Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), a grassroots NGO and non-profit founded in 2003 promotes biodiversity conservation by enabling people to co-exist with wildlife through integrated programs that improve animal health, community health, and livelihoods in and around Africa’s protected areas and wildlife rich habitats.

Through these programs, we have helped to mitigate these impacts. CTPH worked with Uganda Wildlife Authority and other NGOs to improve great ape viewing guidelines and prevent transmission of COVID-19 between people and gorillas. Park staff, Gorilla Guardians herding gorillas from community land to the park and Village Health and Conservation Teams were trained to put on protective face masks, enforce hand hygiene and a 10-meter great ape viewing distance.

To reduce the communities’ need to poach, CTPH found a UK-based distributor, for its Gorilla Conservation Coffee social enterprise enabling coffee farmers to earn revenue in the absence of tourism and provided fast growing seedlings to reduce hunger in vulnerable community members.

Lessons learned show the need to support non-tourism dependent community livelihoods, and more responsible tourism to the great apes, which CTPH is advocating to governments, donors and tour companies through an Africa CSO Biodiversity Alliance policy brief.

Source: Frontiers in Public Health
Photo by: Isabell Heinrich/Scopio

The post Mitigating Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Gorilla Conservation: Lessons From Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda appeared first on African Conservation Foundation.

Researchers from Oxford Brookes University examined 858 photos posted on Instagram from 2013-2019 under two hashtags — #gorillatrekking and #gorillatracking — and found most gorilla trekking tourists were close enough to the animals, without face masks on, to make transmission of viruses and diseases possible.

Examining the photos from people visiting mountain gorillas in East Africa, lead author and Oxford Brookes University Primate Conservation alumnus Gaspard Van Hamme said: “The risk of disease transmission between visitors and gorillas is very concerning. It is vital that we strengthen and enforce tour regulations to ensure gorilla trekking practices do not further threaten these already imperiled great apes”.

In January 2021, captive gorillas at San Diego Zoo tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, providing evidence that the current pandemic has the potential to also possibly also can affect great apes. Tourists’ photos examined for this research found people were close enough to the animals that disease transmission would be possible.

The importance of wearing face masks

Dr Magdalena Svensson, lecturer in biological anthropology at Oxford Brookes University added: “In the photos we analysed, we found that face masks were rarely worn by tourists visiting gorillas and that brings potential for disease transmission between people and the gorillas they visit. With people all over the world getting more used to wearing face masks we have hope that in the future wearing face masks will become common practice in gorilla trekking.”

Gorilla numbers in the balance

Mountain gorillas are endemic to the East African region. They are present in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Virunga National Park), Uganda (Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park), and Rwanda (Volcanoes National Park). In recent decades, these populations have suffered from the ill effects of human activities but in more recent years gorilla numbers have started to increase and now it is estimated that there are 1,063 individuals.

Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka from Conservation Through Public Health, Uganda, said: “This research provides a valuable perspective on how much tourists are willing to share their too close encounters with mountain gorillas through Instagram, which creates expectations for future tourists. It highlights a great need for responsible tourism to provide adequate protection while minimizing disease transmission, especially now during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Tourism: environment and wildlife

Trekking is an important financial support to mountain gorilla conservation. But large visitor numbers can impact on the wildlife and environment – guidelines to mitigate these include maintaining a minimum distance of 7 metres between visitors and gorillas. The Oxford Brookes study shows that these guidelines are not adequately followed and enforced.

Russell A. Mittermeier, Chair of the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group, who was not involved in the study, commented: “It has become apparent in the past few years that studies of anthroponotic and zoonotic disease spread are crucial to the field of primate conservation. With that in mind, it is very exciting to see the new research on this topic coming out of the Primate Conservation Group at Oxford Brookes University. While this study focused on one species, the mountain gorilla, the lessons learned are also applicable to many other primate species that are increasingly coming into contact with people. This line of research will certainly become more important in the future.”

The research paper Keep your distance: using Instagram posts to evaluate the risk of anthroponotic disease transmission in gorilla ecotourism is published in People and Nature.

Source: Oxford Brooke University
Pictured: Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei). Photo credit: Mark Jordahl

The post Keep your distance: Selfies, gorilla tourism and the risks of COVID-19 transmission appeared first on African Conservation Foundation.

Despite the pandemic, and despite the causes of this zoonosis, South Africa is preparing to expand and intensify captive breeding of wild species and sell their meat in the food markets. This is an alarming turning point in the nation’s immense biological heritage management policies. The plan was published in the Official Gazette on 28 February in a proposal to revise the Meat Safety Act, the law that has regulated meat production since 2000. The proposal is to expand the number of non-domestic but edible species “that can be slaughtered as food for humans or for animal consumption”.

The list contains 104 species, including: zebras, red hartebeest, wildebeest, springbok, dik dik, lechwe, kudu, duiker, gemsbok, eland, impala, rhinos (black and white), hippos, giraffes, elephants and crocodiles. The proposal also points out that “this scheme includes animals that are listed as endangered species, in accordance with conservation measures, and therefore their slaughter for both human and animal consumption must be in line with the most relevant conservation indications”.

For some time, conservation and breeding have been going on the same track in South Africa.

The move by the Government, in which the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture move along a concerted path dotted with legal gaps, has not surprised those in South Africa working in the conservation and in the wildlife farming industry, which supplies trophy animals to hunters and lion bones to Chinese and South East Asian buyers.

