Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
In an age when the state of the planet preoccupies us—from climate change to deforestation, and
from the extinction of species to the degradation of human habitat—it's hard not to wonder wheth-
er we are capable of working through lasting challenges. Do we have the cultural staying power,
or will short attention spans, coupled with our love of instant gratification, doom our attempts to
rehabilitate the environment, just as the naysayers have been predicting? Having read countless dis-
mal news reports in recent years, I wanted to know about the sorts of people and projects that aren't
dominating the headlines, those developing long-term solutions to environmental destruction, their
work done year in, year out, in all its routine and tiresome glory.
The Congo caught my attention early on because its rainforests are so crucial to preventing cli-
mate change, and because the country itself was at a crossroads. In 2003, it emerged from possibly
the world's most devastating conflict since World War II, and with increasing political stability, its
massive forests and mineral wealth were again vulnerable to large-scale exploitation. Conservation-
ists were rushing in, and of those working there, one group, the Bonobo Conservation Initiative
(BCI), was fostering a surprising number of conservation areas in spite of its small size and limited
funding. Two large community-based reserves had already been established and several others were
in the works, all with the goal of protecting the habitat of the bonobo, a matriarchal great ape that,
like the chimpanzee, has more than 98.6 percent of its DNA in common with humans.
When I contacted BCI's president, Sally Jewell Coxe, and explained my interest in writing about
new approaches to conservation, she described how she and a few others started the organization in
1998, in the spirit of bonobo cohesiveness, its goal to build coalitions so as to use resources more
sustainably. Unlike national parks, the reserves contained villages whose occupants were trained to
manage and protect the natural resources and wildlife. BCI's model was inclusive, she said, invit-
ing people in rainforest villages to participate and taking into account their histories, cultures, and
needs in order to foster grassroots conservation movements.
This last detail caught my attention, that understanding another culture's values had allowed
BCI to develop a self-replicating conservation model. They focused on creating forums to discuss
different ways of thinking about natural resources, and encouraging the local people to take leader-
ship roles in conservation projects. Given that populations and the global demand for raw materials
were soaring, that millions of hungry people were eager to cut down the Congo's forest for farm-
land and hunt the remaining wildlife, a change of consciousness was as urgent as the application of
environmental laws. The rainforest's importance for life on earth was undeniably clear: it protected
watersheds while releasing oxygen and removing carbon from the atmosphere. As for bonobos, they
were already on the verge of extinction, their habitat only in the DRC, to the south of the Congo
River's curve, in an area where the national government's influence barely reached.
The portrait that Sally painted of effective conservation work was a mixture of anthropology
and conservation biology, in which knowledge of the land, the people, the animals, and the coun-
