"Loggers are coming into our forest. Please help us!"

Local village partners from two bonobo sites, Mbie Mokele and Monieka/Bokote, have contacted the BCI field headquarters in Mbandaka with urgent requests for us to intervene with logging operations bracing to come into their forests. The Congo rainforest is under increasing threat from loggers - some legal, but with little if any supervision – and some illegal. With loggers come hungry workers and new roads cut deep into the bonobo habitat, that provide access to bushmeat hunters.

Even while BCI has agreements with local communities for bonobo conservation in these areas, and has HF radios and monitoring teams in place, it is just the first "finger in the dike." More resources and support are desperately needed to empower local and indigenous partners to protect their forests.

"While people attend large international meetings to discuss the logging crisis in the DRC, we are in the forests with our partners trying to do something today, but we need support on the ground. We need funds for fuel, equipment and communications and for legal intervention...and we need it now. If we cannot get this support, they will hold meeting next year in Washington and Europe to talk about what they should do now that bonobos and the forests are gone." - Richard Eonga, BCI Chief, Mbandaka Field Headquarters

Mama Marceline holds baby Waola, an orphan bonobo whose hand had been cut off in a snare. The people of Monieka helped us rescue her from illegal poachers. Now, Monieka needs our help to protect their forest from encroachment by loggers.

 

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