Sebitoli Chimpanzee Project: Four Designs Dedicated to Protecting Chimpanzees

The Great Ape Conservation Project: Understanding to Better Preserve

Founded in 2006 by Sabrina Krief (veterinarian, primatologist, and professor at the National Museum of Natural History) and Jean-Michel Krief (photographer), the “Great Ape Conservation Project”—a nonprofit organization under the French Law of 1901—aims to conserve great apes through scientific research, fieldwork, and public awareness campaigns. For more than 30 years, Sabrina Krief has been conducting studies on wild chimpanzees and their ability to thrive in an environment profoundly transformed by human activities. In the field, the project currently relies on a team of 32 local employees, including 22 field assistants who are divided among chimpanzee monitoring, trail maintenance, anti-poaching efforts, and environmental education. In France, eight volunteers share the knowledge gained at Sebitoli and raise funds to cover salaries, scientific equipment, and conservation efforts.

This synergy is essential. Conservation is not just about protecting this iconic species; it also requires understanding the subtleties of its behavior, monitoring its health, studying its culture and relationship with plants, its habitat, and its interactions with neighboring human communities. Every step forward in this understanding opens up new possibilities for taking more effective and targeted action.

A Research Station in the Heart of the Forest

Opened in 2015 in Kibale National Park, the Sebitoli Research Station serves three purposes: research, lodging, and outreach. It provides Ugandan research assistants, as well as researchers and students, with the best possible conditions so they can easily carry out their fieldwork in the forest, collect data, and organize educational activities.

The station includes a laboratory where samples collected in the field (hair, urine, or feces) are processed and stored. Using these samples and daily observations, scientists can accurately study the chimpanzees’ health, their kinship ties, and the effects of pollution on their bodies.

Research conducted at Sebitoli also focuses on the social lives of chimpanzees, their cultures, communication, feeding behavior, and tool use. More than thirty scientific articles and five dissertations have been devoted to the community, its habitat, or other species in the region, such as baboons and elephants.

One study, in particular, examined nearly 2,300 nests to understand how chimpanzees choose a tree, assemble branches, and select certain plants to place in their nests. This research has helped explore the comfort of the nest and the possible mosquito-repellent effect of certain leaves. Here, scientific knowledge becomes a valuable tool for conserving the species and its habitat—the tropical forest.

Sebitoli, a Rainforest Under Pressure

The Sebitoli site is located in the far north of Kibale National Park, a 795 km² area at the foot of the Rwenzori Mountains. This mid-mountain rainforest is home to exceptional biodiversity, including twelve species of primates, as well as forest and savanna elephants, birds, butterflies, and numerous small mammals.

Yet this natural, protected environment is far from isolated from human activities. A paved road cuts through the chimpanzees’ territory, splitting their home range in two. Traffic generates noise, leaves litter on the shoulders, and poses a risk of collisions with wildlife. All around the park, industrial tea plantations, corn and banana fields, and eucalyptus plantations are gradually reducing and fragmenting the forest habitat.

Added to these pressures is the use of pesticides. Several toxic substances are found in the soil, food, and waterways that flow through the forest. Studies conducted by researchers have revealed significant environmental contamination to which chimpanzees, humans, and other species are exposed. Analysis of hair samples from the Sebitoli chimpanzees confirms this exposure, with 60 pollutants found in their bodies.

The Sebitoli chimpanzees: a community monitored on a daily basis

The Sebitoli community consists of about 100 chimpanzees spread across a 25 km² territory. Of these, 60 are identified and monitored daily by field assistants. A quarter of them have facial malformations likely linked to pesticide exposure during embryonic development, while a third suffer from one or more disabilities caused by snares set in the forest.

A snare made of metal cable, intended to capture small game, can trap a chimpanzee’s hand, wrist, or foot. If the chimpanzee manages to survive, it must then learn to climb, move around, forage for food, and build a nest with a mutilated limb. Both young chimpanzees—females and males alike—can be affected.

