

Mongabay
For the first time, Congolese NGO to manage a DRC protected area
Strong Roots wins a 10-year partnership to co-manage the Itombwe Nature Reserve, the first Congolese NGO to manage a DRC protected area.
Our mission is to advance the awareness of the interconnectedness of human and environmental health, by restoring and protecting ecosystems, while respecting and empowering the people who depend on them.
Learn MoreDocumentary · Age of Union, 2023
Made with the Forest Health Alliance and Strong Roots Congo, Age of Union’s documentary follows Dominique Bikaba, our founder Dr. Kerry Bowman and communities in eastern DR Congo as they secure land titles for a forest corridor between Kahuzi-Biega National Park and the Itombwe Nature Reserve, protecting critically endangered eastern lowland gorillas.
Forests regulate our climate and shelter most of the world’s land-based wildlife. Our programs protect two of the greatest: the Amazon and the Congo Basin.
Our founder, Dr. Kerry Bowman, and our partner Dominique Bikaba of Strong Roots Congo, on conservation, great apes and the people of the world’s rainforests.


Mongabay
Strong Roots wins a 10-year partnership to co-manage the Itombwe Nature Reserve, the first Congolese NGO to manage a DRC protected area.


The Globe and Mail
Why preventing future outbreaks means confronting ecological degradation, resource extraction and instability in Central Africa.


The Debrief
A feature on the last uncontacted Indigenous peoples of the equatorial forests and how governments came to recognize them.


The Globe and Mail
How organized crime networks are taking control of large parts of the Amazon, fusing forest destruction with a collapse of governance.


CBC News
Drawing on his work in the DRC, Bowman explains why displacement and conflict make this outbreak especially concerning.


Mongabay
Ancient rock art shows early societies held biodiversity sacred, a stark contrast with today’s indifference.


The Guardian
A profile of Bikaba’s decades protecting Grauer’s gorillas and the communities around Kahuzi-Biega through years of conflict.


Guernica
Bikaba argues that funding should flow directly to Congolese communities and institutions as Western aid pulls back.


Mongabay
How community forest concessions face pressure from mining, and how Strong Roots works to keep communities in control.


Mongabay
Strong Roots has secured 23 community forest concessions, nearly 600,000 hectares, linking Kahuzi-Biega and Itombwe despite the M23 conflict.


Mongabay
Protecting the territories of isolated Indigenous peoples upholds their rights and safeguards some of Earth’s most intact ecosystems.


Canada’s National Observer
Canadians remember Jane Goodall, including Bowman, who became her friend after years of working together.


CBC News
A former Jane Goodall Institute board member, Bowman reflects on her chimpanzee research and lifelong advocacy.


What’s Working Solutions
How Strong Roots secures land rights for Indigenous and local communities, and its plans to protect more forest by 2028.


Age of Union
Behind The Corridor, the documentary that follows Bikaba’s work as a Congo Basin conservation success story.


Age of Union
A 33-minute film, made with the Forest Health Alliance and Strong Roots Congo, on the communities building a gorilla corridor in eastern DR Congo.


The Globe and Mail
Brazil’s 2022 vote set continued deforestation against forest protection, with Indigenous territories as the Amazon’s most effective safeguard.


University of Toronto News
Bowman links zoonotic spillover to environmental disruption and calls for an integrated One Health approach.


Global News
As the besieged Amazon begins emitting more carbon than it stores, Bowman urges governments to press Brazil to protect it.


Mongabay
Bikaba on evictions from Kahuzi-Biega, Batwa rights, and community forest tenure as bottom-up conservation.


The Varsity
Bowman ties COVID-19 to the global wildlife trade, from pangolin trafficking to underfunded wildlife treaties.


The Conversation
Deforestation and severe fires could push the Amazon toward savannah and raise the risk of new pandemics.


Canadian Geographic
The 2020 Amazon fires threaten climate stability, biodiversity and pandemic prevention; protecting Indigenous lands is key.


Canadian Geographic
Recalling a 2017 visit to a Wuhan market, Bowman warns that trading wild animals invites the next pandemic.


CBC News
Wildlife markets create ideal conditions for viruses to spill over, and a worse outbreak could follow if nothing changes.


Radio Ecoshock
A radio interview linking wildlife trade and habitat destruction to spillover diseases from HIV to SARS and the new coronavirus.


The Varsity
A profile of Bowman’s reporting from the 2019 Amazon fires and his case for protecting Indigenous land.


CBC News
Video: how the 2019 Amazon fires affect Indigenous communities and what they could mean for global ecosystems.


The Ecologist
Bikaba receives a Whitley Award for community-based work protecting eastern lowland gorilla habitat in the DRC.


CBC Radio – The Current
Bowman describes visiting areas where uncontacted Amazon peoples live and why protecting their lands matters worldwide.


University of Toronto News
Isolated Amazon peoples should decide for themselves whether to have contact, rather than having it imposed on them.


University of Toronto News
A profile of Bowman’s work linking Amazon and Congo conservation, Indigenous rights, great apes and human health.


Mongabay
How Strong Roots is reviving traditional knowledge in the Burhinyi Community Forest to help protect great apes.