BURUNDI: CHIMPANZEE SANCTUARY PLANNED
(12 Feb 1995) English/Nat
The recent history of violence and instability in the African nation of Burundi is hampering conservationists' plans to build a chimpanzee sanctuary.
They say a sanctuary is needed because chimp poaching is on the increase across of Africa.
Zaire is one of the worst offenders - with many of its chimpanzees smuggled into neighbouring Burundi.
Having fun - but this chimpanzee is one of the lucky ones.
Many chimps are hunted for food. Mothers are shot so their infants can be sold. Some end up as pets or in circuses.
This project in Burundi's capital, Bujumbura, is home for captive orphans. Some of the chimpanzees have been found in appalling conditions.
Slowly the volunteers have nurtured them back to health.
Eventually it's hoped they'll live in a semi-natural sanctuary in the heart of Burundi's Kiewena Forest.
But Burundi's instability is making it difficult to raise the money to make it all happen.
SOUNDBITE: ``We've been here for four years now and have been trying to raise funds to build a sanctuary to get these chimps off these chains and out of these cages and into their own forest land. But, unfortunately we've had a lot of trouble getting people to be convinced that this is a worthwhile project to be involved in, that we're going to be around.''
SUPER CAPTION: Debby Cox, co-director Jane Goodall Inst.
At the moment there are 19 chimps here, ranging from one to 15 years old.
They've either been confiscated from poachers by Burundi's environmental institute, or donated by people who've discovered that chimps don't make good pets.
Even those chimps that start as members of a family will eventually become too strong and potentially dangerous to be kept in a house.
They end up chained or imprisoned in tiny cages, or shot.
This chimp was kept in a cage above a garage.
Soon, he'll be taken to Kenya and released into a sanctuary.
SOUNDBITE: ``Unfortunately, he spent the last four years in these cages. But hopefully, next Sunday he's going to have his first taste of freedom again by being in a forest of 100 acres, keep our fingers crossed.''
SUPER CAPTION: Debby Cox, co-director Jane Goodall Inst.
Cox and her colleagues hope that soon Burundi will have its own sanctuary - so these chimps can live in a social group and out of a cage.
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