Reversing the Decline: Conservation Action Planning in Democratic Republic of Congo
Disney staff in Goma, DRC at a planning workshop for the Eastern DRC Conservation Action Plan in 2015.
In 2010, the Jane Goodall Institute launched a conservation action planning (CAP) process in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In an effort to “Reverse the Decline” of threatened species, this multi-stakeholder process helped articulate a comprehensive strategy in one of the richest and most important biodiversity hotspots of the world, protecting one of the world’s largest populations of chimpanzees and 100 percent of the world’s remaining Grauer’s gorillas. Representatives from national, regional, and local governments, NGOs, and other stakeholders were brought together to develop the CAP, which has since been revised and updated and now includes more than 66 million acres that are roughly the size of Colorado.
With support from the Disney Conservation Fund, the institute is leading great ape survey work in some of the forest areas that are within the CAP area, providing environmental education experiences for young people and educators to learn about the environment of DRC, and providing support to Lwiro and GRACE primate sanctuaries that are both an integral part of ensuring conservation success within the DRC CAP. John Shabani, a member of the institute’s team in DRC was honored in 2015 as a Disney Conservation Hero for his environmental education work in DRC under the CAP.
