AHEAD Update – January 2007
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 Animal Health
for the Environment And Development 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.
Please note that URL hotlinks for many of the organizations mentioned below can
be found at http://www.wcs-ahead.org/links.html.
News on potential funding appears towards the end of these Updates.
If you would like to post an item in the next AHEAD Update,
please just send it to me – thanks!
*Free Access to the Journal of Wildlife Diseases –
The Wildlife Disease Association (WDA) and the Wildlife
Conservation Society Field Veterinary Program (WCS-FVP) are
pleased to announce the free electronic availability
of all contemporary issues of the Journal of Wildlife
Diseases to 113 countries with the least developed economies.
Previously, the WDA had made freely available over 35
years of back issues of the Journal of Wildlife Diseases
in electronic form and has donated many paper sets of
the Journal of Wildlife Diseases to institutions in developing
countries. The electronic form of the Journal of Wildlife
Diseases can be accessed at http://www.jwildlifedis.org and
is produced in cooperation with HighWire Press of Stanford
University. If you are from a country that meets the
above criterion and have trouble accessing the journal
via that URL, please let me know. (Obviously internet
access itself may be an issue in some cases, but nonetheless
we hope this is an encouraging step in the right direction
in terms of information accessibility.)
*The Pilanesburg Resolution, as endorsed
by the Wildlife Disease Association (WDA) and Society
for Tropical Veterinary Medicine (STVM) and calling for
the recognition of animal health sciences as critical
to the design and management of sustainable programs
for both livestock and wildlife, is now posted on the AHEAD website
at http://www.wcs-ahead.org/pilanesburg.html.
Please share the link with potentially interested colleagues.
This resolution, which is targeted at multilateral and
bilateral donors as well as governmental authorities,
encourages agencies to consider potential wildlife health
impacts when development projects (particularly livestock
development) are being planned or implemented. The WDA
and STVM, representing over 1,000 scientists and meeting
together to address the issue of diseases transmitted
between domestic and wild animals, wished to emphasize
the interrelatedness of development actions and the environment,
the potential for adverse consequences in projects that
neglect to consider wildlife disease issues, and the
importance of considering the true and overall costs
and benefits to natural as well as human-made production
systems when evaluating or defining sustainable projects.
The resulting “Pilanesburg Resolution” summarizes
what we still need to be doing to proactively foster
successful conservation and development outcomes at the
wildlife / livestock / human health interface.
*ASHOKA Fellowship awarded to AHEAD Collaborator! –
Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is pleased to report
that she has recently been selected as an Ashoka
Fellow. Her selection was based on her vision
for linking Uganda's wildlife management and rural public
health programs to create common resources that benefit
both people and animals. In many parts of Uganda, communities
and wildlife are sharing habitats, living closer and
more interdependent lives than ever before. As a result,
the health and wellbeing of wildlife and the health and
wellbeing of local people and their animals are increasingly
interdependent. As Founder and CEO of Conservation
Through Public Health (www.ctph.org),
she joins Ashoka’s global fellowship of leading
social entrepreneurs developing innovative solutions
to social problems, with the potential to change patterns
across society. Ashoka Fellows are selected for their
unrivaled commitment to bold new ideas and prove that
compassion, creativity, and collaboration are tremendous
forces for change. Gladys note that she hopes this fellowship
will help to advance the AHEAD concept across
many continents. With a vision of making "everyone
a changemaker," Ashoka has been committed to developing
the field of social entrepreneurship since 1981. In 2001,
Ashoka elected the first Fellows from East Africa, and
has since supported 26 such Ashoka Fellows and their
institutions. The global network of Ashoka Fellows currently
covers 60 countries. For further information, please
visit the Ashoka website at www.ashoka.org.
Congratulations, Gladys!!
