The primary goal of the Jane Goodall Institute is to preserve African great apes and their habitats, with an emphasis on chimpanzees. According to Debbie Cox, African forests are still being destroyed at alarming rates, second only to that of the Amazon rainforests. Simply put, our closest genetic relatives are at risk.
Cox is a veterinary nurse, zookeeper, and executive director of operations in Uganda for the JGI since 1996. She paid a rare visit to U of T to publicize the issues that govern habitat destruction in Uganda and other areas of the African continent.
Current remaining chimpanzee habitats are highly concentrated, with over 90 per cent of the entire African chimp population living in 11 countries. The Congo Basin—the world’s second largest tropical forest—is one of the most prominent chimpanzee hotspots in the world. It is also home to 24 million people. There are numerous reasons for the extensive loss of chimpanzee habitat in this area, including illegal logging, expansion of lands used for agriculture, and the prevalence of bushmeat hunting.
Cox said the JGI is tackling the problem head-on. As part of its community- based conservation objective, the institute provides African communities with the financial and educational resources to better understand what is happening to their environment and what they can do to change it.
In Uganda, the JGI plans to install education centres near each of the six largest chimpanzee populations in the country. They plan to visit centres in local schools to educate students about relevant issues. The conservation education materials that the JGI develops and distributes have also met with success. Of the 500 schools where the materials were distributed, 400 have embraced the message. The JCI now aims to reach 8,000 schools, a more ambitious target.
Another concern is the bushmeat trade of undomesticated animals, which flourishes due to a lack of livestock. “In four years I have counted one cow and four goats,” said Cox.
This illegal trade is most rampant in Congo, and the JGI targets its educational campaign in Congo’s capital of Brazzaville. The institute uses billboards, posters, stickers, and taxidriver pundits in its campaign. The approaches reach a wide audience in this city where most use public transport. Already, vendors are starting to acknowledge the trade’s ecological affects—the real problem is finding a viable alternative. Cox argues that better education and law enforcement are key tools in halting the bushmeat trade.
“No amount of money that we have is going to save these apes if people on the ground are not interested in their care,” she said.
Curiously, archaic laws are an unexpected stumbling block. In Sierra Leone, a 1940s law forces hunters to pay a $2 penalty for killing chimpanzees. Unfortunately, in a diamond-rich country like Sierra Leone, this penalty is not a strong deterrent. After the JGI pushed for reform, the penalty now stands at $2000 or eight years in jail.
It is difficult balancing human interests with animal ones. “We’ve probably lost 700 square kilometres of chimp habitat to sugar cane,” said Cox. In an industry with a mere ten per cent profit margin, there is zero tolerance for a chimp with a sweet tooth. Sadly, locals have no option but to fend off chimpanzees by setting up traps. The JGI has countered this with a chimp welfare program called Conservation Alert. Local groups of Ugandan veterinarians remove snares and thereby save chimpanzee lives.
As well, the JGI has initiated a Good Neighbour Award program, a quarterly financial reward for communities deemed the best neighbours to their natural environment.
“By giving money every three months, it keeps the momentum going and people are excited that they could get access to this money” said Cox. In the 12 sanctuaries across Africa, there are currently over 800 chimps that the JGI plans to slowly release back into the wild. Saving the chimpanzees is an uphill battle and—like so many environmental problems—it all comes down to money.
“There has been very positive work in Sierra Leone in the past two years, but, after the latest election, the newest president is just not very much interested in conservation,” said Cox, who went on to name other countries that, in her opinion, have been slow to protect chimpanzees. “Guinea don’t really care too much about it. Liberia, they care a lot about it if you go and give them lots of money. And that is the problem with conservation organizations: we don’t have money.”
