Amidst decades of civil strife, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) rainforests have been subjected to continuous and widespread exploitation and fragmentation, yet harbor the last remaining populations of bonobos (Pan paniscus), or pygmy chimpanzees. These globally endangered great apes are under increasing threat due to habitat loss, road construction, and hunting. Such conditions stem from growing numbers of impoverished Africans subsisting on a combination of bushmeat hunting, slash-and burn agriculture, and temporary employment with the timber industry. This project will use applied research on bonobo populations and their habitats to simultaneously reduce human-bonobo conflict, improve habitat conservation and management, and inform the development of bonobo management plans, thereby enhancing the long-term protection of bonobo populations in the Maringa-Lopori-Wamba (MLW) landscape of DRC. By directly involving local peoples, many of whom have already agreed to develop Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) plans, this project will also serve to foster further conservation education and outreach efforts and strengthen local capacity to implement their own conservation programs.

To maintain sustainable bonobo populations while providing for human needs, we must better understand specifically how this species responds to the interaction of deforestation, roads, and hunting pressure. Given that humans in this landscape must hunt, farm, and log to shape their livelihoods, this project seeks to provide information on the best manner in which to arrange those land uses for the persistence of wildlife species and the humans who depend on them. Although current decision-support software tools exist (Luetzelschwab 2007, Coxe et al. 1999), they rely on a clear understanding of where bonobos occur and how bonobos react to various impacts. To meet these needs, we will collect occupancy data and estimate bonobo abundances, where possible, in a manner that allows for the evaluation of the pattern of habitat use in relation to canopy loss, accessibility via roads and rivers, and hunting pressure.