Why save a small group of chimpanzees in Rwanda?

A second chimpanzee birth in a year encourages Great Ape Trust scientists and conservationists and gives added meaning to Rwanda's 'Forest of Hope"






By Dr. Ben Beck
Director of Conservation
Great Ape Trust

"So what?" I was asked. "Why does Great Ape Trust invest all of this time and money in 15 chimpanzees living in a tiny patch of forest, surrounded by 350,000 poor people?"

True, we are investing a lot of resources in studying and saving 15 chimpanzees and 3,000 acres of forest. But how much would be too much? Chimpanzees are the animals most similar to humans and we know that they have very human-like emotions and thinking. The thought of even one of these majestic and wonderful apes starving to death or being killed is simply not acceptable to us at Great Ape Trust. Every ape life has value!

Certainly, the loss of the Gishwati forest and its chimpanzees would not cause the immediate extinction of chimpanzees as a species. But the number of wild chimpanzees in Africa has decreased by 90 percent since 1900. These 15 chimpanzees are the remnants of hundreds that occupied Gishwati only 40 years ago. Only a century or two ago Gishwati was a part of a vast north-south forest that was home to thousands of chimpanzees, gorillas, elephants and other wonderful animals and plants.

We feel obligated to draw the line and insist on no further loss, no matter how small. In fact, we feel obligated to reverse the trend and recover biodiversity that we have already lost. Gishwati is a stepping stone, critically positioned for reconnecting and restoring this vast and unique forest. Since we began our work, the chimpanzee population has increased by 15 percent and the forest by 67 percent, even as we have energized economic and social benefits for local people.

We are blending the best established scientific and conservation strategies with new innovative approaches to succeed in the “do-or-die” environment of Gishwati. We are a model for conservation within the model of economic and political rebirth that is Rwanda, and we are unique among ape conservation projects in enjoying the personal support of a nation’s president, in this case H.E. President Paul Kagame.

We think Gishwati is the place to draw the line, and we think that dispassionate doubts based on “priorities” and “cost-benefits analyses” are not enough to defeat the forces that would rob our children of wild apes and the benefits and wonders of the natural world. If we can save Gishwati, we can save apes everywhere! Tell us what you think. Do you want to help? Please comment.

Gishwati Field Station