Workflow analysis, Partnership building, and Overall planning
Camera trap data management system
Citizen science data visualization platform
Biodiversity Impact Assessment Tool (BiA)
Creating Awareness about Marine Conservation in Palk Bay (2007 - 2022)
students visited our centre for field marine education
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A student observes plankton from Palk Bay to understand how food chain starts in marine environment
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Field lectures are more powerful way of communicating the nature conservation among children
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Students curiously discuss about marine a animals from local sea at our museum
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Underwater images and videos of local coast shown to children to let them understand the beauty and importance of the coast
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Scuba demo helps to explain how our team do seagrass survey and restoration, which is one of the favourite sessions for the students
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In 2007, a 600 km solo sea kayak was carried out along the coast of Tamil Nadu (southeast coast of India) for creating awareness about the conservation of local marine ecosystems including dugongs, seagrasses, coral reefs, and mangroves. In the following years, about 40000 people including school students, university students, fisherfolks, and government officials have attended our marine conservation awareness events in the last 15 years through folk music, school level awareness education programs, competitions, seminars, training, field trips, and distribution of awareness materials. This continuous awareness at the local and sub-national level has built rapport with the stakeholders for the rescue and release of dugongs, and mapping and restoration of seagrass beds.
Capacity building of staff and volunteers from the local community.
We produced a large set of underwater photos and videos of seagrass habitats and dugongs from the local coast.
We set up our marine education center called “Palk Bay Environmental Education Centre” in 2011.
We distributed more than 25000 awareness materials to the stakeholders in the last 15 years.
We organized (seminars/training/camps/field trips) on nonprofit basis for school students, university students, fisherfolks as well as government officials.
Continuous efforts for a few years in nature conservation awareness can change the mindset and support from local stakeholders.
Producing our photos, and videos and sharing our field experience in dugong rescue, release, and seagrass restoration are important tools.
The capacity building of staff and volunteers from the local community helped to spread awareness for more than a decade continuously.
Setting up our marine education campus close to the target area (seagrass beach) is a major advantage, which gives direct exposure to the visitors.
Wildlife disease surveillance in bats, rodents and non-human primates, was conducted in key interfaces where wildlife was most likely to interact (directly or indirectly) with livestock or humans. In Bolivia, key interfaces between wildlife and domestic animals and people included subsistence hunting by indigenous communities, captive wildlife settings (rescue centers and sanctuaries), peri-domestic settings (in and around human dwellings or fields), wildlife trade, extractive industries and livestock production areas. Additionally, wildlife disease surveillance was conducted in remote protected areas for comparison purposes, as well as during zoonotic disease outbreaks in people. By targeting healthy free-ranging wildlife and stressed or sick wildlife, we aimed to increase the possibilities of detecting known and novel viruses likely to impact human health and affect wildlife conservation.
To cover the different wildlife-human interphases identified, collaboration of trained stakeholders on wildlife diseases surveillance was fundamental. In some indigenous territories, sanctuaries and wildlife rescue centers, trainees collected wildlife samples and surveillance data as part of their rutinary activities. It was trained staff from a wildlife sanctuary, who detected and immediately notified a howler monkey mortality event, resulting in a prompt and efficient response when the mortality event occurred, preventing a spillover to the human population.
Prioritizing key interfaces where spillover could occur when carrying out disease surveillance creates the highest return on lowered risk. While surveillance cannot occur in every corner of a forest ecosystem, the areas in which humans could interact with wildlife inherently have the highest risk. By targeting surveillance efforts risk managers can capture the most pertinent information and create the most effective early warning systems. With proper surveillance systems in place, the Howler monkey mortality event was rapidly identified and the appropriate notification system was enacted.
In order to facilitate the detection of potential pathogens on samples collected during the PREDICT surveillance activities, low-cost viral family-level consensus PCR assays were implemented at PREDICT´s local partner laboratory (IBMB) for detection of 12 different viral families of public health importance in wildlife. Also, to increase the diagnostic capacity of the Ministry of Health reference laboratories, CENETROP and INLASA, both laboratories received the PREDICT PCR protocols to detects prioritized families of viruses of zoonotic potential (coronaviruses, hantaviruses, flaviviruses, arenaviruses, alphaviruses, paramyxoviruses, bunyaviruses, filoviruses, henipaviruses, orthomyxoviruses, poxviruses and rhabdoviruses). In addition, primers and synthetic universal controls were donated to those laboratories for the detection and discovery of known and novel viruses in wildlife.
