Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Back in DC, Sally met everyone she could from the Congo, getting to know members of the
Congolese diplomatic and expat community. She was excited about her work and wanted to learn
from them as well as to share the importance of her project—of bonobos and their habitat.
BCI advisor John Scherlis told me that BCI's staff and partners had raised awareness of bonobos
in the DRC, in its national, provincial, and local governments, in its ministries, and in its private sec-
tor. He pointed out that Sally had done the same in DC, “among the Congolese diaspora, with whom
BCI has a very close relationship—unlike any other conservation NGO.” A USAID white paper
corroborates John's observation, explaining how conservation organizations can increase their ef-
fectiveness by networking and partnering with African diaspora communities. The report cites BCI
for its “tremendous success” in doing just this and suggests that BCI's work alone could be the sub-
ject of a case study.
Sally's vision was to have BCI build grassroots support for conservation while also doing the
“top down” work that Karl Ammann described as essential for conservation's long-term survival.
She was educating the Congolese political elite who circulated in and out of the United States, many
of whom knew little or nothing about bonobos, and though it might appear that she was far from
creating political pressure, she was building relationships and social capital. Contrary to the view
of politics that sees leverage and even threats as necessary to force negotiations, Sally's focus was
on mutual respect, which has by and large facilitated her work in the DRC.
As the war raged on, BCI raised money to support Claudine André, a Belgian conservationist
who had grown up in the Congo and founded Lola ya Bonobo, the world's only bonobo sanctuary,
which took in orphaned infants confiscated from traders who were selling them as pets. BCI also
produced radio shows that would be aired in the DRC. Reports described massive quantities of
bushmeat feeding the various military forces, and to counter this, BCI prepared broadcasts. Using
the folktales that she and Takayoshi Kano had gathered, Sally worked with Congolese in DC to
make recordings asking people not to hunt bonobos. She was able to get the thirty-minute shows,
which consisted of a mix of music interspersed with legends, broadcast on both the Congo's eastern
and western fronts.
She began planning the trip to Kinshasa that had been delayed by the outbreak of the Second
Congo War. No matter how she explained her passion to her friends and family—telling them that it
was spiritual, that she felt the need to do something more meaningful, to take risks and make sacri-
fices—they were afraid for her. Millions were dying in the Congo, the little news that made its way
out describing mass rape, the rampant spread of HIV, and the enslavement of the people to exploit
and smuggle minerals. In the eyes of the West, the entire Congo seemed a hopeless bloodbath.
Sally received a grant from the National Geographic Society's Expeditions Council to return
with the Japanese to Wamba and see how many bonobos had survived the wars. The grant was de-
signed to set the stage for the visit of a
National Geographic
team who would write a story, and the
project for which Sally received her grant was conceived in three parts, with three separate expedi-
tions culminating in Dr. Kano's return to Wamba.
BCI also received a grant to do a pre-feasibility study for protected areas for bonobos. The
donor was the Global Conservation Fund, endowed by Gordon Moore to create new protected areas
around the world, and administered by Conservation International (CI). Russell Mittermeier, CI's
president, exhorted the BCI team to think big, to assess the prospects and plan for the largest re-
serve possible. Sally woke up one morning with the idea of a Bonobo peace park. The Congo then
appeared as if it might break into three countries—the Uganda-aligned north, the Rwanda-aligned
