Congo River Cargo Boat Brings Promise to Endangered Great Apes

African Wildlife Foundation Promotes Alternatives to Illegal Bushmeat Hunting of Bonobos, Pygmy Chimpanzees Facing Extinction from Impoverished, War-Ravaged Local Communities

Just weeks after 27 nations signed the world's first declaration on protecting Great Apes, the so-called U.N. Kinshasa Declaration and the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) is taking proactive steps to ensure the survival of one of the most threatened primate species in Africa, the bonobo, or pygmy chimpanzee, whose numbers have been decimated in the tropical forests of war-ravaged Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The bonobos, genetically our closest relative and known for resolving conflict through sex rather than violence, are being slaughtered for food in post-war Congo, where their numbers are estimated to have fallen from as many as 100,000 in the mid-1990s to some 20,000 or less today. Some experts predict the bonobo could be wiped out in a generation.

Bonobo extinction was very much behind the push for the Kinshasa declaration, which seeks to reconcile the needs of local people with the needs of great apes. Environmental officials from Britain and other nations attending the Kinshasa conference said it was urgent to create situations in great ape range states that can keep the apes alive by alleviating poverty. The two recommended routes: improved, sustainable agricultural commerce and ecotourism.

If we want to protect the bonobo, which is urgently needed, "we have to do something for the local people," says Jef Dupain, an African Wildlife Foundation primatologist who has spent more than a decade on the frontlines in the Congo working with the bonobos. Adds Dupain, who attended the Kinshasa Great Ape Survival Project (GRASP) Conference sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program: "You can't just tell the local people not to eat bushmeat. You're not taken seriously."

This month, an AWF-funded cargo barge, the Ferbo I, began traveling up and down the Congo and Maringa Rivers in the Congo to collect agricultural products from local farmers. These locals have been unable to bring their corn, rice, peanuts, cassava and other crops to market due to the total collapse of any remaining regional infrastructure.

Conservationists at AWF concerned with the situation in the central African rainforests are hopeful that these farmers and villagers who have relocated further and further into the forests and turned to illegal hunting of bonobos and other wildlife for survival will return to their fields now that their harvests can more easily make it to market.

Prior to the civil war, in which an estimated three million people died, the regions along these two rivers were rich with crops of coffee, cocoa, rubber and palm oil. Those crops are only slowly recovering, but there is optimism for a return to normalcy with the revival of much-needed trade on the rivers in this remote, impoverished region of the world.

"We're excited to be helping the Ferbo I begin carrying cargo on the Congo and Maringa Rivers," says AWF's Dupain, who will be flying from Congo to Washington in early October to address the urgent plight of the bonobos. "We believe this will start to enable local farmers to re-establish their livelihoods, while reducing the destruction to local forests and wildlife."

As part of an Agricultural Reactivation Project that aims to reduce pressure on forests, AWF conducted a socio-economic study from July to October 2004 to gather feedback and insights from Congolese farmers in hopes of finding a solution that would help restore agricultural activity and encourage them to return to their fields.

Farmers indicated that the lack of access to markets was the primary factor preventing them from selling their agricultural products. In response, AWF partnered with Ferbo I to reactivate (following a seven-year hiatus) commercial transport on the Congo and Maringa Rivers, stopping at six ports and collecting agricultural products to sell in the capital, Kinshasa, plus other major markets.

Adds Justin Belani, Agro-Economist Specialist for the African Wildlife Foundation: "This effort is designed to help farmers return to their preferred profession, cultivating land that has already been cleared for agricultural use."

The Ferbo I departed this week from Kinshasa on the Congo River and proceed to Mbandaka. From there, the boat will follow the Lulonga River to Basankusu and then the Maringa River to Befori. The total journey will take two months (one month each way) and will cover 3,200 kilometers (1,600 kilometers) each way. The Ferbo I can carry approximately 700 tons of cargo, which will directly touch 700 families. This, of course, does not account for other revenues that the AWF-sponsored project will generate, including employing manufacturers in the ports and spurring trade in other basic commodities, such as sugar, oil, soap and cloth that will become available once the cargo programs are firmly established. If successful, the boat will continue to travel throughout the year, except during the dry months (Jan-Feb thru May-June) when access to the river is limited.

To ensure success, AWF is alerting local communities to the boat's schedule and providing them with empty sacs to ship their crops. In addition, AWF staff will be traveling on the boat to supervise operations.

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Interviews with Jef Dupain can be scheduled in Washington, D.C., Oct. 6, 2005. Photos are available. Please contact John Butler at 202-939-3333, African Wildlife Foundation, 1400 16th Street, N.W., Suite 120, Washington, D.C.