A well-coordinated campaign designed at creating an all-inclusive awareness on the need to protect and conserve Liberia’s wildlife consistent with global principle and to observe covid-19 health procedures was on Tuesday July 14, 2020 tossed in Monrovia at several strategic locations including market places where bush meat trade is customarily concentrated.
The campaign held under this year’s motto, “Protecting Chimpanzees Protects Us All” was supervised by the Risk Communication Pillar of the Incident Management System (IMS) and Liberia’s Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and was sponsored and co-sponsored by several conservation partners and donors: Wild Chimpanzee Foundation, Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue and Protection, Humane Society International, Fauna & Flora International, Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia, FIFES, Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary, Environment and Development Associates, Jane Goodall Institute, European Union, UKAID, Zoo Leipzig, and the German Embassy in Liberia, and USAID.
The members of the combined awareness team were drawn from the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), FDA’s divisions of Wildlife, Public Affairs, Awareness and Ecotourism and the Confiscation Unit. Others comprised of Liberia’s leading drama group, the Eddie Theater Production and the Daily Talk group.
Team A visited the Rehab Market, ELWA Market, Old Road Market, Rally Town Market while Team B visited the Redlight Market, Chicken Soup Market, Duala Market, Super Market and lastly Free Port.
The relevance of chimpanzees including their close relationship with humans were shared amongst the excited public, especially with the visibility of a giant size chimpanzee (a person wearing a chimpanzee costume) which was being conveyed in an open pickup.
At the close of every segment of the kivisit, the audience would sing the usual birthday song as mark of their respect to the honoree (chimpanzee) now called Mr. Caeser.
The Project Coordinator of the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation Odaphus B. Zardee amazingly remarked that the exercise is much more practical and should be continued during the observance of the day.
The FDA Public Affairs Manager, Shelton Gonkerwon, expressed delight in the awareness exercise and underscored its crucial nature as far as the role of protecting Liberia’s forest and all of its inherent biodiversity are concerned.
“If we are not allowed to eat these sweet, sweet meat what we will eat naa?”A market woman down waterside provokingly asked one of the awareness members who had just shared with her photos of the protected animals.
“If you eat all the animals today and enjoy the sweetness, what happens when they are no more?” the team member threw the question back to the market woman.
Indeed, chimpanzees and men have similarities that are assigned by nature, something which makes chimpanzees’ men closet relatives with biological similarities.
It is scientifically proven that about 98.6 percent of the DNA found in chimpanzees is also in men and essentially, they play an important role in maintaining the forest and its biodiversity.
The wildlife law of Liberia has and continues to warn people against hunting and killing chimpanzees, cutting down the forest where they live, pet trade and mining and logging all of which threaten their survival.