LOLA YA BONOBO SANCTUARY

One decade ago, Claudine André, who is Belgian but lives for many years at Congo Democratic Republic, founded the sanctuary Lola Ya Bonobo, near the capital Kinshasa, where currently 63 orfan bonobos are being taking care.

Claudine did not only do this extraordinary rescue work, but also has been fighting, through education and public complaints, against the massacre of bonobos in Congo, which is the unique country who hosts this species in a wet land, located in the south of Congo river until reaches Angola. Nowadays the population of bonobos, who is a chimpanzee smaller than a regular chimpanzee – and differs in size and behaviors, although they are not that different in the end – , is estimated in less than 50 thousand in the wild.

Claudine was paid homage in November 26, in London, during the ceremony of the prize Badham-Evans, created by the Women for Wild Life Committee of Twcross Zoo, in England. This prize was implemented by the founders of the zoo, Molly Badham and Nathalie Evans "in recognition of other women who have been dedicating their lives to take care and protect wild life."

Lola Ya Bonobo Sanctuary, which is a member from PASA (Alliance of Pan-African Sanctuaries), is planning for 2009 the release of one third of the rescued bonobos in a protected area in the northeast of Congo. This will be the first experience of a kind conducted in the world.