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Rethinking Funding Models for Ape Conservation
ByHeather Richardson
On Jan. 11 this year, something happened that primatologists had both feared and expected: two western lowland gorillas at San Diego Zoo Safari Park tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.
Right from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts had assumed great apes would be susceptible to the virus. IUCN great ape specialists sent out a document in March 2020 to advise on the risk, and most great ape tourism sites closed immediately.
People were nervous; great ape conservation heavily depends on tourism revenue. What no one knew then was how long the pandemic would last. Now, more than a year on, how has the global shutdown affected great ape conservation in Africa?
For Africa’s great apes, a post-pandemic future looks beyond tourism
by Heather Richardson on 9 June 2021
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, primatologists assumed great apes would be susceptible to the virus and took measures to avoid transmission to captive and wild populations.
Precautionary measures like closing parks and sanctuaries to visitors have so far prevented an outbreak in wild apes, but have had a massive impact on the ability of conservation groups and government agencies to fund themselves via tourism.
A year into the pandemic, the revenue shortfall is prompting a serious rethink of funding models for ape conservation that don’t rely on tourism.
On Health
Meet the SDG3 researchers: Nistara Randhawa
Dr. Nistara Randhawa is an epidemiologist at the Wildlife Health Center/One Health Institute, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, USA. Her work bridges the worlds of animal, human, and environmental health; R programming; disease modeling; and visual story telling.
Welcome to our
Meet the SDG3 researcher blog collection. We are interviewing a series of academics and practitioners working in diverse fields to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. Here you can find other posts in this collection, grouped with the tag ‘