page_title: Basankusu
section_title: Conservation
hierarchical_section_title: Basankusu / Conservation
caption_attribution_description: Head of a Bonobo (Pan paniscus)
context_page_description: Basankusu is a town in Équateur Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the main town and administrative centre of the Basankusu Territory. In 2004, it had an estimated population of 23,764. It has a gravel airstrip, covered and open markets, a hospital, and three cellphone networks, the first of which was installed in 2006. The town is also known as a centre for bonobo conservation efforts. Despite such developments, most inhabitants live at a subsistence level: hunting, fishing, keeping chickens and keeping a vegetable plot. In 2010, the workers at the local palm plantation would earn an average monthly salary of $40, most others would have much less.
  The location of the town on the Lulonga River, a tributary of the Congo, at the confluence of the Lopori and Maringa Rivers has contributed to its success as a centre for trade in the region. Set deep in tropical rainforest, the rivers serve as the highways for transport of people as well as goods.
context_section_description: Basankusu is an important staging post for conservation projects, for example, those relating to the bonobo. The town falls within the western limits of what has become known as the Maringa-Lopori-Wamba Landscape, a proposed conservation area in the basin of the Maringa and Lopori rivers that includes the Luo Scientific Reserve around the village of Wamba. The landscape consists of dense forest to the east of Basankusu and north of the village of Baringa.
  Project stakeholders include the Max Planck Institute, African Wildlife Foundation, Source de Lomako (SoLo), Pygmy Chimpanzee Protection Fund, Bonobo Conservation Initiative, and Milwaukee Zoological Society.
  Over 400 species of birds can be found in the conservation area. In certain places, the density of Congo peafowl (Afropavo congensis) – a species endemic to the centre and northeast of the Congolese forests, with feathers of deep blue with a metallic green and violet tinge – is probably the highest in the country.
  At least eleven species of diurnal primates have been observed in the Maringa-Lopori-Wamba Landscape. The Dryas monkey (Cercopithecus dryas) is endemic to the basins of the Maringa and the Lopori, and only two examples of the species are known. The bonobo (Pan paniscus), Thollon's red colobus (Procolobus tholloni), the golden-bellied mangabey (Cercocebus chrysogaster), and the black mangabey (Lophocebus aterrimus) are found here. Allen's swamp monkey (Allenopithecus nigroviridis) is endemic to the flooded or floodplain forests of the Central Basin, and the Angolan colobus (Colobus angolensis) is known only in the Central Basin, the northeast of the Congo, and the Africa Great Lakes region.
  Other large mammals include the elephant (Loxodonta africana), the buffalo (Syncerus caffer), the bongo (Tragelaphus euryceros) – which is an antelope characterised by a striking reddish-brown coat, white-yellow stripes, and long, slightly spiralled horns – the African golden cat (Profelis aurata), and the leopard (Panthera pardus).
caption: Bonobo (Pan paniscus) is the closest living relative to humans.
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