Bonobo Conservation Initiative
WISH LIST: $100: 4 "ecoguard" salaries for an entire month; $500: medical supplies to a rainforest community; $1,000: solar panel for the village conservation center.
BCI protects the bonobo, one of humankind's nearest relatives, and its rainforest home in the Democratic Republic of Congo, fostering both a conservation and environmental ethic, and developing programs that encourage an understanding of rainforests, watersheds, endangered species, and global climate change. Because of BCI's work, the Bonobo Peace Forest now protects from ambitious logging part of the largest contiguous, moist tropical forests on earth. But nothing is easy in the Congo--for bonobos or their human counterparts. So BCI invests in community-based conservation, incorporating humanitarian and livelihood support into its conservation work. Providing one of the only significant sources of regular income to the inhabitants, its sustainable agriculture programs support local agricultural cooperatives, and women's initiatives include conservation enterprise programs, micro-credit, and training. Here at home, Falls Church has become a "sister city" to Kokolopori in the heart of the bonobo habitat: local schoolchildren gain direct experience of their counterparts in Kokolopori--and young conservationists and community development leaders are born. After all, we share one planet.
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Sally J Coxe President |
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