A dose of medicine for a chimpanzee in Congo

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, chimpanzees are a critically endangered species and threatened with extinction. At the end of the 20th century, there were more than a million chimpanzees worldwide, but now there are fewer than 350,000 animals in the wild (Jane Goodall Institute, 2018). A major threat is the loss of their habitat due to deforestation and human settlement. But the main cause is poaching: the strictly protected animals are hunted in large numbers for food and as a delicacy. Young animals left behind are often traded as pets - as is the case in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The JACK monkey orphanage is located in Lubumbashi, the capital of the Haut-Katanga province in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since the 1960s, various rebel groups have been trying to gain the independence of the Katanga region from the Democratic Republic of Congo. This also involves natural resources such as cobalt, copper, tin, radium, uranium and diamonds, which are abundant in the region (WDR, 2018). The question of independence and access to natural resources have been the cause of violent conflict for decades. The trade in monkey meat and monkeys as pets also remains a major problem despite international agreements and national laws in the DRC by the government (Global Press Journal, 2017).

That is why JACK is not only committed to caring for the animals, but also to adhering to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and prosecuting illegal animal trafficking. Thanks to the initiatives of animal protection programs and rescue centers, the protection of animals is improved to some extent. Only when there are enough rescue centers and species-appropriate accommodation for the animals will the authorities take action against poaching, confiscate illegally traded chimpanzees and bring them to the rescue centers.