A Faunal Reserve for Bonobos and People

One of the greatest threats to wildlife in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is loss of habitat due to land conversion, human encroachment, and logging. Establishing protected areas like national parks and reserves is one important step in helping to reverse this trend.

In 2004, AWF initiated the Maringa Lopori Wamba landscape project, financed by USAID through the Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE). The strategic objective of this project is to reduce the destruction of habitat and loss of biodiversity through better governance of natural resources on a local, regional and national level across the entire landscape. AWF operates in close partnership with the Congolese Ministry for Rural Development and the Ministry of Agriculture (MECNEF), and supports the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) to implement a program for nature conservation.

In 2006, after a 15 year effort, AWF helped establish the Lomako-Yokokala Faunal Reserve—a reserve of more than 3,600 square kilometers—in partnership with ICCN. This was a landmark achievement as it is the DRC’s first reserve that formally recognizes the local community in the development of its management plan. The established 3,625 square kilometer faunal reserve not only offers protection for the enigmatic bonobo, but it also harbors critical populations of the endemic Congo peacock, golden cat, giant pangolin, ten species of primates and other key species.

The isolated forest is surrounded by rivers, which gives it some natural protection against poachers—it can only be accessed by boat—but nonetheless poaching continues to be a threat to bonobos and other species in the reserve. To ensure that the reserve is truly protected AWF has provided important training, equipment, and supplies to the ICCN eco-guards who conduct regular anti-poaching and monitoring patrols throughout the reserve. AWF has also consistently worked to build local support for the reserve through involving the surrounding communities when proposing boundaries for the new wildlife reserve, and financing workshops and key meetings that helped make the Lomako Reserve a reality. AWF continues to support annual stakeholder meetings with the community to discuss progress, concerns, and opportunities associated with protecting the reserve and the bonobo, as well as ensure that the reserve is benefiting the community.

In addition to engaging the community, AWF is also working to build the professional capacity of Congolese conservationists by training local research assistants and team leaders to help with biological surveys, detailed mapping, and recording human activity and bushmeat hunting. AWF believes strongly that this conservation model which emphasizes the engagement of local communities in bonobo conservation alongside on-the-ground research will be key to the bonobos continued and long-term survival in the landscape.

Building upon the success in Lomako, AWF set its sights on establishing a new officially protected area, the 1,100 km² Iyondje Community Bonobo Reserve, to the southeast of Lomako. Iyondje is a priority conservation target as it has a high concentration of bonobos and intact forest. This area also has two other significant advantages: it is situated on the periphery of the already-safeguarded Luo Scientific Reserve and allows for an immediate expansion of core protected habitat, and it presents an opportunity to secure a corridor between Lomako and the proposed Iyondje Bonobo Community Reserve. This would allow for bonobos to move freely between the core habitats with expanded access to food, shelter and security. For all of these reasons, AWF believes the creation of the Iyondje Community Bonobo Reserve is a critical and logical next step for ensuring the survival of this endangered great ape.

AWF believes that the Lomako Reserve and Iyondje Reserve have significant potential to become eco-tourism destinations for people looking to study/see the remarkable bonobo. To this end, AWF Congo Heartland Ecologist Andrew Fowler is working to habituate bonobos to human presence and is building a field team to scale up these efforts. Moreover, the ongoing presence of Fowler and his science team create additional opportunities for AWF to develop the use of the Lomako Conservation Science Centre by other researchers that can generate more revenue for ICCN operations in the reserve, and for the use of local communities.

The progressively shrinking distance between observer and bonobo during these habituating efforts has been very heartening. Until recently, scouts and researchers could not come to within 100 meters of bonobos before they fled; now teams can come to within six meters to observe. Fowler estimates that in the not so distant future he and his team will be able to perform all day follows of the bonobos, considered to be the gold-standard in ape habituation work.