National | PANORAMA

West and Central Africa

Wildlife Mortality Monitoring Network for Human and Wildlife Health

Lucy

Keatts

Building Trust with Local Communities

Creating sustainable networks for reporting and response to wildlife mortality

Local Capacity Building for Safe Sampling and Testing of Wildlife Carcasses

Implementation of Effective Control Strategies for Disease Spillover From Livestock to Wildlife

Multi-sectoral coordination, and communication and coordination with local communities, are essential to clearly and simply share findings of surveillance and why specific management strategies have been developed and are recommended for implementation. This would include, for example, vaccination of domestic livestock for PPR in areas where their range overlaps with that of significant wildlife populations, protecting livestock health, and reducing the risk of spillover to wild ungulates.

Financial support for vaccination or other management strategies; good coordination and communication between sectors; good communication and relationships with local communities of herders; access to vaccines and appropriate storage capability; human capacity to implement effective vaccination campaign.

Open lines of communication between relevant government sectors and between government and communities as well as and their understanding of the disease epidemiology is essential to implement effective disease control strategies that address the concerns of all stakeholders involved.

Documentation and dissemination of results

Local Capacity Building for Management of Disease at the Wildlife-Livestock Interface

Many nations have limited funding for wildlife health surveillance so developing this capacity and the knowledge of wildlife health and disease epidemiology as it pertains to the wildlife-livestock interface at the local, provincial and central levels is vital for sustained surveillance and for the true value of this surveillance to be realized including its use to implement wildlife-friendly interventions that also support improved livestock health.

External and governmental financial support for development of wildlife health sector including surveillance and diagnostics; interest of host government to develop wildlife health capacity; time and personnel availability to be trained

Developing local capacity for wildlife health surveillance is critical for sustainability of such efforts and sustained One Health benefits

Documentation and dissemination of results

Collection of baseline wildlife health data

Conducting monitoring and surveillance in wildlife (both healthy populations and those showing signs of disease) and routine serological testing for exposure to pathogens frequently shared with livestock as well as more in depth diagnostics e.g. PCR/ NGS on sick/ dead animals support comprehensive understanding of the circulation of pathogens in these populations, geographic and temporal distributions and time-lines of exposure and non-exposure of different populations. Integration of this data with livestock surveillance data contributes to understanding of the epidemiology of diseases and the dynamics of disease outbreaks, including the potential source, to implement effective science-based control strategies.

Financial support for surveillance; human capacity for surveillance, and data management and analysis; access to sites to conduct surveillance; cold chain/ sample storage capacity; capacity for accurate field and/ or laboratory based diagnostics; good coordination between environment/ wildlife and livestock health sectors; openness for result sharing by host government

Coordination and support from the government is essential from the beginning to ensure support for surveillance, understanding of what is being implemented and the goals/ outcomes, good coordination between sectors, engagement to build local capacity and export samples for testing where necessary, host government willingness to be open about diagnostic findings and motivation to amend disease control strategies based on findings. Wildlife health is under-funded in all countries compared with livestock and human health sectors and external donor support is almost certainly required for success of such programs in LMICs and MICs. It takes considerable time and patience to develop truly functional, localized wildlife health surveillance networks, integrated with other national surveillance networks

Documentation and dissemination of results

1. Multi-sectoral coordination for monitoring diseases at the wildlife-livestock interface

Building partnerships across the emergency management, animal health and environment/ wildlife sectors is an important first step for planning and implementation of wildlife surveillance to ensure results are used to guide science-based policy and disease control mechanisms. Convening multi-sectoral meetings to open discourse and share information on the challenges and opportunities to monitoring and management of disease at the wildlife-livestock interface, and to develop smooth communications and trust between and across sectors as well as multi-sectoral surveillance and response networks is critical.

