JGI Conservation Works

JGI works in four major areas: The world famous Gombe Stream Research Centre (GSRC), the Lake Tanganyika Catchment, Reforestation and Education Project (TACARE), a Community Centred Conservation Project in the Congo Basin and JGI Sanctuaries.

Along with Tchimpounga, opened in 1992, JGI has established three further sanctuaries for orphan chimpanzees; Ngamba Island in Uganda (now run by a Trust including JGI), Chimpanzee Eden in South Africa and Sweetwaters in Kenya (although JGI is no longer directly involved in Sweetwaters). We review the need for such services regularly and where possible will look to expand our support for vulnerable chimpanzees elsewhere in Africa.

At our sanctuaries, JGI recognises the immediate need to protect the victims of the illegal bushmeat trade; orphaned chimpanzees, who are typically sold into the pet trade after their mothers have been brutally killed, or are smuggled abroad to be used in circuses.

We work with governments to ensure that illegally held chimpanzees are confiscated. But it is an important policy of JGI that sanctuaries should not only serve the chimpanzees which live there, but that they meet other objectives as well:

1. To bring tangible benefits to the local communities, by employing local staff and buying fruit and vegetables to feed the chimpanzees from the local markets;
2. To become centres for educating and engaging young people and communities in their environment;
3. To work for the preservation of primate habitat and the protection of remaining chimpanzee populations and other threatened species in the wild; and
4. To try and locate places where sanctuary chimpanzees can be returned to the wild.

For more information about the 'Sustainability in the Congo Republic' story please click on the link.

To read about the arrival of Kauka, a new baby orphan chimpanzee at Tchimpounga, please click on the link.

To read more about the battle that the Tchimpounga Sanctuary is waging against bushmeat, please click on the link.