Searching for Bonobo in Congo

As director of the TL2 Project I represent an outstanding team of Congolese field biologists. My husband and I set out in 2007 to explore an unknown forest. We found bonobos, a new species of monkey, forest elephant, okapi, Congo peacock... Our mission now, with our TL2 staff, is to build effective conservation from village-base to national administration for TL2 and other critical conservation areas of DR Congo.

terese AT bonoboincongo DOT com

That's a lot of money. But we can do it in 2012, with your help, even small. Read more.

...in Kinshasa after a week with the village outreach teams in Maniema. We had a retreat at our Bafundo base camp. My first time there. Beautiful. ...

...John is working with colleagues at Max Planck in Germany, he is back in Kinshasa at the beginning of May for a week of data analysis with our friend Rene Beyers ....

...We now have a tab for maps. Our first map is the soon-to-be Lomami National Park as approved by the governors. Then a series of maps illustrates the history of the TL2 project.

The three river basins of the Tshuapa, Lomami and Lualaba Rivers (TL2), Congo’s forest enigma, ascend through its geographic heart. We have answered our first question "Is Congo's own great ape, the bonobo, found in TL2?" Yes it is? And so is Congo's endemic rainforest giraffe, the okapi and the rare Congo peacock. But, now the challenge is to bring real protection to the forests before the bonobo and all other large animals are hunted out.

We make a great team:

• John Hart, my husband, who has led exploration and inventory missions around Congo for the last 25 years, along with
• Five expert team leaders, Dino Tshwa, Maurice Emetshu, Crispin Kibambe, Christian Urom, and Ephrem Mpaka.
• All of us working closely with some 30-40 other staff, from dugout captain, to community project leader and from cooks to porters, all essential.

We’ve been in the field – Congo’s TL2 – since May 2007.

More on the project. More about us.

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