LOLA YA BONOBO SANCTUARY, AFRICA

After five years of preparation, which included the identification of a special area at Democratic Republic of Congo, in Basankusu equatorial zone – and with the commitment of local population to protect and not to hunt -, a first group of bonobos is being reintroduced to African forest.

The first group was released on June 14 and the second one will be on June 28. Every bonobo will be monitored by trained keepers and special equipments, which will be able to inform about the apes’ activities and their location. The area, which was cautiously chosen, has, approximately, 50 thousand acres and has a small amount of human population.

Lola Ya Bonobo Sanctuary is the only one in the world dedicated to bonobos, who live in a specific and isolated area in the south of Congo River until the borderline with Angola. Bonobos are chimpanzees who recently were considered to be other species – Pan paniscus (chimpanzees are Pan troglodytes). This definition was based on the differences on behavior acquired due to the geographical isolation in which they live.

Founder of the sanctuary, Claudine André, who began the activities on 1994, near the capital Kinshasa, declared: “The release of the bonobos to their habitat will be highlight o all of our efforts. In the last 15 years we have been working tireless and had been concentrating in education and conservation. This is the most important step ever.”

The sanctuary homes 54 bonobos. Before the groups to be released were defined, every bonobo was physically and psychologically evaluated, in order to check if they had conditions to live in the wild, as long as this means the bonobo will have to face challenges and many dangerous situations.

PASA (Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance) Executive Director, Doug Cress, declared: “PASA is proud and anxious about this project of Lola Ya Bonobo. We believe that reintroduction will both give these orphans a second chance of life in the wild and collaborate to restore the forests.”

A group of organizations worldwide is helping the sanctuary so that this project can happen. For more information visit www.friendsofbonobos.org and www.pasaprimates.org.