The silent wildlife killer
[Music]
did you know
that one third of zambia’s landmass is
protected
and reserved as conservation areas
these areas are characterized by
beautiful landscapes
and charismatic wildlife that are an
epitome of wildlife safari
and tourism through tourism
the local people benefit from jobs but
also
the government collects considerable
amount of revenue
apart from tourism all the plants
the animals and the microbes in this
area
interact in a complex manner to form
what is referred to
as an ecosystem and these ecosystems
provide ecosystem services
and these ecosystem services are so
important
for the survival of man and the planet
some of the ecosystem services include
the provision of clean water
did you know that the entire city of
lusaka’s water supply
comes from the cafe river and the large
part of that river
is conceived in these conservation areas
part of the carbon that we emit from our
cars and industries
is trapped and absorbed in a large
expanse of forests
and plants thereby mitigating the
effects of climate change
a lot of effort and energies have been
invested
by the government the conservation
community
and the local people to preserve these
areas
from exploitation and degradation
and the biggest rates to these areas
approaching
and habitat loss through human
development
these threats are addressed by a model
of law enforcement through the use of
armed rangers
these rangers risk their lives defending
these animals
and their homes ionically
they face danger from the same animals
that they’re trying to protect
but also more importantly they there’s
an
ever-present risk of being shot in gun
exchange
with the poachers and this model has
caught
measurable success in bringing the
culprits to book
but also limiting the effects of
poaching
however there are other potential
threats
that this model does not address and
that threat
is the threat of infectious diseases
the idea that wildlife and biodiversity
is the source and origin of new and
emerging infections
diseases is merely stating the obvious
where else would the new pathogen come
from
it is not that their mechanism of
transmission
is in any way unnatural but it is rather
the opportunities for the emergence that
are changing
and probably on the increase
these threats these opportunities
are driven by man and human development
and not wildlife these opportunities
are due to the increase in human
population
that forces us to go into wildlife areas
and cut huge chunks of land for the
purpose of agriculture
to feed our growing population
it is the increase in exploitation and
trade
in wildlife and wildlife products that
lays these opportunities bare
our interaction the ease of travel
at global scale presents the
opportunities
for the spread of these diseases
as the case of ebola and kovid
let me give a few examples to
demonstrate the devastating effects
of infectious disease on wildlife
populations
in 1994 in the serengeti national park
of tanzania
one third of the lion population died
from canaan december it’s an infectious
disease
of domestic dogs you can just imagine
this
one third of that population represented
1 000 lions
when you go to the kruger national park
the buffalo population
today is devastated
by bovine tuberculosis this is a disease
of cattle
and the threat is not only on the
buffalo population
but the predators that feed on these
buffalos
it is feared that in the near future we
might lose the entire lion population
in the kruger national park
the ethopian wolf is on the brink of
extinction
because of rabies and canada in december
diseases
of domestic dogs
let me draw your attention to zambia
the kaffir flat a semi-aquatic antelope
species
only found in zambia
on the cafe flats has had this
population
dropped from 80 000 in the 1980s
to just over 20 000 in 2018
a drop of about 70 percent loss
and this drop is due to poaching
and infectious disease and the two
infectious disease implicated
in this population in the demand in the
decline of this population
is bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis
also referred to as contagious abortion
so bro so bovine tb is a chronic
debilitating disease
that affects adult animals and the
studies done
on the cafe floods have shown that 25
percent of the later population
is already infected with this
pathogen brucellosis
also referred to as contagious abortion
this disease is a reproductive disease
that stifles the population to grow
from birth and one
in every four laters is already infected
with this the combined
effects of these two diseases has
already been demonstrated
on the kafwa flats one of the species
that was originally found on the cafe
flats is now locally extinct
the blue wilderness is no more on the
kaffir flats
this is the biggest conservation story
of our times in zambia today
but this is not the first local
extinction to happen in zambia
the longwood valley was host to over 12
000 black rhinos
in the 1980s by 20
by 1998 all the black rhinos were wiped
out
due to poaching for their homes
however there’s good news because the
zambian government
in collaboration with the partners
decided to reintroduce
the black rhino into the value and today
we have a small but growing population
of black rhinos in the luangwa valley
this is one of the biggest success
conservation stories
in africa today and i’m proud that i
played a small part
into that success
now if you have to transfer the success
from the luango valley into the kaffwe
flats
it may not yield the same results
because
unlike poaching it is difficult to
sterilize
an infection from a wildlife population
and also more difficult from the
environment
today we can decide to introduce 2000
budapest population in the kafwa floods
and surely these water beasts would
still meet the same fate
because the threat that eliminated
the first population is still present
today
we can decide let’s take enough rangers
into the kafwa flats
to protect the current later population
and we achieve zero poaching the end
result
is that the later population would still
continue to diminish
and to decline and probably follow the
same fate as that of the world abyss
because it is difficult to get rid of
infectious disease
in wildlife population
the point to take home
is that infectious disease
and pathogens are a silent threat to our
wildlife population today
and we need to take extra effort to
guard our wildlife
because the effects of
disease is usually non-reversible
so what can we do about it to begin with
in addition to the traditional model of
law enforcement
we need to introduce wildlife health
programs
that will focus on the health of the
wildlife
we can do this by first of all changing
our policies
and strategies that focuses on the
health of livestock that is around
conservation areas
with the objective of preventing
spillover of pathogens from our
livestock
into our wildlife population this
has an added benefit in that it will
attract people that are involved in
poaching
to alternative livelihoods because
livestock will become attractive
in addition to that this would promote
healthy food and healthy use of our
livestock products
we also need to encourage and raise
awareness
that wildlife is a national treasure and
it is a heritage
of us as a people as we guide them
against poaching and habitat loss
we also need to protect them from
infectious diseases
thank you
[Music]
you