Category: COVID Impacts

COVID-19 has had disastrous effects on rural communities and conservation in Southern Africa, exacerbating existing challenges and creating new ones. Beyond its public health implications, COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on rural economies, especially those that rely heavily on nature-based tourism.

Africa forest dwellers

COVID-19-led ban on wild meat could take protein off the table for millions of forest dwellers

Resource Africa June 11, 2020 0 Comments
COVID-19-led ban on wild meat could take protein off the table for millions of forest dwellers - Forests News. Authors: R Nasi, J Fa 2020-03 In the wake of COVID-19, conservationists have greeted China’s recent clampdown on wild animal hunting and consumption with enthusiasm. The government made the move based on scientific theories that COVID-19 was transmitted from a pangolin...

COVID-19: wildlife trade and communities: a selection of recently published articles

Resource Africa May 24, 2020 0 Comments
We are sharing some links to recent COVID-19 related news articles and papers recommended in the IUCN SULi Digest March and April 2020 Edition. Wildlife trade and trade bans Despite COVID-19, using wild species may still be the best way to save them by Dilys Roe Wildlife trade: Regulated markets involving local communities, ‘essential’ to balance humans and nature, Ivonne Higuero,...
mexico wildlife coronavirus

Wildlife trade in Mexico, conservation, and pandemics

Resource Africa May 24, 2020 0 Comments
As Mexico reels from the coronavirus (COVID-19) economic devastation and public health disaster, Vanda Felbab-Brown writes in a recently published article in brookings.edu, it also needs to rethink its relationship with nature. To prevent another zoogenic pandemic, it is crucial to preserve natural habitats; carefully monitor legal trade in wildlife; eliminate transmission points where the...
coronavirus and snakes

Snakes make good food. Banning farms won’t help the fight against coronavirus

Resource Africa May 24, 2020 0 Comments
Originally published in The Conversation  authored by Daniel Natusch, Macquarie University; Graham Alexander, University of the Witwatersrand; Ngo Van Tri, and Patrick Aust, University of Oxford The wildlife trade has long been closely linked to disease outbreaks. It has been implicated in the SARS epidemic of 2002, Ebola in 2013 and now in the COVID-19 coronavirus. In response to the...

Humans aren’t the Virus

Resource Africa May 23, 2020 0 Comments
“There have been many plagues in the world as there have been wars, yet plagues and wars always find people equally unprepared.” - Albert Camus  From Counterpunch by FIORE LONGO APRIL 24, 2020   It’s time for a confession. Not long ago, I was sitting on the floor in a remote part of India and was given a plate of rice and meat. As a daughter of the Western world, I...

Despite COVID-19, using wild species may still be the best way to save them

Resource Africa January 10, 2020 0 Comments
Despite COVID-19, using wild species may still be the best way to save them - IIED. Author: Dilys Roe. 2020-04 As the content of the post-2020 biodiversity framework is being developed, Dilys Roe discusses the role of sustainable use in reducing biodiversity loss and saving wild species, and some of the potential implications of COVID-19.   Before the sudden and dramatic disruption caused...