Throughout the first months of 2020, there was an overwhelming amount of confusion and stress surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. In the face of this drastically changing reality, the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group was able to come together quickly and efficiently to identify researchers’ needs, gather relevant information, and create an essential set of guidelines. A rapid mobilization of the global network of great ape specialists was able to translate the publication into multiple languages, disseminating this crucial tool to people working in the field across multiple regions.
The Primate Specialist Group’s active and participatory membership was key to their successful prioritization of work in the face of an unprecedented and deadly pandemic.
As the COVID-19 crisis swept the globe many people sought further purpose in their work. The members of the Primate Specialist Group were motivated by the sense of urgency gripping all walks of life and wanted to take action in a positive way. These guidelines were essential not only for people to safely continue field work, but also for the members looking to find meaning during a particularly bleak time.
There was existing guidance on how to observe and interact with great apes while protecting both their health and that of humans. While previous guidelines addressed other respiratory diseases, there were no COVID-19 specific protocols as research and information were only just beginning to become available. The working group gathered intelligence from a wide array of sources, ensuring they were capturing the most up to date and relevant details, and synthesized it into a cohesive, clear document.
The guidelines previously published by the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group, and the group’s passionate memberships, were key enabling factors to the working group’s ability to quickly create COVID-19 specific protocols. Being able to draw directly from peer-reviewed resources streamlined the process and allowed the group to confidently create new guidelines despite the lack of COVID-19 information available at the time.
The working group drew knowledge from beyond just great ape primatologists. While their expertise was a guiding factor throughout the process, inviting other people to contribute ensured a diversity of knowledge bases were captured in the guidelines. The peer-reviewed COVID-19 information available was still lacking at the time, and broadening the contributing pool of experts lead to a more comprehensive and useful set of guidelines.
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.
Until recently there was minimal agricultural precedent or appreciation for farmed reptiles, and most people strongly preferred wild-caught alternatives. Vietnam has since celebrated the success of the reptile farming industry, and the general public are now well informed about the industry and the end products. Farmed reptile products are available in most wet markets and on the menu of many mainstream restaurants. A remaining challenge is that there has been no attempt to regulate or inform customers of what farmers feed to their reptiles. Wild-sourced animals (e.g., rodents captured in rice fields), commerical feeds (e.g., fish pellets), and waste protein from agri-food chains (e.g., still born pigs and male chicks from hatcheries) are the most common feed types. The risks associated with these feed inputs need further research and evaluation. The risk of wild laundering of reptiles also remians, but the scale and likelihood have been significantly reduced through more lucrative production models (e.g., selective line breeding to improve production genetics) and improved law enforcement.
Institutional support, workshops, social media, and government media outlets (e.g., national television). Cheap smartphones and access to the internet.
Communication has been limited to direct social, economic, and nutritional benefits. The public remains largely unaware of the less tangible benefits of reptile farming such as those related to emerging global challenges (e.g., zoonotic disease, climate change, and environmental sustainability). Science-based content via social media platforms can be a powerful education tool for complex, cross-cutting themes. Ongoing research and development of health and veterinary aspects of reptile farming are required to aligne with international livestock standards.
