La valoración de los servicios ecosistémicos nos permite evidenciar ¿cómo?, ¿cuándo? y ¿dónde? nos estamos beneficiando como sociedad. A través de la valoración económica se logra determinar el beneficio que recibe un agricultor por el aumento de la productividad de su cultivo. Con la valoración ecológica, se puede hacer un análisis del beneficio de regulación que el ecosistema percibe al aumentar la tasa de polinización y fomentar la diversidad genética. Y a través la valoración sociocultural -entrevistas y talleres- se puede obtener la disposición a pagar o ser compensado por la prestación de este servicio. En la medida que los beneficios de la polinización gestionada sean evidentes, aumentará la posibilidad e interés de prestación del servicio. 

WAB-Net brings together stakeholders from diverse sectors and backgrounds to participate in uniquely detailed and thorough capacity-building and hands-on trainings. Field teams consisting of ecologists, government officials representing health and environmental ministries, and students and academic faculty are trained to carry out research while keeping themselves and the bats safe. A bat ecologist will spend several weeks each year in the field teaching the team how to capture, handle, sample, and release bats with biosafety considerations woven throughout each step.

We established strong partnerships with the Nature Reserves government authorities (Tanzania Forest Service Agency (TFS), as well as with the Department of Natural Resources and Tourism and Youth Development. They provide continuous support, whether it is the use of a vehicle, the delivery of permits, recommendation letters, or waive camping fees to our team and skills.

We also maintain good partnerships with local communities, who propose new activities, and new camping sites to extend the eco-tourism offer and support in installations of sign boards. EAMCEF provided funding $10,000 to support ecological and cultural tourism by empowering the Choma community found adjacent to the Uluguru mountains. Nafasi Art Space provided training in developing art program and fund $1000.

Our work involves self-motivation and self-financing. TEG team determination to support the conservation of biodiversity and empowerment of youth living adjacent to nature reserves includes organizing online exhibitions and online behaviour change campaigns. With or without external support, TEG staff have volunteerly engaged with donors, government officials, and communities in designing the program, fundraising, and implementing it.

Reptile farming is well positioned to capitalize on emerging markets. Until recently, reptiles have been somewhat overlooked and undervalued due to colonial legacies and euro-centric agri-food tendencies towards warm-blooded livestock. Reptile products are mostly valued in the Global South where the impacts of climate change are predicted to be acute and the drivers for transformational change are dynamic. Dovetailing a novel agri-food sustainability concept with traditional cultural and culinary values in tropical regions offers unique economic opportunities. That said, future growth will depend on good farming practices and close supervision by veterinary and other authorities. Research on envionmental impacts and broader health implications (e.g., feeding unprocessed animal waste protein to reptile livestock) is essential. 

A cost effectiveness assessment of the planned intervention and an options appraisal was undertaken during the planning phase. The proposed options were assessed on their costs and benefits, technical viability and environmental outcomes. This allowed for comparison of alternatives and selection of the solution that would provide the greatest environmental, social and economic benefits. Economic benefits derived from the Nature-based Solution, include around GBP 91.7 in economic benefits (including GBP 13.5 million in environmental benefits). The coastal realignment contributed to the protection of more than 300 residential and commercial properties as well as infrastructure. An estimated 22,000 people visit the area annually supporting the local economy.

CTPH provides alternative livelihoods for our VHCTs, which include group livestock income-generating projects and Village Saving and Loan Associations that bring them together and strengthen the integrated approach. As community volunteers work without a salary this is a critical component to creating a sustainable program and resulted in no volunteer dropouts within the first 10 years of the VHCT program.

CTPH, through its social enterprise – Gorilla Conservation Coffee established in 2015, also supports alternative livelihoods for community members, to support income generation and, thereby, reduce dependence on natural resources to meet basic needs. Gorilla Conservation Coffee supports coffee farmers living around BINP through training and capacity building and providing access to national and international markets. Women coffee farmers are particularly encouraged to participate in the social enterprise, providing a source of economic empowerment for women in communities in which the financial sphere is particularly biased towards men. The social enterprise was created with support from Worldwide Fund for Nature Switzerland’s Impact Investment for Conservation Program. A donation is also given for every bag of coffee sold, to support CTPH’s programs, enabling sustainable financing for conservation.

CTPH has been implementing a successful community health and conservation model in BINP since 2006. Community health is implemented through Village Health Teams, a recognized Ministry of Health structure in Uganda who are trained as Village Health and Conservation Teams (VHCTs) to promote health together with conservation. VHCTs are local community volunteers who deliver integrated community based services to individual households to promote good health-seeking behaviour, hygiene practices, infectious disease prevention and control, family planning, nutrition; and conservation education. VHCT networks are sustained through group livestock income generating projects, which they reinvest into Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLAs). CTPH focuses particularly on engaging women, both as VHCTs as well as during VHCT activities, as women are primarily responsible for their families’ health and wellbeing and are, therefore, in the best position to make positive changes for improved household health. As VHCTs, women have taken on a leadership role in the community, elevating their status and supporting improved gender balance.

CTPH successfully scaled up the VHCT and VSLA model from Kanungu to another district, Kisoro around BINP, home to the world’s endangered mountain gorillas.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, students from the University of Kent and Ohio University conducted research with CTPH on the impacts of mitigation measures to avoid disease transmission to great apes and on the willingness of the National Park’s visitors to comply with these measures. Their findings were published in 2018 and 2020 and have been instrumental in convincing the Ugandan government to adopt sanitary measures in the Parks for tourists and management staff, while reassuring the Uganda Wildlife Authority that this decision wouldn’t impact the number of visitors coming to the park.

CTPH also conducts routine research to monitor the health of the mountain gorilla population, focusing on those which stray out of the forest into communal land most often or those that have been habituated for gorilla tourism and, as such, are more likely to come into contact with human infections. This routine health monitoring and research is conducted by observing for clinical signs and collecting gorilla faecal samples (non-invasively, from gorilla night nests) each day and analysing the samples for pathogens, particularly those of zoonotic significance. By doing so, CTPH has developed an early warning system for any concerning infections and can address these as needed in a timely manner.

- WildHealthResponse: Translating relevant health data into actionable real-time information supports stakeholders and decision-makers to structure and implement an effective multi-sectoral response—which in turn will optimize the health of wildlife, people, and livestock, and help prevent pandemics. Harnessing local knowledge informs decision-making and translates a global One Health vision into locally relevant solutions to halt species extinctions and threats to human and animal health and well-being.