We've called Salonga home for 30 years.
So have 60% of the world's bonobos.
Salonga National Park in the Congo is Africa’s largest rainforest park and home to an estimated 60% of the world's wild bonobos. We protect them - and the forest elephants, leopards, and forests that surround them - through rigorous population surveys, field research and a long-term presence at our Etate Research Station.
Salonga is a remote and largely inaccessible park. A steady, ongoing presence is hard to replace - which makes our work matter more than ever.
Bonobos in safe zone
Forest elephants in safe zone
Acre field station and safe zone
Unbroken field presence
Of world's bonobos live in Salonga
THE PROBLEM
When conservation stops, poaching fills the void. We have the data to prove it.
Bonobos are endangered. Found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo, they are losing ground to illegal hunting and habitat loss. The vast Salonga National Park is their best hope. But only if someone is watching.
Poachers don’t wait.
In areas where animals can be targeted without fear of arrest, poachers will come.
A partnership of informed park managers and SCI’s continuous monitoring stand between thriving wildlife populations and a forest emptied by poaching.
Animals can’t wait either.
If Salonga's bonobos are lost from their largest expanse of protected habitat, the species could be lost.
So could the African Forest Elephants. The DRC has lost about 90% of its forest elephants to the ivory trade.
Salonga is the only protected area in DRC large enough where its last herds could recover.
When Salonga disappears, we all lose.
Salonga is one of the world’s largest parks and one of Earth’s few remaining intact rainforest ecosystems. Its massive forests shelter the headwaters of seven major river systems — waterways that millions of people depend on for fish.
If Salonga's ecosystem unravels, the loss would extend far beyond the park boundaries to harm rivers, communities, and the climate we all share.
WHAT YOUR SUPPORT DOES
Salonga matters. For bonobos. For elephants. For humanity.
Your donation helps protect Salonga’s natural treasures.
ALT: SCI’s wildlife monitoring program works.
It gives park authorities an early warning system. Your gift keeps it going and helps us do more.
Influence effective conservation
SCI’s wildlife monitoring acts as an early warning system in a dense rainforest park over 33,000 km² - a physically demanding and logistically challenging task. Our surveys identify animal populations and poaching hotspots and measure the success or failures of interventions. We have the tools, the team, and the expertise to make it happen.
Preserve a safe zone at Etate Research Station
Etate Research Station has protected a 258,000-acre safe zone for nearly 30 years. It is home to one of the highest bonobo densities in the park, a growing elephant population, and an array of wildlife that thrives precisely because we are there. You will help us grow and replicate it.
Strengthen community ties through jobs, schools and literacy classes
About 50% of SCIs field staff come from neighboring communities. Your donations also benefit local communities through support for four primary schools, two adult literacy classes, a guaranteed market for local produce, and employment opportunities for the people who live around the park. Learn more about our Community Support.
WHY TRUST US
We didn't parachute in. We built this from the ground up. And we're not leaving.
In 1997, our team arrived at a remote stretch of the Salonga River with a single question: do bonobos live here? What started as a converted fishing camp is now an internationally recognized field research station staffed year-round, equipped for serious science, and trusted by Salonga's park co-managers to deliver the data that drives conservation decisions.
We work in partnership with the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) and WWF - the park's co-managers - sharing survey results that directly shape where guards are deployed and how the park is protected.
We found the bonobos.
Zoological Society of Milwaukee begins field work in Salonga — one of the first scientific teams to explore this remote park interior.
We grew roots in the community.
In 2004, we began supporting schools and community programs in villages surrounding Etate. Lasting conservation depends on local partnership — and we've been building those relationships ever since. The first children educated then are now village leaders.
We continued building on a strong legacy against the odds.
When the organization that had supported our work for 20 years dissolved, Etate, our staff, and decades of irreplaceable field investment were all at risk. Fast action and emergency funding saved everything — and made clear that this work needed a permanent, independent home.
SCI was born and the surveys expand.
In 2020, the Salonga Conservation Initiative was established as an independent nonprofit. Since then, our field teams have resurveyed roughly 30% of the park — that's ~2.7 million acres — on foot, through some of the most remote rainforest on earth.
We're growing — with your help.
Etate is the model. We are expanding surveys, deepening collaborations, and working toward protecting more of Salonga's bonobos and elephants.
WHAT YOUR SUPPORT DOES
Salonga matters. For bonobos. For elephants. For humanity.
Your donation helps protect Salonga’s natural treasures.
Etate Research Station has protected a 250,000-acre safe zone for nearly 30 years. It is home to one of the highest bonobo densities in the park, a growing elephant population, and an array of wildlife that thrives precisely because we are there. You will help us grow and replicate it.
Our safe zone around Etate has one of the highest bonobo densities recorded anywhere in Salonga — and its populations are growing. Eco-guards patrolling the park pass through Etate daily, making the surrounding forest a place poachers choose to avoid.
Salonga's forest elephants gather at a natural clearing called a bai providing a rare window into their social lives. Since 2018, our motion-triggered cameras have captured over 500,000 images, tracking when elephants visit and how behavior shifts over time. When something disturbs the bai, we're the first to know and the first to tell the park managers who can act on it.
Proven, unbroken presence
The longest-running conservation project in Salonga, and one of the longest-running in the Congo Basin. That kind of staying power has created the conditions for wildlife to flourish — and we have the data to prove it.
Elephants cross a well-traveled path. 45 minutes later, a bonobo mother carries her infant along the same trail. Salonga is one of the last places where bonobos and forest elephants still coexist in substantial numbers.
HOW IT WORKS
Three steps. Real results.
Supporting Salonga's bonobos and elephants doesn't have to be complicated. Here is exactly what happens when you give.
You give.
Your donation goes directly to field operations by keeping our team in the forest, our equipment running, and our station open year-round.
We go deeper.
Our Congolese research team surveys the forest, monitors the elephant bai, and tracks changes in animal density across Salonga's remote wilderness.
The data protects.
We hand our findings to Salonga's park managers. They deploy guards and build substations in the areas that need them most — protecting bonobos, elephants, and other wildlife across a far larger stretch of the park than any single research station could cover alone.
I want to protect bonobos and elephants!
Donate NowABOUT OUR WORK
Field research that turns data into action for Salonga's wildlife.
SCI conducts systematic wildlife surveys across Salonga National Park,Africa’s largest rainforest park, at 33,000 km². That’s the size of the country of Belgium. Our teams trek hundreds of miles through dense rainforest to count bonobos, track elephants, and map poaching activity. We resurvey the same regions over time to detect changes and to catch declines before they become irreversible.
Our long-term elephant bai monitoring program has amassed over 500,000 camera trap images since 2018, giving us an unprecedented window into how forest elephants use this unique habitat.
Located on the Salonga River, Etate is one of a handful of functioning field research stations in the entire Congo Basin.
It houses 13 resident staff year-round and supports collaborations with scientists from around the world including BonDiv, Cornell University, the Royal Museum for Central Africa, and AZA-affiliated zoos.
Etate also anchors a community support program: four elementary schools, two adult literacy classes, and a guaranteed produce market that generates over $10,000 annually for local farming families. Because conservation only works for wildlife when it works for people too.
