Chimpanzees caught on camera trap in Cameroon.
Every year on World Chimpanzee Day (July 14), people around the world celebrate one of our closest living relatives.
Chimpanzees are intelligent. They use tools, form lifelong social bonds, communicate with one another, and care for their young. Yet across Africa, their populations continue to decline as forests disappear and habitats become increasingly fragmented. But in one community in western Cameroon, local people noticed something long before a scientific survey confirmed it.
The forest had grown quieter.
For generations, villagers near Somié had heard chimpanzees calling through the forest. Then, over time, those calls became less frequent and farther away.
They knew something was changing.
Instead of waiting for someone else to solve the problem, community members approached traditional leader His Royal Highness Gamgbe Kounaka Ernest with a vision: protect the forest before it was too late.
Today, Community Conservation is proud to support that vision through our partnership with Community-Based Biosynergy Management (CBBM), a locally led conservation organization working alongside communities to establish a 5,000-hectare community-managed forest that will protect critical chimpanzee habitat for generations to come.
Proof That Protection Is Working
Conservation begins with hope, but it is strengthened by evidence.
In 2022, while surveying the proposed protected area, Community Conservation Executive Director Dr. Teri Allendorf and our partners discovered nearly twenty chimpanzee nests clustered together in one section of forest.
The discovery suggested that chimpanzees were still using the area, but that they were repeatedly returning to the same limited nesting sites, likely in response to ongoing human disturbance elsewhere in the landscape.
The following year, camera trap surveys revealed even more encouraging news.
Our partners documented four groups of chimpanzees along with 13 additional wildlife species, including the critically endangered giant pangolin, several monkey species, duikers, civets, warthogs, porcupines, and many other forest animals.
The forest is still alive. And because local communities are leading its protection, it has a chance to remain that way.
CBBM Executive Director Denis Ndeloh and a community forest member, Cameroon
Conservation Begins with Communities
This work reflects what Community Conservation has believed for decades:
The people who live closest to biodiversity are often its greatest protectors.
Rather than imposing conservation from the outside, we work alongside local organizations like CBBM to strengthen community leadership, build conservation capacity, support sustainable livelihoods, and help communities protect the forests they know better than anyone else.
Our partnership extends beyond Somié to two additional sites as well.
In southeastern Cameroon, we work with CBBM and the Indigenous Baka community in the Nomedjoh Community Forest, helping strengthen local capacity for conservation planning, community monitoring, wildlife protection, and sustainable forest-based livelihoods.
Because healthy forests support both wildlife and people.
Chimps caught on camera trap in Cameroon
You Can Help Keep the Forest Alive
The future of chimpanzees will not be decided by a single international meeting or one large conservation organization.
It will be shaped by thousands of local decisions made every day by communities who choose to protect the forests they call home and by people around the world who choose to support them.
When you give to Community Conservation, you’re helping provide the resources local conservation organizations need to continue their work: supporting field staff, strengthening community partnerships, monitoring wildlife, and protecting critical habitat before it disappears.
This World Chimpanzee Day, celebrate more than an incredible species.
Celebrate the communities working every day to ensure chimpanzee calls continue to echo through Cameroon’s forests for generations to come.
Together, we can help keep the forest alive. For chimpanzees, for communities, and for the future of biodiversity.
Support community-led conservation today: https://communityconservation.org/support
Portrait of chimpanzee in Cameroon