Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Most of the SNR [Sankuru Nature Reserve] contains no bonobos at all, and what bonobos there
are were found outside the Reserve to the southeast. We conclude that any further funding
should be targeted at areas with much greater bonobo conservation potential. Salonga National
Park, to the west of Sankuru, contains several areas with high bonobo densities . . .
Innocent Liengola et al.,
Conserving Bonobos in the Last Unexplored Forest of the Democratic Re-
public of Congo: The Tshuapa-Lomami-Lualaba Landscape
, Wildlife Conservation Society, June
2009.
The first line of the quote above is false based on CREF and ICCN surveys; at least half
of Sankuru contains bonobos. Conveniently for WCS, this scientific report suggests that funding
should go to Salonga, where WCS has its sites, or that new protected areas should be created.
Furthermore, one of the report's authors works with the Harts on the TL2 project (See
ht-
tp://lomami.wildlifedirect.org/2007/05/21/bout-ash/
), and the map included in the report shows the
TL2 project boundaries taking up nearly half of the Sankuru Nature Reserve. However, if we look
at a grant report by the Harts from 2009, we see a contradiction emerging:
The first phase of our TL2 project is closing with our strong presence in the southern forests
where we have been able to document that the bonobos are not only present, but reach their
highest density in central Congo.
Terese Hart and John Hart,
A New Range Extension for Bonobo, Pan paniscus, in D.R. Congo
,
ht-
Reading this, one could easily assume that the TL2 area to which Terese Hart refers is far out-
side Sankuru. The name TL2, the location for the Harts' projected park, refers to the three rivers
that frame it: the Tshuapa, the Lomami, and the Lualaba, the last of which is the name for the
Congo River in this region. I spent some time looking at maps of TL2 that the Harts composed
for their reports, and in them, the boundary of the Sankuru Nature Reserve is drawn in a pale
mauve that is hard to follow alongside all of the dark blue rivers and the green and red lines of
boundaries for the Harts' proposed park and conservation zone. Sankuru's eastern border is largely
invisible, hidden beneath a river, and yet we see that, in the Harts' map of bonobo occurrence,
some of the highest concentrations are in the eastern portion of Sankuru. Lastly, in their map of
“conservation villages” for the development of their future national park and community conser-
vation zone, the mauve line of Sankuru has vanished entirely, its eastern territory taken up within
the Harts' project. It is easy to speculate that they removed the line of Sankuru so as not to draw
attention to the fact that one of their “conservation villages” appears to be directly on its border.
Terese B. Hart,
A New Conservation Landscape for Bonobo: Discovery and Conservation of the
Tshuapa-Lomami-Lualaba Landscape, in the Democratic Republic of Congo
, Lukuru Wildlife Re-
search Foundation, June 29, 2009,
http://www.bonoboincongo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/
“The natural thing,” Sally tells me, “would have been for the Harts to work in partnership with
Sankuru. They were in the area that we originally proposed for a bonobo reserve. The DRC's Min-
istry of the Environment and the ICCN wanted to enlarge it to protect the entire watershed, and
to include the entire administrative territory, for better governance. We respected [the ministry and
ICCN's] decision and wanted to work with them on creating sustainable livelihoods in the larger
area. . . . We invited the Harts to work with us, but instead they attacked. The only possibility for
them was their project or nothing, and they were ready to destroy Sankuru to have their way, rather
than to acknowledge and honor different conservation approaches.”
213
None of the people note 1:
I have found that one common theme at BCI is a consistently high
degree of respect for the Harts' scientific work in Ituri, in the DRC. BCI funded trainings of Vie
Sauvage staff and CREF researchers with John Hart when he worked for the Wildlife Conserva-
tion Society. Sally recalls meeting him at a conference years before and asking him to help with
