AHEAD Update – September/October 2009Dear 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 & Human Health
for the Environment And Development up-to-date on relevant
developments, 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, which
also features an AHEAD Update 'sign-up'
feature on the home page. 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 opportunities appears towards the end
of this Update. If you would like to post an item in the next AHEAD Update, please just send it to me – thanks!
The Worldwatch Institute has asked AHEAD to help them collect examples of agricultural innovations that farmers and others might consider using to help alleviate hunger and poverty in the places most in need. They're defining innovation broadly. In some cases it might mean farmers planting a new crop variety, implementing a new cropping system, or returning to a traditional approach for pest control. In other cases it might mean an innovative policy, like water pricing, farmer cooperatives, or farmer-managed seed banks. But no matter the innovation, they are most interested in those that take environmental sustainability into consideration, while also raising farmer income and increasing food security. In other words, innovations that nourish people, as well as the planet. With the backing of the Gates Foundation, Worldwatch is inviting farmers, agricultural scientists, extension agents, development workers, government officials, urban gardeners, livestock keepers, natural resource managers and others to take this survey to assess innovations in agriculture. Their goal is to draw attention to the sorts of innovations that are currently used in grazing lands, fields, pastures, empty lots, and backyards in sub-Saharan Africa, but that may need additional financial or policy support. The Worldwatch Institute will be sharing their findings with farmer organizations, development agencies, international funders, private foundations and agricultural research institutions, including the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centers and National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) centers throughout Africa. And many of these innovations will be featured in the 2011 edition of State of the World, Worldwatch’s annual book. If your work involves wildlife and how good stewardship at the
wildlife / livestock interface relates to more diversified, sustainable
livelihoods, please let Worldwatch know about that dimension of natural
resource management as well. This is your chance to educate
a wide range of stakeholders about work that you think really matters
in terms of sustainable livelihoods and sound environmental stewardship. Although
their project is focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, they’re interested
in examples from all over the world. Please click here to complete
the survey if you think you can help:
*The application period for the AHEAD KAZA Coordinator post closed August 31- The response was tremendous, and we are still in the process of evaluating the applications. Only applicants short-listed for interviews will be notified, ideally within the next 4-6 weeks. In the interim, AHEAD is continuing to liaise with the KAZA Secretariat in Namibia and the KAZA TFCA Regional Coordinator in Botswana as part of ongoing preparations for this exciting collaborative endeavor. As previously noted, this position is to coordinate regional AHEAD efforts, not to coordinate the KAZA TFCA!
*Transboundary Protected Areas Research Initiative
(TPARI) releases new “Guidelines for Negotiating Social
Research in Communities Living Adjacent to Transboundary Protected
Areas: Kruger National Park." *AHEAD Great Limpopo TFCA Seed Grant Mid-Term Reports now downloadable as PDFs at http://www.wcs-ahead.org/gltfca_grants/grants.html. Almost all mid-term reports are now in, so please feel free to take a look at what Seed Grantees have been doing. The links to PDF reports are at the bottom of each project's abstract. *"On the Fence"- article by Douglas
Fox in Conservation magazine – An interesting thought
piece on pros and cons of various fences around the world: *New regional policy initiative in support of
COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) from the Feinstein
International Center – "How can good research influence
new thinking and policy, especially when the policy issues are controversial
or misunderstood? The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
(COMESA) is developing a regional food security policy
framework for pastoralist areas which recognizes the vulnerability
of pastoralist communities and the need for regional and cross-border
policy support. The Feinstein International Center worked
with COMESA to examine the research and evidence which
supports mobile pastoralist livelihoods, but which is often overlooked
by policy makers. This policy process has included three training
courses on pastoralism in the COMESA region, based
on the livelihoods analytical framework, and both old and new scientific
research. The process falls under NEPAD's Comprehensive
Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)http://www.nepad-caadp.net/ and
will lead to a draft policy document by the end of the year. This work
is part of the Feinstein International Center’s Pastoral Areas
Coordination Analysis and Policy Support project, funded by USAID." Download
the reports at *New publications on village chicken production
now available from Australian Centre for International Agricultural
Research (ACIAR) – *New reviews on the health of indigenous communities
around the world - "These reviews examine the health standards
of the world’s 400 million indigenous people and look into the
underlying causes of health disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous
peoples. Connecting poor health standards of indigenous peoples worldwide
with loss of culture, the authors note that 'indigenous peoples worldwide
have undergone rapid culture change, marginalization and absorption
into the global economy, with very little respect for their autonomy.
