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A Great Apes Exposition, organized by the Ministry of Forest Economy and the French Embassy, in collaboration with conservation NGOs, was held at the French Cultural Center in Brazzaville from May 11-26, 2008.  It attracted thousands of visitors who were able to examine, firsthand, the numerous similarities between humans and great apes.

Over the two weeks of the photo exhibit, many citizens of Brazzaville, of all ages, got their first ever opportunity to view these Congolese stars, the gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos that are studied and loved everywhere else in the world.

There were a number of reasons for the event:
• to recognize the critical predicament facing these animals presently
• to understand the ecological role they play in forest regeneration through extensive seed dissemination
• to consider the inestimable loss of our “closest relatives” and the medical and genetic secrets they possess

During the conference, ten presentations were made by eminent experts, sponsored by the  MTN Company and the Spanish Great Apes Project.  Presentation themes covered great ape behavior, forest regeneration, the application of international conventions protecting the various species and the range of health problems they face.  

Stopping the decline of great ape populations cannot occur without close collaboration between state structures in charge of wildlife conservation and forest preservation, national/international NGOs, and the local communities and traditional authorities which share the habitat.  Among the NGOs present for the French Cultural Center discussions on collaboration were:  the John Aspinal Foundation, the Jane Goodall Institute, the Wildlife Conservation Society, HELP, the United Nations’s GRASP project and the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary of Kinshasa.  These groups shared their fieldwork findings and expressed their fears about the enormous pressures threatening the future of the great apes, particularly the increasing destruction of the ape habitat and the targeted poaching of gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos.

The exposition made a point of recognizing the tourism value of these species but, most important, it represented an important step in firming up the critical collaboration necessary to protect these animals for ethical, ecological and economic reasons.

Over 3,000 people, more than half of them students, visited the exposition.

Bonne Annee and Marielle