The Great Primate Handshake – Volunteer in Africa, working to conserve monkeys and apes through film and educational content production

The 2010 Ugandan expedition education team believe it is important for people to recognise the work of CSWCT. The work the sanctuary does isn’t based solely around the daily care giving of the rescued Chimpanzees. The work the sanctuary does is in fact much more than that. It is an education centre, with the objective:-

“To increase public appreciation and understanding of Chimpanzee and environmental Conservation”

The need to generate this public appreciation for the chimpanzee and environment is of great importance. The only way we are going to see a positive turn around is with the help of the public.

Local Community Programmes

Currently Chimpanzees exist in 21 countries and 4 countries have already witnessed the extinction of the chimpanzee. The estimated current number of Chimpanzees is 175,000, 5,000 of these are found in Uganda. Within this number 10% of these are on privately owned forest, therefore their survival is at the discretion of the owner. Habitat loss is a major issue in Chimpanzee conservation. Landowners have a lot of rights in regard to the land that they own and the wildlife that exists within it. It is important that laws are introduced and enforced, so that wildlife on privately owned land has a streamline policy that is consistent with non-privately owned land.

There are community outreach projects already underway set up by CSWCT. These educate local communities about the sanctuary, chimpanzees and the benefits of protecting chimpanzees and their habitats. Often this is in the form of a financial incentive. Normally the owner of the forest receives money. The financial reward is deduced from the carbon value of the forest, the species living within, and the corridor potential. This is a way to encourage the owners to protect the wildlife within their land, and to even get involved with forest enrichment planting. This acts to increase the carbon value of the land, the species content and therefore a higher reward for the owner.

School Outreach Programmes

NEW Programme

CSWCT is currently implementing a new school programme called the “change my Community conservation and education programme”.

The aim of the programme is to have young children as the change agents in the community. Through school lessons, hands on skills and knowledge will be provided that are beneficial to forest and chimpanzee conservation.

Through education it is hoped that major conservation issues can be targeted. For instance looking at the problem of unsustainable fuel consumption and the need for forest restoration a programme is currently being developed called the Lorena Vision.

Lorena Vision

The aim of the Lorena Vision is to introduce a sustainable cooking oven to local communities starting with the school children who will hopefully encourage the prototype to spread throughout the community.

This oven has the ability to reduce fuel wood consumption by up to 50%. The oven not only reduces fuel wood consumption but it improves kitchen hygiene by providing an outsource for the smoke so it doesn’t accumulate in the kitchen.

The production of the oven will be incorporated into a classroom activity. CSWCT will train teachers in how to make the oven, who will then through interactive based learning teach the class how to make the oven themselves. The activity willguage the success of the fuel efficient oven amongst the community by the children completing a progress report. This report will monitor the amount of energy efficient ovens in use before the activity, the amount during the classroom activity, then the number of ovens that occur the following 6 months as a result.

This is a simple yet effective way of spreading a basic change that can act to make a big difference. In this case the demand for fuel wood is reduced, therefore the amount of deforestation is reduced which causes less damage and habitat destruction to Chimpanzees.

School Projects and activities

The sanctuary does many other activities with schools. Many of these activities act to promote the sanctuary while being a successful source of fundraising. Currently there is an international school that hosts a fundraising art exhibition each year, where the work of the students is auctioned. Fun activities such as this and others such as musical and or dramatic productions are entertaining for children and communities and provide the children with a sense of satisfaction that they are making a difference.

Another way of promoting conservation and encouraging children to get involved and contribute to change is providing them with a skills set that will fundamentally act to improve their quality of life.

Small school activities can train children in certain fields, a basic apprenticeship to encourage a career path which is beneficial to the environment but to them as well.

For instance activities such as bee keeping, small garden tending and setting up tree nursery’s’ have been introduced. Such basic training can demonstrate to children how to successfully grow seeds so it will bare fruit in a minimal amount of years. There is also a financial incentive for children to get involved with such activities. There is significant money worth of tree growing. This introduction can give these children skills that they can use for the rest of their lives.

The vision for the sanctuary is that African chimps are appreciated and valued by the public, secure in their habitat and are no longer threatened.

Hopefully the educational resources that the sanctuary have in action, or are planning to implement will be successful in creating a positive feedback for the conservation of forest and therefore the survival of chimpanzees.