"Beyond Fences: Policy Options for Biodiversity, Livelihoods & Transboundary Animal Disease Management in Southern Africa" – recorded June 18, 2014

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Agrilinks Feed the Future Seminar
QED Large Conference Room
1250 Eye St NW Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005

http://agrilinks.org/events/beyond-fences-policy-options-biodiversity-livelihoods-transboundary-animal-disease-management

Presenter:
– Steve Osofsky, Executive Director, Wildlife Health & Health Policy; Coordinator, Animal & Human Health for the Environment And Development (AHEAD), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

Event Abstract:

A key economic driver behind southern African transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) is nature-based tourism that seeks to maximize returns from marginal lands in a sector where southern Africa enjoys a global comparative advantage. However, the management of wildlife and livestock diseases (including zoonoses) within the envisaged larger transboundary landscapes remains unresolved and is an emerging policy issue of major concern to livestock production, associated access to export markets, and other sectors in the region—including public health. Now that Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries have chosen to pursue transfrontier conservation initiatives in the interest of regional risk-diversification of land-use options and livelihood opportunities in the face of climate change and ongoing challenges to food security, a new policy paradigm is needed to help resolve the incompatibility between (a) current regulatory approaches for the control of diseases of agro-economic importance, and (b) the vision of vast conservation landscapes without major fences.

"Beyond Fences: Policy Options for Biodiversity, Livelihoods and Transboundary Disease Management in Southern Africa” – recorded January 27, 2010

International Conservation Caucus Foundation, Congressional Staff Lunch Briefing
Washington, DC

Video

Presenter:
– Steve Osofsky, Director, Wildlife Health Policy, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS); Coordinator, Animal & Human Health for the Environment And Development (AHEAD) Initiative, WCS

"Human, Animal, and Ecosystem Health" – recorded May 21, 2008

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Environmental Change and Security Program
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20004-3027

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1413&fuseaction=topics.event_summary&event_id=405194

Presenters:
– Steve Osofsky, Senior Policy Advisor, Wildlife Health, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS); Coordinator, Animal Health for the Environment And Development (AHEAD) Initiative, WCS
– Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Founder and CEO, Conservation Through Public Health, Uganda
– Deana Clifford, Associate Wildlife Veterinarian, Wildlife Health Center, University of California, Davis; Project Coordinator, Health for Animals and Livelihood Improvement (HALI) Project, Tanzania

Event Abstract:

Human-animal interactions have important consequences for both human and animal health, as well as for the health of the environment we all share. These connections are increasingly relevant as climate change facilitates expansion of disease vectors and as population growth means humans and animals increasingly share the same habitat. One strategy for confronting these challenges, the “One Health” approach, focuses on catalyzing problem-solving in places where tensions and challenges at the interface between animal (wildlife and domestic) and human health are often greatest. Conflicts between livestock and natural resources, for example, must be dealt with to ensure peaceful coexistence between the domestic animals and wildlife upon which so many people’s livelihoods depend. 

If local people who depend on keeping livestock for their livelihoods view expanding contact with wildlife as a threat to the health of their animals, or even to their own health, it is difficult to build strong local constituencies for conservation, something the last several decades have taught us is necessary for sustained success. Addressing human health concerns in the context of conservation work should not, therefore, be seen as diminishing the importance of critical conservation issues, but rather as reinforcing the value of maintaining biodiversity and the importance of respecting wildlife and wild places. Done thoughtfully, linking human health with wildlife and environmental health can make conservation relevant to a much broader constituency.

Steve Osofsky, Senior Policy Advisor, Wildlife Health at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Coordinator of the Animal Health for the Environment And Development (AHEAD) initiative, will discuss the field and policy work of the AHEAD program. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, the founder and CEO of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), Uganda, and Deana Clifford, an associate wildlife veterinarian at the Wildlife Health Center, University of California, Davis and the Project Coordinator for the Health for Animals and Livelihood Improvement (HALI) project in Tanzania, will share how they apply this foundation to the programs they manage, which address elements of human, animal, and environmental health.