John,

Huge swaths of Congo rainforest are being auctioned off for oil and gas drilling, threatening to rip open the world’s second-largest rainforest and wipe out the only home of endangered bonobos.

Local partners are racing to create a 1.2 million-acre nature reserve in the heart of the Congo Basin – and for just $1 per acre, we can help.

The Lilungu forest connects a critical wildlife corridor for bonobos and other species, but with oil companies and developers swooping in and accelerating deforestation, locals worry this beautiful forest and all who live there won’t survive. But with all of us chipping in, we can help them secure official protection – and to double the acres we help secure, Ekō will match your donation.

Can you chip in to make the Lilungu Nature Reserve a reality?

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The lush Lilungu forest lies between the Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve to the north and the Sankuru Nature Reserve to the south and links a critical wildlife corridor in a vital area of bonobo habitat. It's also home to the Balanga people who care deeply about protecting bonobos and preserving the precious forest that is their shared home.

For almost 20 years the Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI) and Centre de Recherche en Écologie et Foresterie (CREF) have worked together to establish cooperative conservation and community-led development programs.

But their work is under increasing threat from out-of-control development, logging, mining, hunting, and wildlife trafficking – and with the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo now auctioning off oil and gas blocks, the Congo rainforest and all living there need protection more than ever.

Every $1 donated is another acre of the Lilungu forest that we can help secure…creating a magnificent nature reserve in the heart of the Congo rainforest where local communities and endangered bonobos can live in harmony.

Local community leaders are ready to protect their forest – they just need funds to do it.

Remember, Ekō is matching your donation, doubling the impact we make together – can you chip in now to make the Lilungu Nature Reserve a reality?

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