The Lomako Conservation Science Center

With generous support from AWF major donor Barron Wall and the Arcus Foundation, and after years of careful planning, AWF opened the Lomako Conservation Science Center (LCSC) in the Congo Heartland in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Inaugurated in April 2009, LCSC is designed to support AWF's work to protect the bonobo, a species of endangered great ape found only in the DRC.

LCSC builds upon another conservation win AWF helped bring about two years earlier -– establishment of the Lomako-Yokokala Faunal Reserve. Spanning 3,600 square kilometers (22,000 square miles), the reserve is the DRC’s first to formally involve the local community in the development of its management plan.

The one-of-a-kind research and conservation laboratory is situated in the heart of the rainforest of the DRC’s Équateur Province. Located 350 kilometers (25 hours by boat) upriver from civilization, fully connected via satellite Internet, and surrounded by the unique biodiversity of the Lomako–Yokokala Faunal Reserve, the new science center is a valuable tool to expand scientific knowledge of bonobos and forest ecology in the DRC.

The research station lies in a small clearing 2 kilometers from the Lomako River. There are three wood cabins visitors. The main building has a screened-in dining area and an open-walled sitting area. A laboratory houses computers, scientific equipment, and other sensitive gear. Solar panels provide electricity throughout camp and satellite internet enables researchers to stay connected to the world from this remote section of the DRC.

LCSC is a superb place for scientists and conservationists to examine a rich, undisturbed rainforest in one of the least accessible parts of central Africa. And it is hoped that at some point, adventurous tourists can come to see Lomako and the area's bonobos, bringing much needed revenue to local people.

“This is a landmark achievement,” says Valentin Omasombo, who oversees bonobo research at LCSC. The center, he says, “will be used not only to support the ongoing management of the reserve but also to support community development projects that benefit the people living around this protected area.”