GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION OF BOSSOU The village of Bossou (7 39' N and 8 30' W) is situated in southeastern Guinea, West Africa. Currently, a small population of 18 chimpanzees (P. t. verus) inhabit the forest surrounding the village(Jan. 2002). Bossou is situated about 6 km from the foot of the Nimba Mountains on the border with the Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia. The village of Bossou is located at 550 m above sea level. It is surrounded by small hills 70-150 m high that are covered in primary and secondary forests. At the foot of those hills, cultivated or abandoned fields and secondary, riverine and scrub forests form a patchy mosaic for about 6km in all directions. This habitat constitutes the core area of the Bossou community. The home range of the Bossou chimpanzees is clearly dominated by secondary and scrub forest, with primary forest only covering about 1 sq. km. It is additionally surrounded by savanna vegetation interspersed with occasional gallery forests, which connect to small adjacent forests, beyond which lie, on the southeastern side, the Nimba Mountains. The Bossou chimpanzees mostly confine their daily activity within a core area of about 6 sq. km, though they sometimes travel to adjacent forests using the few remaining gallery forest corridors that extend their home range to around 15 sq. km.

The people of Bossou: Bossou is home to the Manon people, a ethnic group now dispersed among several villages in the south-eastern part of Guinea, the north of the Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia. Bossou provides a rare example of a site where wild chimpanzees and local people have been living side by side, sharing the resources of the same forest. This peaceful coexistence stems from the beliefs of the villagers, who consider the chimpanzee as one of their totems. However, in recent years, the environmental conditions for the chimpanzees have been less favorable, due to an increase in cultivation and deforestation of unprotected areas within their home range, resulting in part from an influx of over a thousand Liberian refugees since 1990 into the area.   Green passage plan of planting trees: A project was launched in 1997 to protect and guarantee a future for this chimpanzee community. Researchers at the Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, in co-operation with local villagers and supported by the Japanese government, the Guinean government and the Japanese embassy in Guinea have begun to create a "green passage" (Hirata et al, 1998). The aim is to plant trees along a 300m wide and 4km long stretch of savanna extending between Bossou and the Nimba Mountains in the hope of re-establishing a flow of migration between the Bossou community of chimpanzees and the other surrounding populations. Video screenings of documentaries on the Bossou chimpanzees have also been shown to the villagers and some refugees in order to promote a better understanding of the chimpanzees and the research that is being carried out. Moreover, a children's book on chimpanzees "Kikeimi" written in French, the official language in Guinea, has been printed for distribution to local schools in the area. This book aims to encourage children of a young age to learn about the chimpanzee and to create an awareness of conservation issues. Books are lacking in this part of the world and this book will thus also help promote literacy. These projects are a step forward in the protection of the chimpanzee in this area of Africa. It has become evident in recent years that conservation cannot move forward unless local people are also directly involved!