By Jennifer Moustgaard | Program Coordinator
We all know the importance of having the right tools to complete a task. It seems the same holds true with bonobos. A new study reports that our great ape cousins will use tools like branches, antlers, and stones to find and extract buried or otherwise hidden food. The bonobos’ complex foraging behaviors observed in the study, led by Itai Roffman, resembled those of human ancestors and could indicate that tool use by great apes dates back to the common ancestor to bonobos, chimps and humans.
Our partners at Lilungu are undertaking a significant task themselves: initiating the process of gaining legal protection for the forests where they live. Lilungu was a significant bonobo research site in the late 1980s and continues to have a thriving bonobo population today. Under recent changes to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s forestry laws, communities may request concessions to create and manage what are known as “Community Forests”. In order to ensure that the communities involved are actively and fairly engaged, the process involves intensive coordination amongst local communities, communication with regional authorities, and delimitation of the forest boundaries.
Over the past several months, the community NGO at Lilungu—Economie de l’Environnement et de la Nature (ENE)—has secured initial agreements to request the forest concessions. This is a great first step but, there is a need for tools to help our partners complete the process. Forest delimitation (in addition to on-going monitoring of the bonobos at Lilungu) requires field equipment and salaries for trackers. The Lilungu site is also in need of a new HF radio for more efficient communications during the establishment of this forest and for continued protection of the area, once formally established.
We are proud of the progress that the Lilungu communities, under the leadership of ENE, have made with limited resources and we hope that you will stand with us and help us provide the tools to help them complete the job!
P.S. If you would like to read more about our work and its impact, author Deni Bechard’s book “Of Bonobos and Men” will be released in paperback format on September 1.
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