*"Poultry in Motion" in Zambia SANREM
collaboration: "Developing a Participatory
Socio-Economic Model for Food Security, Improved Rural
Livelihoods, Watershed Management, and Biodiversity Conservation
in Southern Africa" (a USAID-SANREM CRSP funded
project with collaboration among WCS, Cornell University
and a range of host country institutions). The multidisciplinary
partnership between Cornell University and the WCS Community
Markets for Conservation (COMACO) program
(http://www.itswild.org)
in Zambia is off to an encouraging start. COMACO provides
market incentives for rural farmers to adopt biodiversity-friendly
livelihood practices such as beekeeping, conservation
farming and poultry farming. Improved food security and
income generated by the COMACO-assisted
marketing of products reduce the need for environmental
degradation and wildlife poaching. Poultry rearing in
particular provides an alternative protein source, further
minimizing demand for wild animal meat. However, the
benefits of poultry farming have historically not been
optimized due to high mortality rates. This mortality
and the overall health management of poultry in rural
Zambia was investigated in June-July 2006 by Erin McDonald,
a student from Cornell University's College of Veterinary
Medicine. Over 500 poultry farmers in the program area
were educated on proper poultry nutrition, housing, and
health management. As of early October 2006, preliminary
surveys indicated that chicken populations were in some
cases 50% larger in comparison to previous years. This
represents a significant increase in family income and
protein availability. Monitoring of chicken health and
disease by trained para-professionals will continue throughout
the year, with plans for further research and targeted
therapeutics trials to be initiated in summer 2007.
*Next full AHEAD Great Limpopo TFCA Working Group
meeting being scheduled- please save the period March 7–9,
2007: We are still in the process of exploring
a Mozambique venue (perhaps around Massingir). If that
does not work out, we may consider a return to the Pestana
Lodge outside of Nelspruit, near Kruger's Malelane Gate,
where the previous full WG meeting was held. Tentatively,
we are looking at the following possible topics for discussion,
and are of course open to suggestions: 'conceptual framework'
update (final paper likely circulated beforehand); update
from JMB Cons.
& Vet. Subcommittee; update from SANPark's Nicky Shongwe
on her new coordinating role; CASS community-based scenarios
(IDRC) project update; tri-national scenarios (Sand County, USAID)
project update; update from SANParks and DNAC on joint fieldwork
and planning; update on World Bank project from DNAC, DNAV; updates
from SELCORE, CESVI, TPARI, (others?); possible presentation
from AFD, Moz.; update by PPF GIS specialists; etc. Further
details on the venue, logistics and agenda will be forthcoming
to those on the AHEAD GLTFCA email list from Nicky shortly. For
now, please do try and "save the dates."
*The new Consortium for Wildlife-Friendly Enterprise is a global
initiative to link farmers, livestock producers and harvesters balancing economic
activities with conservation of wildlife and habitats. The Consortium will launch
via a Spring 2007 Summit, where it will explore opportunities to:
Build a global network of people and organizations
invested in Wildlife-Friendly Enterprise;
Identify and fill gaps in the market chain to link
Wildlife-Friendly producers to interested consumers; and
Design criteria for certification of producers
with scientific measures of success for wildlife conservation.
For more information about the Consortium and Spring 2007 Summit, visit www.coex-wildlife.org/Wildlife-Friendly.htm,
or contact summit@coex-wildlife.org.
*Countries Agree on Transfrontier Game Park– Daily
News– December 7, 2006 – By Basildon
Peta
Five southern African countries have agreed to establish a second transfrontier
wildlife park [KAZA- Kavango-Zambezi], a development that will boost regional
tourism and conservation efforts and facilitate cross-border travel. Tourism
and environmental ministers from Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Botswana and Zambia
converge on the resort town of Victoria Falls on Thursday to sign a memorandum
of understanding (MOU) for the establishment of the second transfrontier park
mainly along the Zambezi River, which straddles all five countries. Wildlife
populated conservation areas like the Okavango Delta in Botswana, the Caprivi
in Namibia and the adjoining area in Angola, the Kafue Wetlands in Zambia and
the Victoria Falls in both Zimbabwe and Zambia would form part of the new transfrontier
park. Zimbabwe's Tourism and Environment Minister Francis Nhema said the project
would cover an estimated 30 000 square kilometres of such diverse ecosystems
as the savanna, woodlands, rivers and wetlands in the countries concerned....
For the rest of the story, go to http://www.dailynews.co.za.
*New funding source- The U. S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) announces new RFP: "An Interdisciplinary Approach
to Examining the Links Between Social Stressors, Biodiversity
and Human Health." Several of you familiar with
AHEAD participated in the Washington, DC workshop that helped
inform the development of this RFP. See http://es.epa.gov/ncer/rfa/2007/2007_biodiversity_health.html for
details. Proposals are due by April 19, 2007.
If you have items for the next AHEAD Update,
please just let me know – thanks.
All the best,
Steve |