50 – 80% of wild chimpanzees are expected to be lost by 2050 as a result of human activities.
Your support can help us change that.
Africa Programs
The interdependence and indivisibility of nature conservation and human development means that, to protect chimpanzees, the people living in and around their habitats must have access to fundamental human rights such as food security, clean water, employment, renewable energy, education, healthcare, and economic resources.
Through our Africa Programs, we’re realising our vision of healthy, stable, viable, and culturally and ecologically diverse populations of chimpanzees living in peaceful coexistence with thriving human communities.
Our community-lead approach to conservation addresses both the underlying causes and manifestation of the threats that are pushing chimpanzees to the brink. We collaborate with local partners to mobilise the knowledge and resources the communities have identified as being key to them meeting their needs and living more sustainably.
Our initiatives are centred around the following strategies
Protecting wild chimpanzee populations
The problem
Chimpanzees have slow reproductive rates and live at low populations densities, which can lead to rapid declines in their numbers when faced with threats. As chimpanzee population sizes shrink, their likelihood of long-term survival also decreases due to reductions in genetic diversity.
Because chimpanzees exhibit a broad array of ecological and cultural diversity across their range, conservation initiatives must be designed according to the specific context of each population to prevent further declines.
Our solution
The Jane Goodall Institute Australia collaborates with communities, local NGOs, governments, and park management authorities throughout East Africa to:
- Monitor the behaviour, demography, ecology, and health of wild chimpanzee populations throughout East Africa
- Develop and implement context-specific chimpanzee conservation strategies
Key outcomes
- Crucial chimpanzee socioecological, demographic, and spatiotemporal ranging data is available to inform evidence-based conservation strategies and management decisions.
Explore our wild chimpanzee conservation programs in Burundi
Protecting the connectivity, quality, and size of chimpanzee habitats
The problem
Large-scale conversion of forest to agricultural land, extractive industries, and the expansion of major transport infrastructure throughout Sub-Saharan Africa has diminished and degraded extensive areas of chimpanzee habitat. This has resulted in reductions in resource availability, subsequently leading chimpanzees to raid human crops. This in turn sparks an ongoing and sometimes fatal cycle of retaliatory human-chimpanzee conflict.
Much of the forest that remains has been broken into small, isolated fragments, limiting the ability of females (and their genes) to transfer into neighbouring chimpanzee communities upon sexual maturity as they normally would in continuous habitats.
Our solution
The Jane Goodall Institute Australia collaborates with communities, local NGOs, governments, and park management authorities across East Africa to:
- Develop sustainable land-use management plans
- Support ranger patrols
- Undertake reforestation and regeneration activities
- Monitor the size and quality of chimpanzee habitats
Key outcomes
- Ecological corridors linking isolated chimpanzee habitat fragments are created
- Degraded areas of chimpanzee habitat are regenerated
- Deforested areas of chimpanzee habitat are reforested
- Further forest loss, degradation, and disconnection is prevented
Explore our chimpanzee habitat protection programs in Burundi
Ensuring the welfare of captive chimpanzees
The problem
Almost 1000 orphaned chimpanzees are housed in sanctuaries across Sub-Saharan Africa. Most of them were rescued from the illegal pet and bushmeat trades, or from being kept illegally at private homes or businesses.
Our solution
The Jane Goodall Institute’s Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Centre provides nearly 150 rescued chimpanzees with the safe, secure, and stimulating home they deserve. We also collaborate with a local NGO and government bodies to improve the welfare of captive chimpanzees in Burundi.
Key outcomes
- Our sanctuaries allow authorities to enforce wildlife protection laws and confiscate illegally trafficked and captive chimpanzees
- Rescued chimpanzees receive quality care and live in environments as close to wild settings as possible
- Our sanctuaries continue to set and raise the best practice standards for captive chimpanzee care
Explore our captive chimpanzee welfare programs in Burundi
Explore our captive chimpanzee welfare programs in Republic of Congo
Improving the resilience of communities by empowering women and girls
The problem
Nearly one-quarter of Ugandan girls aged 12 – 18 years drop out of school at the onset of menstruation. For those who continue to attend school, absenteeism increases from 7% to 28% during their period.
Absenteeism often results in poorer academic performance. When girls struggle to achieve good grades, cultural norms often lead parents to force their girls out of school and into marriage to reduce their financial burden. Girls that marry and bear children at young ages are more likely to stay trapped in the cycle of poverty than those who delay marriage and children.
In Uganda, poverty is a major driver of natural resource exploitation, leading to the large-scale loss and degradation of chimpanzee habitats.
Our solution
The Jane Goodall Institute Australia works in partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute Uganda, communities, and schools to:
- Equip girls, boys, their families, and communities with the knowledge, skills, and resources to better understand and manage female reproductive health issues, particularly menstruation
- Help communities recognise the socioecological and socioeconomic value of supporting their girls to complete their education
- Empower girls and women to realise their aspirations through education
Key outcomes
- Girls and women can sustainably manage their periods through reusable sanitary pad making training
- Girls can complete their full education cycle
- Girls and women have the agency to make life choices that are consistent with chimpanzee conservation and sustainable natural resource management