Conservation Assessment in the Dja Faunal Reserve, Cameroun.

It all began in 2020, around a flickering campfire deep in Cameroon’s Dja Faunal Reserve. Surrounded by the pulse of the forest at night, we imagined a future where the region’s people and its extraordinary wildlife could thrive together. From that moment, a shared vision took shape—to protect the Congo Basin’s irreplaceable forests, home to endangered pangolins, lowland gorillas, and forest elephants.​

Our mission grew from more than conservation alone. We see it as an art—helping people understand the forest and the communities that depend on it deeply enough to sustain its natural integrity. High-integrity forests like those of the Congo Basin are most resilient when local people recognize and benefit from the long-term value of an intact ecosystem, beyond what can be taken from it in timber, minerals, or bushmeat. When the forest remains standing, it offers enduring cultural, ecological, and economic benefits, strengthening communities’ resolve to protect it from the growing pressures of outside exploitation.​

Since that campfire conversation, we’ve made real strides: surveying gorillas, assessing the impacts of nearby forestry projects, and building partnerships grounded in trust and shared purpose. These efforts support the broader protection of one of the world’s largest remaining blocks of intact tropical forest and the communities whose lives and identities are woven into it. Yet our work is far from finished. Protecting the Congo Basin requires continued learning, collaboration, and support to ensure that local communities—the forest’s best stewards—can continue to defend it from the pressures of a world eager to exploit it.