A UNIQUE conservation project that re-introduces captive chimpanzees to the wild is under threat because of political instability in Congo, scientists warned Sunday. Since 1989 the programme, run by the Franco-Congolese assocation HELP (Ecological Habitat and Liberty for Primates), has prepared more than 40 illegally-captured chimpanzees for release back into the forest. But chronic civil unrest in Congo has led the World Bank to cut off funding, and years of research may now go to waste, a conference on primatology in Paris was told. “Without a quick solution, our scientific work will be interrupted. But we need to keep at it for years before we can draw any definitive conclusions,” said primatologist Caroline Tutin. The HELP project is alone in equatorial Africa in re-inserting chimpanzees into a totally natural setting, something previously considered impossible by most scientists.