AHEAD Update – June 2005
Dear AHEAD Colleagues:
* I should again note that if you wish to be removed from this e-mail
list please just let me know. My hope is to keep parties interested in AHEAD up-to-date
on developments post-Durban World Parks Congress over time, but I certainly
understand if anyone wants to opt out of receiving such messages. Updates
are also posted (and archived) on the AHEAD website
at www.wcs-ahead.org.
*The AHEAD Great Apes Working Group has posted a downloadable
PDF of their "Consensus document outlining practical considerations
for reducing health risks to African great apes and conservation employees
through an occupational health program, February 2005" on
the AHEAD website at
http://www.wcs-ahead.org/workinggrps_greatapes.html
*Congratulations to Innocent Rwego, a founding member
of the AHEAD Great Apes Working Group, who was recently
awarded a 2005 WCS Research Fellowship for his upcoming graduate work
on “The Ecology of Disease Transmission: Implications for Primate
Conservation in Kibale National Park, Uganda.”
*The AHEAD Great Limpopo TFCA Working Group held their
5th working meeting on February 17th and 18th, 2005 hosted
by the University of Pretoria's Mammal Research Institute. The forum
was highly successful, with consensus obtained on an operational structure
for defining the consortium, and on specific ways forward on a range
of key institutional issues. The overarching framework, themes, modules,
and projects / project concepts were reviewed and updated. Additional
ideas for potential sources of funding were discussed. Several new agencies
and individuals participated in the meeting, and will (we hope) become
integral components of the Working Group. [If you would like to add a
link between your institution's website and the AHEAD website (see http://www.wcs-ahead.org/links.html),
please just let me know and I'll get it sorted out on the AHEAD side.] The
5th meeting's notes are finally compiled (!) and are being emailed
to all Working Group members within the next few days, and will also
be posted at http://www.wcs-ahead.org/workinggrps_limpopo.html along
with materials from previous AHEAD GLTFCA Working Group
meetings. (If you are not currently on the AHEAD GLTFCA Working
Group emailing list and would like to receive the notes from
In April, fruitful discussions between AHEAD
GLTFCA and TPARI (Transboundary Protected Areas Research Initiative)
were held, with a focus on prospects for expanded interaction and collaboration,
particularly on social science issues. Finally, a small AHEAD
GLTFCA Working Group 'frameworking' team has been established
(one of the agreed points at the 5th Working Group meeting), and met
for the first time in May (hosted by SANParks and WCS
in Skukuza) to begin to flesh-out the theoretical and practical parameters
for successfully understanding and addressing the health issues and their
socioecological context in a complex, dynamic system like the GLTFCA.
A sixth AHEAD GLTFCA Working Group meeting is tentatively
being explored for August/September or thereafter.
*After discussions with various AHEAD GLTFCA colleagues
within and outside of Mozambique over the past year, the World Bank has
decided to add pilot support for an animal disease component to its GLTFCA
program on the Mozambican side- approximately $350,000 over several years
for addressing disease issues in and around Limpopo NP, and for related
training. We are extremely pleased to see the Bank taking these critically
important issues into account.
*The AHEAD launch 'Proceedings' are on their way toward
final galley proofs- this is progress! The first set of galleys were
carefully reviewed, and after the next set of (final) galleys we do anticipate
the book being available toward the fall of 2005- perhaps coinciding
with the actual 2-year anniversary of the launch of AHEAD.
Given that some of the papers in the book were not received until a year
after the actual WPC Durban launch, the publication process is still
on schedule and will, we believe, deliver a cutting-edge contribution
to practical, strategic thinking about the wildlife / domestic animal
/ human health interface- with a focus on southern and East Africa. The
book is titled Conservation and Development Interventions at
the Wildlife/Livestock Interface: Implications for Wildlife, Livestock,
and Human Health. Additional citation data will be provided
shortly, as will information on distribution of hard copies and a web-based
version of the book.
If you have items for the next AHEAD Update, please
just let me know – thanks.
All the best,
Steve O. |