During the monotony of my stay-at-home work schedule, I needed something to do. Scrolling through the Facebook feed, I came across a post for a virtual conservation expo in one of the wildlife groups. I’ve never attended a real conservation expo let alone a virtual one, so I thought I’d sign up and see what happens.
The only problem was it was on US time which meant I would have to be up at 12:30 AM. I opted for a short power nap before waking up and watching about half of the conference. After that, I had to go back to sleep so I could function like a normal person for the rest of the day. Throughout the presentations, I took some notes so I will share some of those and my thoughts from each presentation below.
I watched presentations for 4 different animal projects as well as a COVID-19 panel. If you don’t feel like reading through each one I have a summary of some of the main themes at the bottom. The full recordings of the expo are also available online if you’re interested in seeing some of the other presentations or getting more info on the different conservation projects.
Save the Elephants
In the “Save the Elephants” panel, they started by explaining some of the effects of the pandemic and other pressures in Africa. In addition to the virus, Africa has also had locust swarms to deal with, destroying their crops. These two things have affected jobs and food supply which could potentially increase conflict with elephants as pastoralists seek new areas to graze livestock and compete for resources with elephants and other wildlife.
They then covered some of the reasons why elephants were important for the ecosystem, such as their role as ecosystem architects, creating and maintaining habitats for other species. They are also important seed distributors, carrying the seeds across large distances and then depositing them with a healthy amount of fertilizer. One fact that surprised me was that forests with elephants absorb more CO2 than forests without.
Finally, they described some of what the community needs were to better coexist with the elephants. The main need was education access so that they could get better jobs and so the women would have better outcomes as well.
Painted Dog Conservation
This panel was very interesting to me as they mentioned the need to understand some of the social and historical biases against the dogs. In the past, they were viewed as a pest and a threat to livestock. So people were paid for every wild dog they killed. Communities also believed that they spread rabies and distemper to their village dogs, when in fact it’s the reverse. Village dogs are the ones that spread distemper and rabies to the wild dogs.
I was impressed with the focus on community outreach and addressing the community’s needs in order to help the wild dogs. To ease the worry of the wild dogs spreading diseases to the village dogs, they established a vaccination program for the village dogs. They also had a snare removal program, which is beneficial to the villagers because the snares set for the wild dogs can also catch and kill their livestock. They’ve even considered community health and started a “Dog Run” for people to socialize and stay fit. But perhaps the most impressive was the efforts they’d made for education.
Photo by Steve Hillman on Unsplash
At the local schools, they established nutritional gardens to help feed and improve the health of the village. That way, the children could stay in school and provide food for their families, reducing the poaching pressure. Also, they established an environmental education program so that the children could understand and connect with their local wildlife. They do this through game drives and wildlife films so that the kids can have a positive experience of their wildlife instead of fearing it. By educating and accounting for the community’s needs, they were able to change public opinion and get the painted dogs protected in Zimbabwe.
While taking care of the community is important, they are still looking out for the painted dogs. They have a rehabilitation center where they can bring dogs badly injured by snares to recover and be released later. But painted dogs are highly social animals that live in packs, so what they do with rescued individuals? They pair them together to create new packs. And they don’t just rescue dogs injured from human snares, they will also take in dogs badly injured from natural causes. This is because the population as a whole is in decline, and with numbers so low every dog counts. Just one of the dogs they rescued and re-released eventually led to 137 new dogs born into the area.
Niassa Lion Project Q&A
In between some of the panels, there was the chance to join one of 4 live Q&As with other conservation projects. I decided to watch the Niassa Lion Project Q&A and they did not disappoint. To start they talked about the elephants and the bees.
No, this isn’t “the talk” this is a creative strategy to relieve human-elephant conflict, protect habitat, and provide an income stream to the villagers. It works like this: elephants are afraid of bees. So to prevent elephants from entering human areas, they essentially make a fence of beehives. The bees keep the elephants away, and the villagers can sell the honey as elephant sustainable for extra income. I had heard of this before, but what I didn’t know was that the hives can also be placed to protect habitat. The bees need the natural vegetation to create honey, so they can’t clear the land. And because the hives provide income with their honey, there is less need to clear land for additional crops or livestock.