These profound transformations have been linked to high rates of depression,
alcoholism, suicide and violence in many communities, with the most
pronounced effect on youth.' Calling for more culturally appropriate
ways to interact with and treat Indigenous peoples, in part 2 the authors
cover, among other issues, indigenous notions of health and identity,
and whole health and healing. It is noted that traditional teachings
and knowledge provide a basis for positive self-image and healthy identity." *New SCB Social Science Working Paper- Putting People on the Map: An Approach to Integrating Social Data in Conservation Planning, by Sheri L. Stephenson and Michael B. Mascia. Society for Conservation Biology Social Science Working Group. "Conservation planning is integral to strategic and effective operations of
public and private sector conservation organizations. Largely grounded
in the biological sciences, the field of conservation planning has
historically made limited use of social data. We offer a simple approach
for integrating data on social well-being into conservation planning
that captures and contextualizes patterns and trends in human needs
and capacities across a conservation planning unit. These social well-being
data complement biophysical and threat-oriented social data within
a conservation planning process. Building upon existing conservation
planning methodologies and insights from multiple disciplines, this
systematic approach can easily merge with current planning practices.
Incorporating social well-being data into conservation plans can
refine the process for selecting conservation targets, highlight
opportunities for strategic conservation action, and inform adaptive
management." PDF available at
*Conservation Through Public Health http://www.ctph.org/ founder
and CEO, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, wins the Whitley Gold Award – for
grassroots nature conservation also known as the “Green Oscars,” presented
by HRH, Princess Anne, at a ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society
in London. The Whitley Awards, which include 30,000 pounds, were presented
to five other outstanding conservation leaders from Bulgaria, India,
Kenya, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Uganda's Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka,
an AHEAD collaborator, emerged as the top
winner with a prize comprising 30,000 pounds donated by World Wildlife
Fund (WWF)-UK and the Whitley Gold Award of an additional second year
of funding worth another 30,000 pounds. The funds will be used
to measure the conservation impact of CTPH’s work in Bwindi Impenetrable
National Park by documenting improvement of hygiene indicators of community
members who regularly interface with gorillas, and resultant effects
on gorilla health status. Edward Whitley said: “The aim
of the Whitley Awards is to find and support conservation scientists
whose vision, passion, determination and qualities of leadership mean
they are achieving inspirational results in conservation. Dr. Kalema-Zikusoka’s
project demonstrates all this and more. As judges, we were especially
impressed by what this project is doing in the International Year of
the Gorilla, to protect a species that has become a symbol of what
conservation means, offers its human neighbours access to useful tourism
income, yet which is vulnerable to human diseases because we share
98% of our DNA.” For a recent interview with Dr. Kalema-Zikusoka,
see *SACIDS research network wins approximately £5.7 million to target human and animal diseases in Africa – Deadly diseases including plague, Ebola and Rift Valley Fever are being targeted as part of a new multi-million pound international partnership involving African researchers and the London International Development Centre (LIDC). The Southern African Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance (SACIDS) links medical and veterinary institutions from five African countries and the UK to improve the capacity of African institutions to detect, identify and monitor infectious diseases affecting humans and animals, including new infectious human diseases of animal origin. SACIDS will primarily be supported by a grant of approximately £5.7 million announced by The Wellcome Trust – the UK's largest charity – under its African Institutions Initiative. The SACIDS network, involving researchers from Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, and the UK, was launched at its Secretariat meeting at the Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania, on March 31. The collaboration has also received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and Google.org. Most major infectious human diseases have animal origins and up to 80
per cent of emerging infectious human diseases come from livestock or
