Could the pandemic threaten the survival of africas wildlife game reserves that rely on tourism are running out of money and the poachers are circling will decades of conservation efforts be lost this is inside story. And theyre welcome to the program im nick locke africas wildlife is one of the continents biggest attractions game reserves and National Parks they welcome millions of visitors every year who want to experience wild animals close up they rely on that revenue to pay for conservation projects but no revenue flow had stopped in time because of cove in 1000. 00 travel restrictions and many rangers who protect the animals from poachers theyve lost their incomes conservationists are now worried that the economic toll could push more people into the illegal wildlife trade will discuss this with i guess im just a moment but 1st this report from our own web in nairobi. These lines dont know it but the corona virus is a danger to them to. All they probably cant get the virus the pandemic does in directly threaten their habitat. They live in a nature reserve. And Nicholas Clay i know many guides tourists who come to see endangered animals. Its near kenyas capital nairobi. The government suspended International Flights nearly 2 months ago no Foreign Tourists have come here since its a little bit and because of the legacy of plants in the country then im afraid that lots of jobs off of the going to be lost. This it is normally eat and sleep in the camp where nicolas works is have to temporarily close normally in camps like this all the beds are fully booked during the peak seasons more than 2000000 Foreign Tourists visited kenya last year most of them come here to see the wildlife that lives in the reserves and the money they spend creates millions of jobs and provides crucial funding for conservation the fees charged for visiting reserves and camps pay for the salaries of rangers who protect animals from poachers the communities living nearby depend on the incomes of those employed in the sector and if livelihoods are lost people are forced to find other ways to survive things like poaching there for you know household protein supplement. You know cutting down of trees to supreme and Household Income that is tied to the harsh economic realities occasioned by covered in 1000. Niobium reserve is unique in that it sits just on the edge of the city conservationists say in the long run if tourism is an economically viable reserve land will be used for farming or Property Development instead. Just outside the park is a sanctuary for often animals hes walkways they usually teeming with visiting schoolchildren. Wouldnt told us educating local community is key to conserving wildlife and its environment. A mistake to artists come from our country. Whos. Coming because their schools were closed to do today according to state us live in his condo. Nobody here expect things to change before the coronavirus restrictions are lifted conservationists say theyre looking for other ways to fund the reserves so the wildlife within them and the people around them can have a future. Malcolm webb aljazeera now. Raby kenya. So its pretty clear that Wildlife Tourism is very important to countries in africa in fact the 39000000000. 00 industry is the main source of funding for conservation on the continent for example tourism accounted for 85 percent of south africas funding for Wildlife Services and National Parks in 2018 but the Global Travel sector is projected to shrink by up to 30 percent this year due to the pandemic and an estimated 24000000 tourism jobs could be lost across africa. Well its an important story lets bring in our panel and the matter i mara standing by Daniel Sophia he said chief executive officer of mass i marwadi Conservancy Association and then amboseli in southern kenya craigmillar head of security a Big Life Foundation he heads up and operations he manages 300 rangers across east africa and also appears in the ivory game on netflix you might have seen him there and also in Nairobi Kenya whos the c. E. O. Of the African Wildlife foundation a warm welcome to you all and in fact if i could start with you as weve just heard tourism is a huge employer and a fundamental enabler of conservation in africa and now that income stream is just dead in the water so whats been the result of that you know we see these diversity to grow or are you kind of about to meet one of the last 20 some fights let me say that south africa by say some other countries youve got this all started by state. It was hard says well i want to live lives outside of protected areas 100 percent funded but some requires some or no or oh no not always 100 e. Commerce of course the pilot for all i dont tire and i do all these. Forests from southeast really just for fuel in cars are from intervening a fortified across felicia was some other community i suspect it comes Household Incomes that ask you to mediate is that the princes of what isnt nice to us in these areas in greece is that human. That. Poachers from the time sparks but also to use is one of our most oft sources not or not already. The source. For this is the parts its also helps. One side the parts you call the president process guys. In some parts of the room part of the. Total Community Just right ok so on that lets bring in daniel soapy and i should say that the number of over 1000 cases in kenya is relatively low comparatively but the impact as weve been hearing is very high so its just alluded to there communities are key to protecting kenyas ecosystems an increase in the ecosystems across africa what impact has this sudden evaporation of tourism had on those communities that youre dealing with yeah thanks. Where left and someone says a zation we have a membership of 15 consultancies we just on by off are 14000 individual lambourn us online patrons all of us. Into a little i have you and twentys in this buffeting of them as a matter of National South from east to west and they actually depend on 100 percent of the simple sun life. At all and private funding that also support some of their operations so when they may get a plush out of the international. Funding situation in their moderate house dries up the communities that have been laying on trees in my house really be an effect dead. Level stock market has been down additional stress for the landowners going to be able to sell against all right so what the like to really mean for people who suddenly cant earn a living or put food on the table. Its quite difficult to. Make some living on talk of. A model that an hour or so they survive on the milk that is the major food right now that the lumber mills are trained in laying on in their model. Number of them are still able to receive some little flowing income. Through their employment for those who are employed incomes those who are. Least 50 hasnt yet to draw is that completely that is still. That is it in a 50 percent. Lives payment as of