Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program

The Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program "BBPP" is part of an academic partnership with the Universidad Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial ("UNGE," Malabo, Equatorial Guinea). BBPP’s mission is the conservation of Bioko Island’s biodiversity, especially its critically endangered primates and nesting sea turtles, through the development of economically sustainable educational programs, research programs and conservation activities that demonstrate the greater value of wildlife alive, rather than dead as bushmeat.

The immediate problem facing BBPP is the dramatic loss of rare primates (7 species, including the Bioko drill, black colobus, Pennant’s red colobus, red-eared guenon, crowned guenon, Preuss’s monkey and greater spot-nosed monkey) by commercial shotgun hunting for the luxury bushmeat market in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea.

Our Activities -BBPP works throughout Bioko Island:

• We contract approximately 50 local workers in the Gran Caldera and Southern Highlands Protected Area to serve in forest and beach patrol teams to deter hunting and collect data on wildlife.
• We conduct an undergraduate study abroad program based at UNGE and involving both UNGE and American students.
• We recruit and train students and volunteers to conduct an annual January census of primates in the remote Gran Caldera Volcanica de Luba.
• We conduct an ongoing survey of the Malabo bushmeat market.
• We are developing a wildlife research center in the town of Moka to host ecotourists and visiting research scientists. The center will include a guest house, wildlife sanctuary and a system of trails.

Developing UNGE's Potential

"In the end, we conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." - Baba Dioum, Senegalese poet

Central to BBPP's mission is developing UNGE's educational capacity to serve as a center for biodiversity conservation. We seek to improve management skills, English-language proficiency, teaching skills and work ethic. We also pursue projects to develop UNGE's infrastructure, improving classrooms, office equipment, computers and telecommunications and providing Internet access.

To learn more about BBPP, consult the sections on our history, supporters, leadership and news. In particular, we suggest reading the Philadelphia Inquirer's eight-part series on BBPP, published in 2005.