P-WAC (Project for Wildlife and Apes Conservation)

$796 raised by 9 donors

13% complete

$6,000 Goal

About

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Save a Chimpanzee. Protect its Forest.

Every year in the Democratic Republic of Congo, primates are threatened by illegal wildlife trade and deforestation. Forests are disappearing due to slash-and-burn agriculture, charcoal production and logging. Primates and forests are inseparable: they depend on each other.

A primate and its forest cannot be separated. Protecting one means protecting the other.

WHO WE ARE

P-WAC was founded in France in 2013 by primatologist and anthropologist Dr. Amandine Renaud, and established in 2015 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. P-WAC works around three inseparable priorities : rehabilitating primates, protecting tropical rainforest, and working with local communities.

For P-WAC, conservation should be built with local communities. Too often, conservation projects depend on international expertise without sufficiently strengthening local capacity. P-WAC has chosen to avoid reproducing these post-colonial conservation models. P-WAC has a local team that is 99 % Congolese - the founder is the only French member.

More than 40 Congolese, women and men, recruited from neighbouring villages, play a central role in every aspect of the project. The inclusion of women is the essence of P-WAC and is represented in our logo : a woman holding a primate in her arms. In our area, women have fewer opportunities to access employment. Creating job opportunities for them is an important part of our approach.

WELFARE AND ETHICS

P-WAC has a unique approach to primate conservation. Rescuing is not about numbers, it is about welfare. We believe that primates must be respected as individuals, and not treated as objects of entertainment. In a context where eco-tourism is commonly seen as an educational tool, P-WAC favours respect for every individual and its dignity, by avoiding the exhibition of rescued orphans to visitors. Therefore, P-WAC is closed to the public. P-WAC also refuses financial support from industries associated with environmental destruction (oil, mining, and deforestation activities).

70 ORPHANS AND THEIR FORESTS

Conservation is about saving species. A rescue center saves the individuals that make up a species.

All primates at P-WAC come from poaching and illegal trade. They arrive with injuries, diseases and trauma. Our work does not end with a rescue : it only starts there. An orphan has lost its group, its freedom, but also its home. Each primate has a story, needs and personality. Each primate needs food, care, but most importantly : space where it can live in security.

More than 70 rescued primates live at P-WAC. The objective is to prepare them for a return to the wild. With the exception of quarantine facilities, primates live in semi-free-ranging forested areas, where they can climb, forage, build social interactions and express their natural behaviors. P-WAC is a 250-hectare rescue center.

38 PRIMATES IN ONE RESCUE

In 2025, 38 primates were rescued in Kinshasa in one confiscation. These surviving primates are doing well now. But this huge rescue changed the scale of our work. We are now building a new one-hectare forest enclosure to offer them a better forest.

LANDSCAPES

P-WAC has developed programmes dedicated to forest restoration through reforestation, anti-deforestation patrols, biodiversity monitoring, and community-led conservation initiatives. Our reforestation programme is unique as it lies in the exclusive use of native forest species: palm trees, eucalyptus, and acacias, widely used in planting programs, are excluded. Ancestral forests are being restored with native tree species.

Community programmes (Forest Gardens Programme and Medicinal Forest Programme) help to preserve ancestral knowledge and forests.

YOUR SUPPORT

For the first time, P-WAC is taking part in Giving Day for Apes. This is an opportunity to introduce our work to a new audience. Caring for more than 70 primates while protecting 250 hectares of land requires resources every single day.

Your donation helps :

Food: Our largest expense. P-WAC spends US $6,000 every month feeding the primates (fresh fruits and vegetables, infant formula, nutritional supplements and vitamins).
Veterinary care : Donations help cover veterinary examinations, treatments, medication, laboratory analysis. A basic laboratory test can cost around US $100 for one individual.
Forest : Reforestation and community programs preserve forests and contribute to the return of wild animals (chimpanzees, pangolins).
Jobs : In addition to salaries, P-WAC expenses include medical costs, uniforms, food, accommodation for staff.