Some of the funds raised by the EAZA Ape Campaign will go towards supporting this project.
In order to further the conservation efforts for the bonobo (Pan paniscus) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Awely established its Green Caps programme. In the northeast of the country bonobos face many threats such as hunting for bushmeat trade and the destruction of their habitat.
What does Awely’s Green Caps programme do?
Bushmeat market in DRC. Credit: Renaud Fulconis
Awely set up the Green Caps programme in 2008 in the northeast of the DRC, in the province of Equateur, south of the town Basankusu. It was established in partnership with Twycross Zoo and the French clothing company Bonobo. The area includes 12,000 km2 of dense forest, Ikela and Lofale, where bonobos live in a natural but unprotected habitat. As some of the world’s poorest people live in the region bonobo meat is consumed by the local people as well as being sold on local bushmeat markets and downriver in the provincial capital of Mbandaka.
The programme aims to reduce the dependency of local people on the bushmeat trade. The participants of the programme originate from the remote villages of the project area and work together with hunters, bushmeat sellers and local authorities. Through education and training sessions they learn how to create alternative sources of income.
What are the objectives of Awely’s Green Caps programme?
Bonobo in Democratic Republic of Congo. Credit: Eva Gross
- Survey of the bushmeat trade in the province of Equateur, DRC (ongoing);
- Establishing economic micro‐projects as alternatives to the bushmeat trade, alleviating pressure on the local biodiversity, including bonobos;
- Change attitudes towards bonobos and bushmeat hunting, through education and the “Bonobo Ambassador” scheme; and
- Set up a vet infrastructure for the livestock husbandry, thereby improving and enforcing livestock breeding and therefore decreasing dependency on bushmeat.
How do the programme’s goals align with the EAZA Ape Campaign aims?
The EAZA Ape Campaign addresses three main issues that are related to the decline of apes in the wild:
- Habitat loss
- Hunting and illegal trade of apes
- Ape disease and health
Preserving the richness of biodiversity, and bonobos in particular, is the major objective of Awely’s Green Caps programme. This objective can only be achieved with the continuous collaboration between the local authorities and people whose essential survival depends on the forest’s natural resources. In order to propose viable alternatives to bushmeat hunting, Awely is developing economic micro-project schemes for this region of the DRC.
In particular the project aims to establish a veterinary infrastructure to help reduce the pressure on bonobos through improving the health conditions of livestock. Currently vaccination is not or only very rarely available, leading to discouraging losses of livestock.
