By Reuters• 8 April 2021
Caption
epa08891327 (18/39) An aerial photo taken with a drone shows the trade hub of Mambasa, in the Ituri Rainforest, an area of vast natural biodiversity and resources, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 19 October 2020. Mambasa lies on the road leading out from the rainforest towards Uganda, so it is a major way station for illegal animal trafficking, unregulated deforestation, and mining sites. A distinct risk for zoonotic spillover of viruses exists in a setting with exceptional governance challenges. Because economic forces and local governments are incentivized to collaborate, these factors have enabled a precarious situation where conservation is a losing battle and Congo's biodiversity posits a distinct likelihood for a new virus to jump from an animal to a human population. (Photo: EPA-EFE/Hugh Kinsella Cunningham ATTENTION EDITORS / MANDATORY CREDIT : This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center)