Budongo Conservation Field Station launch primatology journal
Posted 3 Dec 2024
Our charity has core funded the operations of the Budongo Conservation Field Station (BCFS) in Uganda for almost 20 years. The Budongo forest is the largest intact rainforest in East Africa and is home to thousands of species, many of them rare and threatened. The BCFS team protect Budongo forest’s important population of endangered chimpanzees and conduct important conservation, research and community outreach.
We are pleased to share the news that our partners at BCFS have launched an online primatology journal, an innovative project which began last August.
The Perspectives Collective journal aims to showcase the voices of local and indigenous experts in primatology and to build capacity through training in key skills such as computer literacy and video making. The project has begun by spotlighting BCFS primatologists, many of whom have observed and studied Budongo’s chimpanzees for decades.
The voices of local and indigenous experts are often the quietest in the field of primatology, though many Western scientists depend upon their knowledge to guide their research. The Perspectives Collective aims to address this unequal and extractive relationship by providing indigenous experts an avenue with which to share their knowledge and research.
BCFS have been busy over the past year sharing their expertise through written articles and recorded discussions which offer an insight into the behaviour and history of chimpanzee society in Budongo forest.
Get to know the collective of BCFS primatologists by watching their introductory video, or reading some of their articles, such as those from Geresomu Muhumuza, BCFS’ most experienced team member of over three decades, who discusses hierarchy within the Sonso chimpanzee community and shares observations of the notorious adult male Frank.
The team hope to continue contributing to this journal and eventually support its expansion to other chimpanzee research sites. Stay tuned to hear about new articles and videos as they are published.
Support this work with a donationBCFS team image taken by Walter Akankwasa
