Bulindi Chimpanzee and Community Project

About Bulindi Chimpanzee and Community Project

Since 2006, Dr Matt McLennan has followed this small family of chimpanzees, which currently numbers 22 members (a slight increase from previous years thanks to a recent, much-needed ‘baby boom’). During those same 11 years, more than 80% of their forest home was cut down and replaced by farmland. Researching the lives of the chimps has shone a spotlight on the immense pressure which they and other chimp groups in this region face from their human neighbours. At the same time, becoming involved in village life and learning about the constraints local people face in their daily lives, convinced me that efforts to conserve the chimpanzees and remaining forest had to start with support for local households. We launched a pilot project at Bulindi in April 2015 thanks to many kind and generous individuals and organizations that contributed funds, and we can now evaluate BCCP’s progress and achievements to date, and look forward to the future. It’s with great pleasure that I can report our first 18 months have been a great success! Our approach is novel, but simple. Since local villagers are poor and clear forest to raise cash and for wood, we offered to sponsor schoolchildren to help households meet one of their primary expenses, alongside an extensive tree planting program. When we began in May 2015, 14 forest-owning households agreed to participate; over the course of the first year this number grew steadily to 22. These forest-owning households collectively own about 90% of the forest in Bulindi!

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