In May 2019, the previous Minister of Agriculture had passed an amendment to a 1998 law, the Animal Improvement Act (AIA), to reclassify 33 wildlife species as farm animals, including lions, cheetahs, rhinos and zebras, without public consultation.  This allow these animals to be used for breeding, slaughtering and genetic manipulation in farms scattered across the country, the notorious wildlife farms.

As a result, these wildlife farms can use artificial insemination and genetic manipulation to obtain animals with special characteristics, for example faster, larger or of a different colour. These animals are highly sought after by hunters, who seek out-of-norm trophies for their collections.

The government of South Africa has decided to turn towards a complete “wildlife economy” where wild animals are a raw material on which to plan profits. South Africa has now taken a path of use of its fauna which is transforming the country into a genetic laboratory in the name of “sustainable development”. In the midst of an increasingly serious economic crisis, while education levels in the country are also decreasing, the government turns to extraction of resources at all costs for an immediate profit.

While China, on February 24, decided to ban wildlife trade by also asking CITES for more stringent measures, South Africa seems to want to take a completely opposite path, in defiance not only of the precautionary principle, but of international concerns  Nobody knows how many of the animals on the Chinese markets came from South Africa and the country is preparing to expand a market that hides unknown oublic health dangers.

For this reason, on March 21, which is Human Rights Day in South Africa, the EMS Foundation together with about sixty other organizations and institutions will demonstrate in Cape Town to ask the Minister of the Environment Barbara Creecy to close the meat industry and to take a position against Covid-19 and against the consumption of wild meat. People will be virtually united for animal, environmental and human rights, which are strictly related.

Please find the full story here: La Stampa (in Italian)
Author: Elisabetta Corrà

The post South Africa wants to promote wildlife consumption appeared first on African Conservation Foundation.

According to WWF Italy, many of the so-called emerging diseases – such as Ebola, AIDS, SARS, avian influenza, swine flu and today the new coronavirus are not spontaneous, catastrophic events, but the consequence of our impact on natural ecosystems.

Zoonotic disease

COVID-19 is a new strain of corona virus that has not been previously identified in humans. They are part of a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).

Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Researchers found that MERS-CoV was transmitted from dromedary camels to humans and SARS-CoV from civet cats to humans. It is known that several coronaviruses are circulating in animal populations that have not yet infected humans.

Bats are thought to be the evolutionary host of COVID-19, although a Chinese research team suggested that pangolins could be harboring this particular coronavirus that was first reported in humans in China’s Hubei province.

Wildlife consumption

The spread of zoonotic diseases like COVID-19 is a result of wildlife trafficking and wildlife consumption, a rapidly growing, multi-billion-dollar enterprise. Wild animals are hunted or bred on wildlife farms and sold on markets for food or traditional medicine and for the pet trade. Even endangered animals are often sold openly in wildlife markets in China and other Asian countries.

Animals like bats and pangolins do not cause the transfer of the coronavirus to humans themselves. COVID-19 was transferred by human interference with the animals. The capturing, slaughtering, trading and consumption of the animals are the proximate or direct cause of the virus transmission.

Ban on trade and consumption of wildlife

China has acknowledged it needs to bring its rampant wildlife industry under control if it is to prevent another outbreak. The African Conservation Foundation welcomes China’s decision to temporarily ban all farming and consumption of “terrestrial wildlife of important ecological, scientific and social value”. The ban is expected to be signed into law later this year.

As an immediate result, nearly 20,000 wildlife farms raising various species like civet cats, porcupines, ostriches, wild geese and boar have been closed across China.

Following China’s lead, Vietnam is also looking to end the consumption and sale of wild animals. Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc instructed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to draft a plan to ban the trade and consumption of wild animals across the country by April 1.

Risk for great apes?

At this time, it is not yet known whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus can cause a respiratory disease in other animals like great apes. The common cold virus is a corona virus too and this is known to infect gorillas and chimpanzees. COVID-19 could therefore be harmful for endangered great apes like the Mountain gorilla and Cross River gorilla as well.

According to Gorilla Doctors “the most effective measure for the prevention of the introduction of SARS CoV-2 virus (or any pathogen) to human-habituated eastern (mountain and Grauer’s) gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo is to minimize direct and indirect contact between gorillas and infected people”.

Ecotourism is vital to the long-term conservation of endangered animals. However, a temporary stop on great ape trekking tours may be needed  to protect endangered populations of great apes, our nearest cousins, as well the ecotourism operations in the long run.

Corona virus and its impact on tourism in Africa 

Public health responses around the world have included travel restrictions, quarantines, event cancellations and facility closures. Tourism is one of the worst affected sectors due to a sharp fall in people allowed or willing to travel.

The impact of the corona virus epidemic on the tourism industry is being felt in many African countries, including Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Rwanda Development Board, Uganda Wildlife Authority and DRC’s Parc National des Virunga said that tourism operations will continue but announced that tourists have up to two years to postpone their bookings at no extra cost if they are affected by flight cancellations, travel bans or if they are infected with Covid-19.

These provisions will be reviewed from time to time especially based on the progress of handling the coronavirus outbreak.

Coronavirus adds new risks to ongoing crises

New cases of COVID-19 are emerging in countries already facing humanitarian emergencies, underscoring the risks for people in crises. People in conflict zones and refugee camps are at considerably greater risk. Governments are not prepared for catastrophes of this size.

Along with significant human suffering, the damage caused by COVID-19 for people, families, communities, countries and the global economy will be enormous and will affect people for many years to come. Therefore, governments need to act more responsibly. In order to protect ecosystems, public health and economies, we need to prevent future viral outbreaks by banning the trade and consumption of wildlife.

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