possibility of a future back in the wild, with protection.

Carbon Sink: Ekolo overlaps one of the world's largest, most ecologically significant peat bogs. Peat is concentrated, waterlogged soil that holds tons of carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere where it would worsen global climate change.

Biodiversity: In addition to bonobos, many more species of plants and animals - some of which are also endangered - call this forest home.

Thank you!

You're supporting bonobos, rainforest protection, and the needs of our critical community partners. You're building a brighter future!



As always, the bonobos send their love.

From all of us at Friends of Bonobos / Les Amis des Bonobos

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