Saving the chimpanzee

These three organisations are leading the way for chimpanzee conservation:

Project Primate
Located in Guinea, West Africa, this organisation has founded a dedicated Chimpanzee Conservation Centre. They employ a three-step approach to help the chimpanzees they work with. First, chimps are rescued either as orphans of the bushmeat trade or survivors of the pet trade. They then undertake a lengthy rehabilitation process, which can take up to ten years. For the first several years, the chimps need lots of care and are taken out on daily bush walks by volunteers and integrated with other chimps. Once this is complete, Project Primate releases the successfully rehabilitated individuals back into the wild. Lastly, the volunteers spend time educating the local communities about the important role chimpanzees play within the environment.

Once chimps have been released, the Project Primate team have very little contact to minimise the risk of disease transmission and increase their chance of survival in the long term.

The Wild Chimpanzee Foundation
To ensure the chimpanzee’s survival, it is vital to protect their habitat. That is exactly what the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation is doing in West Africa. Setting up eco-patrols to help stop illegal deforestation by farmers ensures the chimps have the best possible chance, and also helps to deter poachers from unlawfully taking the chimps. In addition, the Foundation undertakes regular bio-monitoring checks to form up-to-date habitat management plans.
This means it can address any problems that arise in the chimp’s environment and ensure the quality of the habitat.
Knowledge is power, and this group is dedicated to monitoring population trends and primate activity regularly.

The Jane Goodall Institute

The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) was founded in the US in 1977, and continues Dr Goodall’s pioneering studies on chimpanzee behavior – research that has transformed scientific perceptions of these endangered primates.
Today JGI is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats, and is widely recognised for establishing innovative community – centred conservation and development programmes in Africa, as well as founding Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots, a global environmental teaching programme for young people that has groups in more than 130 countries.

JGI UK was founded as a charity in 1988 with a mission to prevent the extinction of chimpanzees through research and community-focused conservation, alongside environmental and humanitarian education.