As a young agronomist specializing in planning and managing protected areas, he’s dedicated to conserving terrestrial flora and fauna. With plant management and production expertise, his passion for biodiversity conservation drives him to excel in GIS, remote sensing, and biostatistics.
The bonobo (Pan paniscus) is a critically endangered species of ape found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Sankuru Nature Reserve (SNR) is a protected area created in 2007 to safeguard the bonobo and other endangered species such as the okapi and forest elephant. The SNR is home to around 15% of the world’s estimated 100,000 bonobos. However, their distribution is uneven and depends on habitat quality and human pressure. The reserve faces threats such as slash-and-burn agriculture, hunting, deforestation, and human rights violations. A study revealed that the deforestation rate in the SNR was 1.5% per year between 2000 and 2018, higher than in the neighboring Lomami reserve. However, no study has yet modeled future changes in forest cover and bonobo distribution. This is the objective of this study, which aims to analyze the spatio-temporal dynamics of forest cover in the SNR and predict the impacts of deforestation on the bonobo. This study will help decision-makers and local communities to manage the reserve and develop sustainable alternatives for bonobo conservation in the SNR.