Beyond the scientific data, the team’s assistants often describe individuals with contrasting personalities. Elliott, for example, has been an alpha male for over 15 years and remains respected and appreciated by the entire community despite a hand damaged by a trap. Kenzo, on the other hand, has a large family consisting of a female, Koji, and three males: Kinome, Kiki, and Woody. Woody surprises observers with his ingenuity in perfecting tools used to harvest honey from stingless bees.

Every day, four pairs of assistants observe these social behaviors. The teams leave camp at 5 a.m. to be on site before the chimpanzees leave their nests around 6:30 a.m., and the observations end when the chimpanzees build a new nest, around 7 p.m., with a return to the station around 8 or 9 p.m. In addition to studying their behavior, diet, movements, and social relationships, the teams pay close attention to the flowering and fruiting of the trees on which the great apes depend.

Practical Initiatives Throughout the Year

To enable researchers and assistants to move through dense vegetation, a network of approximately 130 km of trails is maintained, and bridges are built over rivers. Part of this network is also used to monitor trees and assess the food resources available to the chimpanzees.

Curbing Poaching

Since poaching is a major threat to chimpanzees, the anti-poaching team regularly patrols the forest and its edges, searching for traps, felled trees, stripped bark, and other signs of illegal activity. These unarmed assistants work in coordination with rangers from the Uganda Wildlife Authority. Each year, they defuse more than 200 traps and map damage to the forest in order to better target future awareness-raising efforts in the surrounding villages.

The goal is not merely to remove a snare from the soil. It is also necessary to understand why it was placed there and to work with local communities and tea company employees to sustainably reduce poaching. Poverty, food insecurity, crop loss, and lack of income are all factors that can drive some families to harvest resources from the park.

Raising Awareness and Sharing Knowledge

Awareness-raising therefore plays a central role in the project. At the station, village children participate in educational and artistic activities focused on Uganda’s biodiversity. In the villages and on the plantations, the team engages with farmers and workers, organizes workshops, and conducts roadside cleanup operations.

Motion-detection cameras are also installed in the forest and along its edges. The resulting videos provide insight into the local wildlife and help create educational materials accessible to as many people as possible. In France, volunteers continue this outreach: conferences, photo exhibitions, social media posts, videos, and radio appearances are all ways to raise awareness about the chimpanzees of Sebitoli and the risks they face.

The Chimp Guardians: Promoting Coexistence

Chimpanzees aren’t the only ones leaving the forest in search of food. Elephants and baboons also venture into farmlands, sometimes with significant economic consequences for farmers who complain that this damage threatens their livelihoods.

To limit these conflicts, the Chimp Guardians—a group of twenty villagers from six villages located on the park’s northwestern edge—have joined the project. Since 2021, they have been providing collective, nonviolent protection for the fields. They also maintain the trenches designed to deter elephant incursions: 22 km of trenches now protect the crops. The Sebitoli Chimpanzee Project has helped establish an association centered around the Chimp Guardians and provides financial support for their activities.

Tea Saves The Chimps: Preserving the Forest Through Organic and Sustainable Agriculture

Protecting chimpanzees cannot be limited to patrolling the boundaries of a national park. For conservation efforts to have a lasting impact, they must also take into account the living conditions of the human communities living nearby.

It was with this in mind that the “Tea Saves The Chimps” project was conceived. Its goal is to support the development of organic and sustainable agriculture around Sebitoli, particularly for tea and food crops. The project was designed in collaboration with six village communities and the Kahangi organic tea plantation, which practices agroforestry. SCP organized training sessions to help producers reduce their use of chemical inputs. Agroforestry combines crops with trees and other plants to maintain soil fertility, conserve water, and promote biodiversity. When grown under better conditions, processed locally, and sold at a fairer price, tea can help improve producers’ incomes. The idea is that greater economic and food security will, over time, reduce pressure on the forest and the resort to poaching.

This approach connects the health of humans, animals, and their environment. It seeks to establish a better balance between agriculture, local development, and wildlife conservation: One Health, for a shared territory.

The funds raised through sales of three teas and one herbal tea from Jardins de Gaïa’s “Les engagés pour la nature” line contribute, in particular, to anti-poaching efforts, raising awareness among local communities, and supporting tea producers by encouraging them to stop using pesticides and adopt organic farming practices. They also help support field teams by funding equipment and covering part of their operational costs.