The existence of laboratories with technical and physical capacities to run PCR tests in wildlife samples under save conditions, is crucial. Laboratory technicians should be interested and willing to implement new protocols and do research in collaboration to the field staff so that results can be properly interpreted.
Rapid detection and identification of pathogens is fundamental to prevent diseases at the wildlife-human interphase. Thus, establishing local laboratory capacities and identifying strategies for its sustainability in developing countries has to be a priority in any strategy aiming to improve human and animal (including wildlife) health.
Key stakeholders (including government personnel from public health, veterinary and biodiversity services; wildlife rescue centers staff; field veterinarians; biologists; laboratory technicians; and inhabitants of indigenous communities), were trained to survey for zoonotic disease spillover risk using the USAID PREDICT surveillance protocols. Training covered diverse topics including biosafety and PPE use, animal capture, sampling methods for various species of animals, data collection, sample packing and shipment, emergency preparedness, early warning systems, and safe laboratory operations. Woven into all training on surveillance tools was the emphasis on clear communication channels. All stakeholders were made aware of the specific agencies and individuals to liaise with regarding wildlife disease risk, so that the appropriate parties can be notified in a timely and effective manner.
In Bolivia, English is little spoken by public servers and community members, thus, having local trainers providing training in Spanish was fundamental to facilitate the learning process. Applying a One Health lens to the training broadened the surveillance system to include stakeholders that had not been a part of the process previously. This more inclusive approach from the early point of training resulted in an effective disease surveillance system.
In countries where education and actualization possibilities are limited, especially on novel topics such as wildlife health and surveillance, providing training possibilities to different stakeholders was a good strategy to generate local human capacities and awareness, while engaging people from different sectors and geographic areas to help on wildlife diseases surveillance. Following these trainings, the appropriate stakeholders were empowered with an understanding of what to do when wildlife is experiencing a disease event, who should take samples, the safety methods to implement, and the proper channels of communication. By implementing multi-disciplinary, inter-sectorial and inter-institutional trainings, dialogue, good communication and long-term collaborations among the diverse project´s partners from different sectors were facilitated, while the inclusion of the public health sector enabled the quick and efficient response to prevent a spillover event during the yellow fever epizooty detected on howler monkeys.
This building block involved facilitating dialogues between previously siloed actors: government agencies, research, local people, etc. When the gaps between sectors are addressed before solution implementation, diverse voices and opinions can be considered and the solutions developed are often more readily implemented and accepted.
All actors need to be open to collaboration, feedback, and input from sectors they may not have considered relevant to past projects.
Having a leading organization (the Wildlife Conservation Society in Bolivia) with a long history of work in the country, with a well based experience and good institutional relationships established, was crucial to facilitate the rapid implementation and good development of the PREDICT project activities. During the time that PREDICT was working in Bolivia (from 2010 to 2013), efforts were done to facilitate the establish a national Zoonoses Surveillance Plan where the Ministry of Health, the National Veterinary Service and the General Directorate of Biodiversity could ensure a permanent and sustainable collaboration among sectors to prevent zoonotic diseases in the country. Unfortunately, this goal couldn´t be accomplished in the project period, nevertheless, the basis for such collaborative framework were established and many inter-institutional and multi-disciplinary collaborations to investigate further non-human primates yellow fever events and rodent-borne diseases, took place in the following years as a result.
What gets measured, gets done. WinS monitoring and recognition systems strengthen large-scale WinS implementation.
The program supports the national integration of SDG indicators related to school health and WASH in Schools, as well as implementation of the WinS Three Star Approach – an integrated monitoring and recognition system that guides and encourages stepwise improvements and enables more specific WinS programme management. The programme further supports visualization of data using a WinS dashboard, regular reports and feedback mechanisms to schools.
WinS/Three Star monitoring and recognition system (Philippines, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Indonesia) has helped to move WinS improvments forward, but is a process that takes time and needs to involve the Ministry in the driver´s seat and partners willing to align and support
Data visualization via WinS dashboards can be a powerful tool to create transparency and allow schools, districts and provinces to develop a sense of where they stand relative to others - which in turn might motivate further improvements
The WinS/Three Star monitoring system in Cambodia and the availability of national data proved crucial to plan for COVID-19 response measures and support and illustrated the practical application of monitoring data for various ministries involved
Monitoring and self assessment serve as a strong capacity development measure - through careful design schools can be guided on what to prioritze and how to progress through improvements over time
