The video that showed a chimpanzee named Wounda being released back into the forest in Congo? If you don't remember seeing it on Facebook or some news service site, treat yourself by clicking on YouTube.com and searching for Wounda's Journey.
On a recent visit to coastal Congo, we had the great privilege of visiting the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center near Pointe Noire. A part of the Jane Goodall Institute, the overarching mission of the center is to end poaching of chimpanzees and to protect and rehabilitate chimps that have been severely traumatized by bushmeat hunters. Basically it is an orphanage for chimps but with a very structured program for assuring their health, rehabilitation and then reintroduction into the forest. The main compound sits at a slight elevation about the savannah and is approached by a road only big 4x4s can manage. We were greeted by key staff and one of their special helpers, Khaleef, a black and white Great Dane who never met a stranger.
The youngest chimp group--from 12 months to seven years, including a chimp crippled by polio--lives on the compound and shares a large open enclosure but goes by day to a forest where there are no wild chimps who might seem them as a threat. We saw "the kids" pile in the back seat of a pick up truck--maybe a dozen of them--and head out to their day in the forest soon after we arrived. Kind of like going to day camp.
Also on the compound are living quarters and a small veterinary care clinic (for the sick and injured chimps) staffed by an energetic Spanish veterinarian named Dr. Rebeca Atencia. Rebeca, the mother of three year old twin girls, has been at the center for upwards of a dozen years. She was working with chimps in captivity in Spain when she realized her calling was to save chimps and release them back to the forest.
Rebeca and the operations manager, Debbie (in Africa since 1992, first in Uganda working with chimps), were our guides for the tour, ably assisted by a host of other employees. Our great privilege was to be ferried by pirogue and small motorboat through the swamp, first to the Entombe River and then to the Kouilou River and on out to three island stations where chimps are being reintroduced to the forest. I confess the journey through the swamp was both a thrill and a terror. Birdsong accompanied us all the way through the black waters that I was sure were hiding reptiles of all kinds who did not wish me well. It was tempting to imagine kayaking through (and in fact being seated in the bottom of a wooden pirogue had the feel of being one with the water).
I was a bit relieved when we got to the wider rivers with open skies and all kinds of vegetation new to me, including water hyacinth (an invasive plant that can be used to make baskets) and papyrus. We carried a large crate of fruits with us and at our first stop watched a staff member wade through the water with the fruit and feed the waiting chimps, who are in the company of two staffers 24/7. They get about half of their food from the wild and half is provided for now. At this first stop we actually saw Wounda--the star of the YouTube video. She was both shy and a show-off. She grabbed her fruit (bananas, watermelon, apples, papayas, etc.) and took off for the heights. While we were there she mostly observed us from very high above us or jumped from treetop to treetop, making conversation as she went. The chimps were very individual in their behavior. We were close enough to enjoy facial expressions and see how they played with the staff, turned down the fruits they did not like, grabbed the ones they did, and generally socialize among themselves. This group was all female with one male.
At our second sgtop we were able to get out of the boat and walk to an elaborate enclosure, a two-story set of connected substantial cages with a run that opens into the forest. There we met some very large macho chimps who showed off by screeching and flying at us and splaying themselves against the cage wires where we could see them. They ran back and forth overhead across the bridges, showed off their leather woven hammocks and beat the air with big palm branches just to show us who was in charge. At the rate of not more than one new chimp per day, the staff is introducing chimps who are ready into this environment. They are free to leave the big cage but many come in at night of their own accord. They too are staffed full time and I was impressed by the progress reports on the newly arived chimps that the staff made to Rebeca the Vet while we were visiting.
There is a sizable staff of Congolese (all men--women don't seem interested in this field work) working and living out along the river and doing the shifts with the chimps. They use solar power to charge their cell phones! They are also involved in starting to work on the next phase of development, which is to create an ecotourism center where people can stay, learn about the Institute's work, and also enjoy the physical beauty of the delta region. At this point, people are engaged in making thbe cement blocks that will provide the foundations for the buildings. The more local the better.
Meantime, back at headquarters we learned that recent Chinese investments in oil exploration and phosphorous mining have been undertaken literally on the doorstep of the center and without any environmental impact studies. This is a matter of grave concern because not only will the mining destroy much of the natural habitat and the savannah that surrounds the center, but will also have the effect of all extractive industry where there is no local ownership and no plan for restoration. Despite what the coal industry says, all you have to do is visit parts of West Virginia to see what I am talking about.
On our way back to Pointe Noire we visited some higher elevations with big gasp-inducing views, as well as an important cemetery housing the graves of three Luangan kings and a special museum focused on the artifacts (baskets!) and history of the once-huge Luanga Kingdom, its culture and the impact of the western slave trade. Most of those individuals who were exported as slaves from this area were destined for the plantations of Guadaloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean. The community is building a huge house and compound next door to the museum for the next king, who will be named by a specially designated person in the community.No Baby Prince George waiting in the wings in this culture!
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