New bonobos sanctuary created in DR Congo

Yahoo News 29 May 09;

KINSHASA (AFP) – A new nature reserve to protect indigenous bonobos, apes threatened with extinction who use sex to deflate tension, has been built in the Democratic Republic of Congo, conservationists said Friday.

The environment ministry "has created the Kokolopori Bonobos reserve in the Equator province across 4,800 square kilometres (1,853 square miles) of land" in the north-west, said Cosma Wilungula, director general of the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN).

He added that the rainforest reserve is currently home to 1,000 bonobos, including five families who are monitored by experts, three of whom are "comfortable with human contact." Trained locals will help manage the apes.

A species found only in DR Congo's humid forests, the bonobos population has fallen to around 20,000 today from 100,000 in 1980 due to years of civil war and poaching in the area.

According to a copy of the May 12 ministry decree, seen by AFP, the reserve will ensure biodiversity protection and carbon storage with profits from the latter used to benefit local people through community development projects.

It added that introducing new species, hunting or mining in the reserve's specially marked conservation area is forbidden.

In 2007, the government opened another nature reserve covering 30,570 square kilometres in the central Kasai province to shelter bonobos.

Wilungula said DR Congo has 71 protected areas, including seven national parks and 63 nature reserves and hunting areas.

He added that the government wants to designate 15 percent of the country to become nature reserves, up from the current 11 percent.