Small changes go a long way
Dealing with predators can be contentious, and often out of fear people will turn to killing first. But sometimes, all that’s needed is a small change. And that can go a long way in reducing human-lion conflict. The Niassa Lion project educates people on reducing dangerous behaviors so they do not become a target of lions. Behaviors such as sleeping outside, walking late at night, or walking drunk can make humans a target because they are alone, out at the same time as the lions, and may look weak and ill. By simply avoiding these humans can reduce their chances of being attacked. They also found that if they raised goats instead of cattle, lions were less likely to target their livestock.
Finally, they brought up the need to diversify the income streams. During the pandemic, the major halt of travel has left a lot of conservation projects short on volunteers and volunteer money, as well as tourist revenue. But a major epidemic or pandemic is not the only thing that can halt the flow of visitors. Natural disasters, conflict, and economic crises can also affect people’s ability or willingness to visit different areas. So there is a need to develop new strategies and jobs so that they do not become over-reliant on tourism.
COVID-19 Panel
This panel had a lot of interesting information.
To start, they talked a little about emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) and the role of wildlife, and wildlife markets, in their spread. Over half of infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic, or diseases that can jump from animals to humans. COVID-19 is an EID, and most EIDs originate in wildlife. So there is a clear danger with the extensive and illegal trade in wildlife for another pandemic or spillover event to occur. In recent decades, there have been multiple events where diseases have jumped from animals to humans. And they’re happening more often and with greater consequences, as we can see with the COVID-19 pandemic.
For these reasons (in addition to many others) they are trying to end the wildlife trade. Interestingly, their focus is on wildlife restaurants and the urban trade and consumption of wildlife. Thinking about it, this makes sense as there is a larger population in urban areas and therefore higher demand. They also wanted to get behind the current shift in public opinion which is turning against wildlife markets and the consumption of wildlife, especially in China which is a major market.
Photo by Natalie Ng on Unsplash
Some interesting points they brought up about the consumption of wildlife. First, they wanted to differentiate between commercial wildlife markets and indigenous subsistence living. They are not trying to prevent indigenous communities from living from the land and feeding themselves. They are trying to prevent the largescale poaching and overexploitation of wildlife for human use. No, animal parts don’t have magic curative properties and no, your desire to show off your wealth does not validate mutilating scores of wildlife to put in your banquet. The second point they brought up was: what is the difference between bushmeat and game?
I hadn’t given it much thought before but I always had the impression that bushmeat was like poached meat, illegally taken, from endangered species or species I wouldn’t normally consider eating (like primates). Whereas I associated game meat as wild meat regulated by the government and of animals like deer and ducks. Turns out though, they’re basically the same. Bushmeat and game meat are both taken from wild animals. The only real difference is that the term “game” is used for meat in western countries like the US and England while bushmeat is used for meat in Africa. Essentially the same thing but with very different connotations. Interesting.
Finally, they talked about the need to educate how to cohabitate with wildlife, and not kill them out of fear. While it hasn’t been fully confirmed which animal COVID-19 jumped from, there is the possibility it came from bats. Unfortunately, this had the panelists worried for bat conservation. Conservationists have already had to work hard against the negative stereotypes against bats and people’s fear of them. They worry that the pandemic may set their progress back as people may fear getting diseases from them again. We need to be careful to not jump to conclusions or retaliatory action against wildlife.
Okapi Conservation Project
The final panel I watched (before I finally had to sleep) was for okapi conservation. The okapi is known as the shy cousin of the giraffe. They live in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and are classified as endangered.
This panel explained some of the pressures for okapi. To start, their home in the Congo has had a lot of problems. Ebola, civil war, and conflict have created disturbances and pressures for wildlife. Additional threats are poaching, logging, mining, and slash and burn agriculture. Not only is their habitat being destroyed, but the workers will also hunt them for meat. As a shy, solitary creature, the okapi is very sensitive to any human activity or disturbance in the forest. So even if they manage to evade the hunters, all of the additional disturbances can still impact their ability to survive by scaring them off and preventing natural behavior.
Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash
To counteract these pressures, this project is trying to introduce better agricultural practices to reduce the need to constantly clear more land for planting. By keeping the soil healthy and growing food sustainably, they can keep planting in the same spot. They are also introducing foods that are of more nutritional value so that it can better sustain them. Besides trying to improve their food supply and nutrition, they have also built a medical facility that accommodates the local culture. In the culture of the local indigenous tribe, they have to have a fire inside their home. So they built the medical facility so that patients could have a fire inside their room.
Another key point was the partnership and support from zoos. The okapi conservation project works with zoos to help educate people about the plight of the okapi, and 85% of the zoos that care for okapi provide financial support for the okapi project. Zoos provide a significant amount of funding and exposure for the project throughout the US and Europe. I imagine this is a big help as it can be difficult to secure funding in countries dealing with conflict.
TLDR: The Gist of Things
If you didn’t want to read all that, here are the main points.
Effects of the Pandemic
One of the main ways this pandemic was affecting conservation was the loss of income. The need to social distance, and prevent the spread of infection, as well as the drop in tourism, has affected locals’ ability to work. If they are unable to provide for their family (monetarily or nutritionally) this can increase the pressure on wildlife through poaching. There is also the chance that progress in bat conservation in shifting public perception of bats may be set back because of the possibility of bats being a source for the coronavirus. So there is a need to educate how to safely coexist with wildlife (including bats) without allowing new biases to develop.
Education
Across the board, education was a large part of conservation projects’ efforts to protect species. Not just education about the animals and their ecological importance, but educating the communities on how to safely coexist with them. Small changes to their behavior, such as avoiding walking drunk outside and raising goats instead of cattle, reduced human-lion conflict in Niassa. Some projects have established environmental education programs for children to have a positive experience learning about and connecting to their local wildlife.
Education was also important for improving economic outcomes for locals. Projects help support schools and provide training so that locals have the skills to get better jobs and support their families without resorting to poaching. And while on the ground projects were educating local communities, spreading education and awareness through zoos was also an important aspect of getting the message out about these species and the threats they face.
Social/Community Programs
In their efforts to protect wildlife, conservation did not forget community needs. Every project whose panel I watched had some community program or facility that they helped develop to improve the lives of the locals. This ranged from a medical facility that accommodated indigenous tribes’ culture to better agricultural practices that reduced the need to clear habitat and provided more nutrition and food for the communities. Some of these practices even led to new sources of income. At the Niassa Lion project, they used beehives to save habitat from being cleared and act as a natural elephant fence. Villagers were then able to collect the honey and sell it as elephant sustainable, providing additional income to the farmers.
Direct Action
While taking care of the community and educating about wildlife is certainly important, let’s not forget that these projects do take direct action to help endangered species. Snare removal programs reduce the direct poaching/hunting threat to wildlife as well as help farmers whose livestock can also become trapped and die. Vaccination programs for village dogs prevent the spread of disease to their wild counterparts as well as alleviate local concerns for their pets’ health. And finally, rehabilitation facilities help save injured individuals and potentially increase the population. Painted Dog Conservation rehabilitated and released 1 dog which eventually led to an additional 137 being born into the African Painted Dog population.
Zoo Partnerships/Support
Zoos play an important role in conservation. At the beginning of the expo, they mentioned that zoos were an important source of funding for on the ground conservation programs. This was later reiterated by the Okapi Conservation Project who said they rely on zoos for funding support and exposure. Zoos also help educate and spread the conservation message to the public, so that more people are aware of the challenges these species face and how they can help.
So that was my first online conservation expo. The full expo recording would be posted later online, so technically there was no need for me to lose sleep to try and watch. But that wouldn’t be as fun would it? I enjoyed hearing directly from the different projects (and even a brief intro by Jane Goodall!) and finding new conservation accounts to follow on Instagram. While I would love to attend an expo live, I think it’s great that they are becoming more available online to watch the recordings after the expo or to watch live. That way, people who couldn’t normally attend due to cost or inability to travel can still participate and learn.
If you are interested in watching, I will have the link for this expo down below and linked in the text. If you watch, tell me what you think! Which panel did you watch? Did anything surprise you? Comment here on the blog or on my Facebook page, I’d love to hear from you!