Financial support for coordination meetings; openness of host government to coordination between environment/ wildlife and livestock health sectors; time and patience

Documentation and dissemination of results

North and Central Asia

Integrated livestock and wildlife disease surveillance and response supports Saiga conservation and livelihoods in Mongolia

Lucy

Keatts

1. Multi-sectoral coordination for monitoring diseases at the wildlife-livestock interface

Collection of baseline wildlife health data

Local Capacity Building for Management of Disease at the Wildlife-Livestock Interface

Implementation of Effective Control Strategies for Disease Spillover From Livestock to Wildlife

North and Central Asia

Integrated livestock and wildlife disease surveillance and response supports Saiga conservation and livelihoods in Mongolia

Lucy

Keatts

1. Multi-sectoral coordination for monitoring diseases at the wildlife-livestock interface

Collection of baseline wildlife health data

Local Capacity Building for Management of Disease at the Wildlife-Livestock Interface

Implementation of Effective Control Strategies for Disease Spillover From Livestock to Wildlife

North and Central Asia

Integrated livestock and wildlife disease surveillance and response supports Saiga conservation and livelihoods in Mongolia

Lucy

Keatts

1. Multi-sectoral coordination for monitoring diseases at the wildlife-livestock interface

Collection of baseline wildlife health data

Local Capacity Building for Management of Disease at the Wildlife-Livestock Interface

Implementation of Effective Control Strategies for Disease Spillover From Livestock to Wildlife

Ensuring social inclusion and involvement of indigenous women and youth

Throughout the project, consultations and participatory approaches and free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) were applied. In particular, local community associations were created and strengthened in close coordination with formal organisational structures (community councils for development). New employment opportunities were generated, especially for Q'eqchi' Maya youth and women, covering the value chain of production. An Institutional Technical Team was established at national level, which was responsible for coordinating and promoting actions in accordance with the National Strategy for the Cocoa Value Chain. The technical team involved the government of Guatemala, local NGOs and actors involved in the cocoa value chain. A total of 898 producers and technicians developed technical skills for sustainable agricultural and manufacturing practices (20 per cent women).

As part of the intervention, producer associations for the collection, processing and transport of cocoa as well as the marketing and technical assistance services for producers were promoted. The established plantation management system and strengthened organisational and administrative capacities of associations and producers contributed to the success of the project.

The inclusion of traditional knowledge and involvement of Indigenous communities, and especially women and youth, increased equity and contributed to the success of the NbS intervention in terms of improved livelihoods and poverty reduction. Particularly young women and men profited and became recognised leaders, as they got involved in technical, managerial and administrative activities. In 2018, the initiative won the IUCN-Impact Award in the category of Social Inclusion, celebrating the engagement strategy of women and youth.

A robust business model considering the entire cocoa value chain

While the Nature-based Solution intervention focussed on changing land-uses towards good agricultural and manufacturing practices for cocoa agroforestry systems in the Lachuá Ecoregion, the project placed emphasis on developing strategies that cover the full cocoa value chain. This included production, processing, marketing, organisational capacities of local farmers and associations, support and involvement of technical assistance and services from key organisations as well as increased access to public and private funding mechanisms and investments. A financial and economic analysis was carried out as part of the project to develop a comprehensive business model for cocoa cultivation by community associations and Fundalachuá. The innovative business model relied on the creation of capacities and human capital for good agricultural and manufacturing practices, without large capital investments, infrastructure, equipment or supplies. Good governance and access to financing was ensured through producer associations, including first level organisations for storage and transport of products and second level organisations for marketing and technical assistance services to producers, including supporting the negotiation with international markets interested in high quality product.

Besides the agricultural sector, tourism and private sectors were involved throughout the project to facilitate the mainstreaming of good practices into business models. Actions at local level ensured tailored approaches to local circumstances, while actions at national level contributed to the mainstreaming of organisational and technical capacities across the region. Further, the National Strategy for the Cocoa Agro-chain positioned the cocoa produced in the international market value chain.

The development of a robust and agreed business model in partnership with relevant actors, not only secured the sustainability of the intervention, but also created new opportunities to enter national and international markets. It promoted traditional productive activity in the region through a paradigm shift in the way crops are managed (pruning, fertilisation, shade, etc.) and in how added value is created (grain fermentation and quality management). Due to the improved quality of the cocoa, it was possible to increase the price from USD 2.28 to USD 4.50 per kg. The business model created at least 315 permanent jobs (an increase by 289 percent in comparison to the baseline) and increased the average daily income per capita by 342 percent. It served as a source of guidance on what, how and when to produce, how to sell the product and how to finance activities. Besides business plans for increasing market access for cocoa products, the project also supported the identification of other sources of income, including through tourism.