wild animals, yet Africa currently has the least capacity to survey major
livestock or wildlife diseases. The Wellcome Trust grant will provide
funds for SACIDS to: For more information, see http://www.ghsi.org/projects/sacids.html or contact mark.rweyemamu@btinternet.com
*Diversitas- Biodiversity and Society: Understanding
Connections, Adapting to Change. October 13-16, 2009, Cape Town, South
Africa – Plants, animals, their genetic diversity and their diverse habitats
are being threatened as never before by factors such as habitat loss,
overexploitation of resources or climate change— all of which result
from human activities. These changes in biodiversity will have far-reaching
and often unanticipated consequences on our planet’s life-support
systems and on the services that humans derive from ecosystems. See http://www.diversitas-osc.org/ for
details, *2010 (10th) AHEAD Great Limpopo TFCA Working Group Meeting on track- please save the dates! – Special thanks to the Rockefeller Foundation for providing the core support needed! More details on the South African venue and agenda development to follow over the next few months, but please mark your calendars for February 23, 24, 25, 26 (same pattern as last year- folks arrive on Feb. 23rd with the meeting actually starting on the morning of the 24th).
*LifeWeb- major funding for protected areas – LifeWeb is an initiative of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to strengthen the creation and management of new and existing protected areas as a powerful tool to address climate change, sustain livelihoods and conserve biodiversity. LifeWeb supports implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Programme of Work on Protected Areas: http://www.cbd.int/protected/pow.shtml LifeWeb helps achieve this goal by: See http://www.cbd.int/lifeweb/ for further details on this exciting resource in support of protected areas. The preliminary Project Expression of Interest form is available at http://www.cbd.int/lifeweb/projectprofile/ *SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund
Offers Funding for Wildlife Conservation – This nonprofit
private charitable foundation supports wildlife conservation, research,
and education around the world. Since its launch in 2003, the
fund has granted a total of $5 million to more than 350 projects in
60 countries. The fund's grantees include global organizations as well
as smaller, grassroots organizations. The fund focuses its resources
in four strategic areas — Species Research, Habitat Protection,
Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation, and Conservation Education. The
fund has no set minimum or maximum grant amount. In the past, the fund
has supported projects ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 each for a one-year
term. The fund will consider multi-year proposals. The fund will
accept online applications from, for example, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations
based in the United States, non-U.S. based nonprofit organizations,
governmental entities, accredited universities and research centers. Grant
applications are reviewed once a year with a deadline date of December
1. Visit the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation
Fund website for complete program guidelines and examples
of funded projects:
What is AHEAD? Animal & Human Health for the Environment And Development was launched six years ago- at the 2003 IUCN World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa. By assembling a ‘dream team’ of veterinarians, ecologists, biologists, social and economic scientists, agriculturists, wildlife managers, public health specialists and others from across East and southern Africa, the Wildlife Conservation Society, IUCN, and a range of partners tapped into some of the most innovative conservation and development thinking on the African continent- and AHEAD was born. Since then, a range of programs addressing conservation, health, and concomitant development challenges have been launched with the support of a growing list of implementing partners and donors who see the intrinsic value of what WCS has called the “One World, One Health” approach. AHEAD is a convening, facilitative mechanism, working to create enabling environments that allow different and often competing sectors to literally come to the same table and find collaborative ways forward to address challenges at the interface of wildlife health, livestock health, and human health and livelihoods. We convene stakeholders, help delineate conceptual frameworks to underpin planning, management and research, and provide technical support and resources for projects stakeholders identify as priorities. AHEAD recognizes the need to look at health and disease not in isolation but within a given region's environmental and socioeconomic context. All the best, Steve |