Claudine André, (born 6 November 1946 in La Hestre), is a Belgian conservationist. She founded

Lola ya bonobo Founded by Claudine André in 1994, Lola ya Bonobo is the world's only sanctuary for orphaned bonobos. Since 2002, the sanctuary has been located just south of the suburb of Kimwenza at the Petites Chutes de la Lukaya, Kinshasa, in the Dem ...

in 1994, which is a

bonobo The bonobo (; ''Pan paniscus''), also historically called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often the dwarf chimpanzee or gracile chimpanzee, is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus '' Pan,'' the other being the comm ...

sanctuary, just south of

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...

, at Mont Ngafula, in the Lukaya Valley,

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. The aim of the sanctuary is to collect young

s, most having been orphaned due to the actions of poachers, and eventually reintroduce them into a forest reserve. During the same year, Claudine André started the Friends of Animals in the Congo, of which she is still president.

Earlier life

André was born in

Hainaut Province Hainaut (, also , , ; nl, Henegouwen ; wa, Hinnot; pcd, Hénau), historically also known as Heynowes in English, is a province of Wallonia and Belgium. To its south lies the French department of Nord, while within Belgium it borders (clock ...

, Belgium, and arrived in Congo as a child, with her father, who was a veterinary surgeon, and has lived there ever since. She ran an art boutique, sourcing and selling rare art works. She married Victor and has five children. When war disrupted daily life in

, the capital city of the

, in the 1990s, Claudine worked as a volunteer in Kinshasa Zoo, because the animals had been neglected and were starving. Elsewhere in the country, people were finding traditional food production difficult, because of the war, and turned instead to

bushmeat Bushmeat is meat from wildlife species that are hunted for human consumption, most often referring to the meat of game in Africa. Bushmeat represents a primary source of animal protein and a cash-earning commodity for inhabitants of humid tropi ...

to feed themselves and their families. This in turn led to orphaned bonobos turning up for sale on the streets of Kinshasa - and it was from this situation that Claudine started

Bibliography

* Claudine André, ''Une tendresse sauvage'', Calmann-Lévy, Paris, 2006. * Claudine André, ''Lola ya Bonobo : Le paradis des Bonobos - République Démocratique du Congo'', Éditions Oka, Paris, 2010.

References

External links

Lola ya Bonobo
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Andre, Claudine 1946 births Living people People from Manage, Belgium Walloon people Belgian conservationists Belgian women environmentalists Keepers of animal sanctuaries Belgian expatriates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Earlier life

Bibliography

See also

References

External links