Empty Hands, Open Arms: A Journey Into the Congo, the Relationships That Create Change, the Coalitions That Can Save the Bonobos and the Rainforest

When acclaimed author Deni Y. Bechard first learned about the plight of the last living bonobos–matriarchal great apes that are, alongside the chimpanzee, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom–he was completely astonished. How could the world possibly accept the extinction of this majestic species, along with the central African rainforest they call home? And why wasn’t anyone doing anything about it? As he looked more closely, Bechard discovered that in fact one relatively small NGO, the Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI), had done more to save bonobos and their natural habitat than any number of far larger organizations. Based on the author’s extensive travels in the Congo and Rwanda, and hundreds of hours of interviews with conservationists from all over the world, this book explores how BCI has been so successful, offering in the process a powerful alternative model of conservation. In contrast to traditional conservation NGOs, Bechard finds, BCI works closely respectfully with local communities, addressing in the process the underlying problems of poverty and unemployment, which lead to the hunting of bonobos. Rather than strong-arm the Congolese, or hire guards for conservation sites, BCI works to build local consensus for their projects through community talks, radio programs, formal schooling, as well as educational songs and concerts by Congolese pop stars. By creating jobs and building clinics and schools, they gradually change the conditions that lead to the degradation of the natural environment and the eradication of species. And then on a global level, BCI works with carbon credit initiatives for funding. This struggle is far from easy, to be sure. After all, the Congo has been devastated by many years of military conflict, as well as particularly aggressive logging and mining. But Bechard’s fascinating and moving account–filled as it is with portraits of the extraordinary individuals and communities, Western and Congolese, who make it all happen–offers an incomparably rich example of how conservation must be reinvented internationally, before it’s too late.