now so i mean this it continues it made get to last buy their stuff now or at least the best a level to put food on that temple right now and i mean that the pressure is building i craigmillar you spend much of your time out in the field running security voted one and a half 1000000 acres of wilderness tell us a little bit very briefly about your work there 1st of all for the big lie foundation and then tell us what youre seeing as a result of covert 19 and what you think the the risks and threats. Yes. Its like a main role essentially is growing and searching and more like security. In the areas outside of the protected areas and so if you scan your face comes in there we do this mainly through Community Rangers who are from the area employ them and. Leave them still plugged into their. To their communities or get information so thats the main part of it obviously is lots of other Little Things that take too long to get into here. But essentially were looking at trying to get ways to make wildlife valuable to people so that speaks directly to to the situation or in a moment where essentially the value of wildlife without tourism has decreased a huge amount and we need to find other ways to to bring that back up to the mound that makes it worth worth putting up tolerating a lot of a lot of conflict with them. So the moment what were seeing is of quite a big influx. Pull it out a month ago and when the lockdown was starting a lot of people nairobi and other towns are turning. Back home so the population within our areas the human populations increased. And on top of that of seed the employment rates jumped up so weve actually. Been trying to keep a really close eye on touching numbers and seeing whats happening across our area as well as outlying areas to try and predict where we might get it. We can say quite yet theres been a spike within i. R. L. Though we did have our 1st 2. 3 poaching at poaching instance for the last kind of 3 months happened in the last week. I suspect they are probably related to the fact that theres a lot of people who know 100 of the moment but its too soon to say right now what it is about where this could lead. Well weve seen it also in areas outside of operating a scene was seen poaching go up quite quite significantly. So thats a major war in all the success weve got over the last kind of 56 years getting it right under control we really cant afford to get back on that so were going to try to maintain it as we are but you know on a side from the operations i was actually well on the other 2 have talked about and in that the effect on the economy over the longer time is is whats really worrying and thats what will feed into poaching becoming more of a significant threat to our area and across the whole area the moment were worried about the bush meat poaching but if it carries on for a long time then you have to start worrying about the trophy poaching say look you know elephants and rhinos well were out see that the risk is a lot odd but the upside for anyone is in desperate situation theres also a lot of a great just very quickly for those who perhaps dont know the difference what is the difference between the bush meat pitching and the trophy poaching. So bush reproaching is approaching to meet theres 2 Different Levels within that the subsistence through fear and table and commercial where youre looking so meet. Subsistence or as a threat but not necessarily anywhere near as much as as either try to poaching or commercial poaching so commercial bush reproaching is what were really worried about at the moment and trophy poaching is looking for animal parts to then sell not for ingestion so youre looking at elephant ivory rhino horn cat skins claws bones any anything and anything that someone would sell and look to get more than what the meats were. So that obviously has been whats decimated a lot of lot of wildlife populations and after over the last 50 years. Thats what we have got under control in this area and most of kenya. Obviously not us early but a lot of other partners nato thought well clearly nexus is thanks im going to move on to daniel just on this issue of of bushmeat poaching 1st of all as pressure begins to tell and you know the search for food for the table becomes next to impossible to then alternative is to go out into the bush and get it and kill it how would you deal with that with your communities how can you encourage them not to do that and what needs to be done to help them not to do that. Yeah. People they dont. Have the. Zone so that is really fortunate things that we have most of them. And if any of the protected areas. That is out of people who really. Come from nairobi are up this is in their country. So thanks to the effort of their Community Even before theyve. Been very lucky that we get less of the guesses starting from 22 bit. So that is one thing that we are really proud of that the community. As an alternative for subsystems. Walk with their. Joint effort. Support from our organization that is there must. Provide support to. These operations will continue throughout the next months we. Expect this will last. What do you think is at stake you know theres a report by united for wildlife which says that the main threat is in protected areas and reserves which have been forced to reduce ranger force levels not talking about but areas that have been forced to reduce these ranges ranger levels so what needs to be done whats at stake and what needs to be done to help those areas. I think what is my take is really your position interests and londons. Planned use in terms of their closeness are looking at our soul riddle what is how can we sustain while that if we cannot sustain there what led part of is that is needed some chords and sustained while a planets are. On top of the mullahs communitarians of him which needs means daughter missing and of course abuse on the minister it is when this becomes a disease to baba people now trade and seed if we find our purses africans are lived in the world well for a number of yes what is us is that it has some pretty selfconsistent is it traffic or are we are we are what about us futile so letting the diseases it is the rule bush and it was such. A doll say one like what one Health Organization 60 percent of the diseases funny humans is and response to one like a nut in our 7 defined by say did all that in mind is a fictional diseases after a while and sudden what luck so how do we want to take that. As human species we are also told that our health is at stake as we humans once you know interacting with the wildlife without proper management. Think that it is out of it all done it and talked about it for them is our part of it i take it in order for us to sustaining our landlords a majority of our guys and more evidence we need is as follows that a new economy forward evolved if we can in order. Crazy Revenue Source is that is what. Sold for that but we need. And