Our area of intervention (the southern Basankusu region) is particularly landlocked, and over 80% of its inhabitants are hunters, farmers and artisanal operators.

The local economy is underdeveloped due to a lack of infrastructure, businesses, international organizations, businessmen and women and, more generally, jobs. As a result, the area’s population relies directly on nature as the sole source of their livelihood.

To avoid these serious risks of deforestation and forest degradation, and the disappearance of the bonobos, we have initiated a community-based approach to biodiversity conservation (an approach centred around the local people) as our one and only working strategy.

Based on these CLIPs, we have developed a number of community-based actions to protect bonobos and their habitats, which are beneficial to both humans and bonobos (see some of the images sent in).