Documenting traditional food from Waluguru indigenous tribe
Tengeneza Generaration and Davie Masanja
We document and promote our work through art photography. Pictures are powerful, as they are visual materials that people can see. They make messages around conservation more impactful among the community members we work with.
We engage professional photographs to join and document expeditions. So far, we have a portfolio of more than 17,342 pictures.
Keen to involve artists in supporting conservation work.
Revisiting our local traditional conservation methods involved working with artists and cultural practitioners.
Art and culture is a tool Africans have always used and continue to use to educate wider communities to love their nature.
Visual art is the best tool to send a message faster and more powerful to communities, especially young people.
Art and culture reconnect personally to his/her roots.
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.
Report and continuous activities updates sharing with stakeholders.
Updating about and involving others in our work and cooperating with our partners have improved and shaped positive impact to our communities. For example they have formed an ecotourism group called Choma ecotourism group to manage ecological and cultural tourism development.
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.
The reptile industry holds substantial growth potential. Established local and international markets exist for meat, skins, pets, and various body parts used in the pharmaceutical industry (e.g. squalene oil). Farmers are typically linked to multiple revenue streams and financial risks are spread across multiple geographies. These economic opportunities are complimented by the ability to scale management inputs and outputs in accordance with adaptive physiologies in order to buffer farmers against the impacts of economic and environmental shocks.
Many reptile production models are expanding via vertical and horizontal integration (i.e., emergence of corporate factory farms). Development approaches that focus purely on economic profitability may compromise the viability of small-scale production models and threaten key animal welfare, environmental, and social sustainability credentials. The loss of democratic food systems presents a risk to regional food security and food sovereignty.
Long-term partnerships with the government and NGOs
Effective One Health Response and Interventions to Wildlife Events
- 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.
- Effective networks in place through building blocks 1-3 for communication of results and coordination of effective response
- National strategies in place that ensure relevant personnel know their role and the processes for responding to different scenarios
- Good communication and collaboration between multi-sectoral response teams
- External financial support for LMICs and MICs until national budgets can support effective surveillance and response
Taking the time to put in place the initial three building blocks and national strategies enables the translation of relevant health data into actionable real-time information to support multi-sectoral stakeholders and decision-makers to implement an effective multi-sectoral response. This in turn will optimize the health of wildlife, people, and livestock, help prevent pandemics and demonstrate the benefits of wildlife surveillance networks, increasing local government buy-in for future self-investment.
Technology for Wildlife Surveillance Data Collection, Sharing and Management
Ranger using SMART cell-phone based technology
WCS
SMART for Health reporting and response cycle
WCS
WildHealthTech: WildHealthNet develops and employs innovative, appropriate, and user-friendly technologies for surveillance. With proven, globally distributed, open-source software (e.g., SMART for Health) and hardware like handheld cell phone devices for data collection and diagnostics, WildHealthNet supports effective and timely communication of data for improved reporting of wildlife health and rapid response.
- Cell-phone network accessibility and cell phone provision
- Human personnel to monitor network and data at the central level
- Access to a server
- Diagnostic capacity for safely testing wildlife samples for pathogens of concern (Point-of-care for some pathogens; in-country laboratories; regional laboratory networks, and agreements to support rapid and biosecure export, testing, and data sharing)
- Technical and analytical support
- Financing to enable technical support and capacity development for data platforms and data analysis
- Early detection of wildlife morbidity and mortality events facilitates a timely and appropriate response to disease threats; the inability to detect and identify the causes of mortality events is a major limitation in the protection of wildlife, livestock, and public health.
- Employing an already proven open-source and cell-phone-based technology through the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) platform used by rangers in close to 1,000 biodiverse sites across the world, leverages an unprecedented network of globally distributed boots-on-the-ground and eyes-in-the-field that can act as sentinels for unusual events in remote areas.
Supporting Skills Development for Surveillance and Monitoring of Wildlife Disease
Ranger training in Cambodia
WCS
WildHealthSkills: WildHealthNet conducts capacity bridging and building with in-person and virtual trainings for all actors in the network, from field-based rangers to laboratory techs to national coordinators. The goal is to develop and share science-based protocols and best practices, and implement strong curricula so that each actor is empowered to fully participate.
- Long term financial support for technical expertise and input
- Government and local stakeholder awareness of the links between wildlife health and human health and well-being
- Government and local stakeholder interest and engagement in capacity development for wildlife surveillance and wildlife health monitoring
- Adequate human personnel without too much turnover, in order to maintain network
A foundational understanding of the links between wildlife/ environmental health and human and domestic animal health and well-being ensures better interest and buy-in for One Health competency training such as wildlife surveillance. Stakeholder-specific trainings (e.g. Event detection and reporting for forest rangers; Necropsy and pathology for laboratory staff/ veterinarians; Sample collection and handling for rangers & confiscation teams; Technology for network coordinator and rangers), multi-lingual training packages, with core competencies and evaluation tools enable broader reach and buy-in for capacity building and maintenance and continued expansion of the surveillance network national, regionally and globally.