probably. This is. Going to jump in there im so sorry we. Discussed not that much time said sorry about that its going to jump and i want to take it on so hang on there because right now as weve been discussing is a tough time for many gamers as some see this as an opportunity. My dear its been so long for fine have had the pleasure of being in your company. This South African Company broadcasts safaris live on the internet and people can see wild cats and other animals up close without leaving their homes its founder says viewership has increased 5 fold as you might expect since early march craig just to play devils advocate here perhaps thats the way for perhaps the whole arena needs to be reshaped to find a way to keep the pressure off Wildlife Reserve and you know to find a different way of taking this on to taking this industry on. Without question things need to be reshaped 5 are not qualified to say what shape or full of sleep is here with Virtual Tours as argy bargy producer as you might underfunding. So there is a that leap to be made but yeah i do see an opportunity in some ways and thats not just limited tactical see theres a whole Global Impact of this and how well you can see the difference is made to to that environment even in you know in 1st world countries so theres opportunities everywhere. As as as a ready set in this is we need to move really quickly and thats quite difficult to whenever im stuck and of course trying to get it done so theres certainly things that need to change. On the tourism aspect if it does bring about the question. Cost as in the process always being conservation and just saying we need to make a stand we need to integrate into the economy conservation needs to be needs to be sustainable in that it relies on tourism funds and tourism needs to be increased this is kind of put us back a long way on what was d one of the the the real core parts of whats been changing over certainly canada a lot of out there in the last 5 years so there are opportunities that theres people in need of you know im definitely not the right person to say where they are but the craig actually as you go out on the ranges every day and out into the wilderness what is your whats the sense in your heart if you like how do you how worried are you about this if you go out there do you feel a sense of. Despair about whats happening and what could happen. No yet but yeah you know looking at future its pretty pretty scary doesnt really matter how many ranges you have what the resources what intelligence you have crossed anything if youre serious at that critical number of people are desperate you know youre d wasting your time and you have to me not you not looking to start not nutritionally keep it under control youre not looking to to save one or 2 animals youre going to keep an entire ecosystem or entire population of wildlife sir you can assume as youve got a 1000 people who are angry and theyre d all relying on bush meat theres nothing really can do you can rest 50 a night. And thats still not going to make a dent in you know whats happening to your to your to the area the conservation you call the g. And the whole ecosystem so if things carry on going as they are and the economy just keeps getting worse and worse and not more and more dire then things are going to get really difficult d rice kind of taking us for 5 years to where there was no one like economy ok certain areas i think you want to jump in there and i just want to say if youre going to things images here of a mountain gorillas because its not just the big 5 were talking about its all cement grids and this comes back to also to your point about zoonotic diseases even they are under threat from coven. Yes look i want to you know i think the biggest of what you dish basically government governments and i know i put them in leaders is a religion regime and your economy that responds to the resources we have. Made a lot of is enough rekha we cannot continue and our own door donations or all in that Case International arrivals know what unit is that exists now that we kind of machinery that industry into groups is the listicle right force it improves Community Ownership in the businesses instead of those in the other parts they are opportunities for us to do probably from scratch yes that respond to the needs of the restaurant was there because the body change business is that who all made or people with the right kind it is what it is for you are it indication of another possible response source of the jobs unity talked about a number of. People involved in a desperate for the government was. One of the possible vision and the point is ministry we have not been seen not craig just to stand on a lighter note there must be some benefit to all of this was the word life was quite like not having loads of theories about that they havent seen any different charities in behavior in several. Yes certainly theres a theres a lot more. More d where they normally arent you know where where they normally beats be devoid ing just because its 2 too many cause driving and such or theyre much more relaxed so weve got a buffalo on our front lawn which is not in the majors d. The rhino that we look up to in the 2 ls seem to be spreading out a bit more and spending more time in the open which they havent done in ages so certainly posters on the low side at the moment a personal goal of you are very much happy living in the bush so this is forcing me to do something i want to do anyway. But theres always a big negative as well coming around the corner and in the end it does come back down to economics ok well well keep following this important story gentlemen thanks very much indeed to all of you for your time thanks to our guest daniel soapy craig miller and co do so by now thanks a lot and thank you for watching and you can see this program again any time by visiting our website aljazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our Facebook Page that facebook dot com for slash a. J. The inside story and you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a. J. Insights to remain a clock and the entire team here in doha its goodbye from. They say to really know someone you must walk a mile in their shoes. Follow in their footsteps the state forge their way in the world. Shares these personal journeys. Inspiring stories of people persevering on their chosen path. With news documentaries on aljazeera. 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We want you all deserve me so horribly reminder of our top news stories President Donald Trump has revealed hes been taking a regular dose of the unproven drug a drug seeker for a queen to prevent coronavirus after requesting it from the white house doctor Government Health experts warned last month of its potentially fatal side effects the frontline workers many many are taking it i happen to be taking it i happen to be take it. Right now a. Couple of weeks ago