For over 30 years, the Okapi Conservation Project (OCP) has never faltered in its ability to withstand civil wars, rebel attacks and insecurity in an area ripe with political strife and uncertainty. It’s this standing loyalty that OCP has developed a strong trust within the community, allowing their conservation programs to thrive and expand under arduous conditions. Throughout DRC’s turmoil, the Okapi Conservation Project has remained the primary supporter of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve and protector of okapi.
Protect Okapi
With WCN’s 100% model, your entire gift supports the conservationists working to protect okapi and their habitat.
Okapi:
Okapi Conservation Project (OCP)
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8,872
Patients Treated
Through the Okapi Clinic, providing medical support to community members and placing people at the heart of their conservation work.
112,729
Trees
Planted across various forest sites as part of OCP’s habitat restoration work.
5,280
Square Miles
Protected through OCP’s agroforestry program.
Solutions in Action
Thriving Wildlife
Combating Wildlife Crime
OCP supports and works with the ICCN (Institute in Congo for the Conservation of Nature) to ensure the availability of rapid response to threats in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve. ICCN wardens, rangers, and guards share a wide range of protection and law-enforcement responsibilities—collecting snares, evicting miners, pursuing and detaining poachers, monitoring agricultural expansion, and engaging communities throughout the DRC in conservation awareness and education.
Thriving People
Empowering Women
Women’s Groups actively improve food security, safeguard clean water sources, and provide alternative income-generating opportunities through small business enterprises. OCP supports Women’s Groups around the Okapi Wildlife Reserve with resources like administrative support, sewing machines and materials, as well as bean and vegetable seeds for community gardens.
Thriving Wildlife & People
Restoring Habitat
OCP supports tree nurseries around the Okapi Wildlife Reserve to provide nitrogen-fixing and nut-producing trees that help both farmers and wildlife. Students also help plant trees around their schools, a useful and educational practice that teaches forest protection to the youth. All of OCP’s nurseries employ local people, stewarding the seeds of habitat corridors for native wildlife, including okapi.
Quote"Inside of the Okapi Reserve, we are not protecting the forest only for the okapi, but also for the Indigenous people, the Mbuti and Efe, because their lives have depended on the forest to take care of their families."
Berce Disiki Nsafuansa, Director of Conservation Okapi Conservation Project (OCP)
