The 2021 CITES World Wildlife Day theme; Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet is exemplified in an innovative programme to protect threatened bonobos in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Protection of an endangered primate, forest conservation, and local leadership go hand in hand in this Congo Basin community.
“Salisa bonobo mpe bonobo bakosalisa yo”, “Help bonobos and bonobos will help you” – is a saying in the Kokolopori community deep in the Congo Basin rainforest.
It refers to the bonobo, a species of great apes. Bonobos share nearly 99 percent of their DNA with humans. Smart, emotional, creative, with homo sapiens-looking physical traits, the bonobo can be described as the closest relative to humankind. Yet they are endangered.
The Kokolopori community, at Vie Sauvage, has a model for how to save this important species.
Less aggressive than human beings, bonobos primarily resolve conflict through sexual contact and other forms of social bonding. As Albert Lotana Lokasola, a native of Kokolopori, and president and founder of Vie Sauvage, says, “The one thing we should all learn from bonobos, is the culture of peace.”
Cooperation, peacemaking, and reconciliation after conflict are trademarks of bonobo behaviour and characterize their egalitarian and generally nonviolent society, led by females.
The humid rainforest south of the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the only place where bonobos survive in the wild. Conflict, social turmoil and growing poverty in the area have caused increasing threats to the bonobo. Poaching provides food for bushmeat trading, and their body parts are used traditional medicine. Their tropical habitat is also under attack by deforestation due to an expanding populations, agriculture, and commercial logging.
The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated all these problems. Add the bonobo’s slow reproduction rate, and concern for the survival of this great ape becomes evident. The Kokolopori community is working tirelessly to avoid this vicious cycle.
Vie Sauvage, aims to protect the bonobo and empower the local community at the same time. The group promotes wildlife and forest conservation for community development, conservation, and peacebuilding. They have helped create and manage a 4,875 square kilometre Bonobo Peace Forest reserve.
As Albert explains, “Vie Sauvage's work is based on the interdependence that there is between us [the local community], the forest, and its biodiversity. It is in a holistic approach, man-forest-wildlife, that Vie Sauvage deploys its efforts so that the Bonobo Peace Forest in Kokolopori can jointly bear its children. We believe that separating the mother-forest from her children is to wean humanity and condemn it to inanity.”
Vie Sauvage has set up basic health care for villagers, established education programmes, and started agricultural cooperatives as well as a small enterprise initiative. Jobs in the management of the reserve and ecotourism also provide a perspective for isolated indigenous villages. Community activism helped achieve national government recognition. Under the threat from the South African strain of the coronavirus, as well as potential transmission of other diseases such as monkeypox, Vie Sauvage, and their international partner, the Bonobo Conservation Initiative, are conducting a fundraiser for its health clinic to equip it with adequate medicines and supplies.
The involvement of the Kokolopori community is key. The community has unparalleled knowledge about the forest and its wildlife. Reverence for bonobos is founded in Kokolopori's history and traditions. Twenty-two years ago, that reverence informed the community’s decision to protect its forest. “Maintaining the trust of the community and continuing expanding our holistic model is an incessant work,” Albert says.
The focus on local leadership, dialogue, and partnerships, is key to the success of the protected area. The Bonobo Peace Forest allows people to sustainably use their forest, securing their prosperity and well-being, in addition to alleviating pressures on the forest. As a result, while protecting the environment, the community enjoys better infrastructure, education and health care.
Kokolopori, the Bonobo Peace Forest, and Vie Sauvage show us the invaluable service that a well-preserved rainforest and protection of its wildlife can provide to local communities and to humankind.
In 2020 the community was awarded the UNDP Equator Prize for their work, which benefits the whole world; the Congo Basin is the second-largest remaining rainforest on the planet, an enormous carbon sink of global relevance.
Albert recounts how bonobos have helped him promote his community’s achievements: “Instead of being reduced to asking for help, we got something to offer the world. It increased our pride.”
© 2026 United Nations Development Programme
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)