Chimpanzees

In 1960 a young Englishwoman named Jane Goodall embarked on a daring scientific adventure: the study of chimpanzees in the wild. Encouraged and aided by Dr. Louis B. Leakey, she traveled hundreds of miles across East Africa to reach the remote Gombe Stream Game Reserve. There she found the powerful and potentially dangerous wild chimpanzee, a member of the group of primates known as the Great Apes.

In 2011, the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) convened conservation partners to develop a conservation action plan for great apes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with financial support from the Arcus Foundation. The main goal of this initiative was to identify critical threats to gorillas, chimpanzees and their habitats in the landscape, and to develop conservation strategies to address these threats.

Le chimpanzé de Schweinfurth est classé “En danger” et est l’objet d’une attention particulière au niveau global pour sa conservation. Cette publication offre un plan sur 10 ans qui, s’il est appliqué de manière complète, permettra le maintien de populations viables du chimpanzé dans son aire de distribution existante. Les chimpanzés sont une excellente espèce phare pour la conservation.

The eastern chimpanzee is classified as “endangered” and of global conservation concern. This publication offers a 10-year plan which, if fully implemented, will go a long way to ensuring the maintenance of viable populations of the eastern chimpanzee across much of its existing range. Chimpanzees are excellent flagship and umbrella species for conservation; protecting their populations and habitat protects innumerable other species.

In some areas of western equatorial Africa, ape populations have declined by more than 50% over the last twenty years. By far the most serious short-term threats to apes in this region are poaching and disease epidemics. In the longer term, however, it is believed that habitat loss and disturbance will become as serious a threat as hunting and disease.