In 2014, the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Ol Pejeta secured a three year grant to initiate the Project to End Great Ape Slavery (PEGAS) funded by the Arcus Foundation.  One of the mains aims of the project is to try to understand and document the illegal trade in great apes, including mapping trade routes and identifying individuals involved.  Information gathered from the project will be shared with relevant authorities, and used to create a platform to lobby for enhanced law enforcement. Where opportunities exist to repatriate illegally exported chimpanzees to Africa, PEGAS aims to work with Ol Pejeta Conservancy and other PASA-approved ape sanctuaries to achieve this.

Earlier this year, the PEGAS team received information from a concerned aid worker in Liberia about several chimpanzees being kept in awful conditions in and around the capital Monrovia. Her name was Phoebe, and she was no stranger to rescuing monkeys and apes from the illegal pet trade. In her spare time, Pheobe had constructed, with her own resources, a rescue centre for monkeys and apes in a patch of coastal forest in Libassa, 40 km southeast of Monrovia.

Daniel Stiles, project manager of PEGAS, agreed to meet with her in Liberia to help. The first was Jackson, a two year old female who had been tied by her neck to a rusting van on the side of the road. Pheobe had managed to rescue Jackson a few days before Dan arrived, and had moved her to the rescue sanctuary. Jackson, renamed 'Guey' which means chimpanzee in the local language, had an infected wound around her neck from the rope. Nevertheless, when Dan met with Guey, she was in high spirits, clearly very pleased to be able to run around and get some proper food in her belly.

Jackson was tied to a rusty van by the side of the road

Phoebe's next concern was for another two year old female chimpanzee being held behind bars in a squalid chamber that faced onto a littered alley. She survived off biscuits and leftovers fed to her by passers by, and as a result of poor nutrition her growth was stunted. As Pheobe and Dan asked around, they learned that the chimp belonged to the owner of a Chinese beauty salon, who demanded payment for the chimpanzee. It also became apparent the woman had tried to sell the chimpanzee in China, to no avail due to the ebola outbreak. With the support of the Liberia CITES Management Authority, as well as the Forestry Development Authority, Dan and Pheobe managed to seize the young chimpanzee, and transport her to Libassa to join Guey. The two females immediately took to each other, no doubt overjoyed at meeting another chimpanzee after being isolated for so long during their developmental years.

The second female, now called Sweetpea, in her lonely prison

Libassa Sanctuary is not equipped to look after chimpanzees in the long term. As they grow into adulthood, chimpanzees can become aggressive, and are incredibly strong. The enclosure would be no match for the force of an adult chimpanzee, nor does the Sanctuary have the funding for long term care of chimps. As other sanctuaries in west Africa were at full capacity, the decision was made to try and move the two orphans to Sweetwaters at Ol Pejeta.

CITES clearance, export and import permits, and a veterinary health clearance would all be necessary before the journey could take place. Despite all the correct paperwork, and the full support of the Kenya Wildlife Service, Liberia's ebola crisis made importing the chimpanzees to Kenya impossible. Guey and 'Sweetpea' have now been moved to another facility in Liberia until an alternative arrangement can be made for them. They are being looked after by trained staff who care for them, and report that the two are inseparable.

Guey and Sweetpea meet for the first time, little did they know at the time they would become best friends