The 4,875-square-kilometre (1,882 sq mi) reserve is a protected area for endangered bonobos and uses a community-based model of natural resource management undertaken by residents of the villages of Kokolopori and the local conservation organisation Vie Sauvage.

Early efforts for the reserve involved environmental education, creating wildlife inventories, training trackers and eco-guards, and starting the process of habituating local bonobo populations to humans.

[5] The accords allocated parts of the forest for agriculture and allowed limited hunting within the reserve, forbidding wire snare traps.

[1] NGO projects within the reserve have included a health clinic, agricultural initiatives, and a microcredit program providing sewing machines for women.

[1] The Bonobo Conservation Initiative implemented the Information Exchange program, allowing for structured feedback and knowledge sharing between the NGOs and the local residents.

[6] It maintains a research camp and a team of local trackers who follow three of the habituated bonobo communities: Ekalakala, Fekako, and Kokoalongo.

[18] Aside from bonobos, Kokolopori is home to eleven primate species including the Dryas monkey and Thollon's red colobus.