From the conception of the PREDICT project through to today’s day-to-day laboratory management, partners working effectively across sectors has been an essential building block. The PREDICT project brought conservation and health nonprofits and Malaysian federal and local government departments together to collaborate on zoonotic disease surveillance. Over the last 10 years the WHGFL has been able to expand into new surveillance, genetic, and forensic research as capacity is built through open and productive collaboration. The Sabah Wildlife Department has scaled up their involvement increasing their funding for the WHGFL each year and leading the management committee. The management committee ensures the multiple projects utilizing the small laboratory are coordinated and organized, especially as new projects come on board and the scope of work expands.
A One Health approach was employed at every step, ensuring priorities of different sectors were heard and respected. Siloed sectors were brought together to meet a shared goal of conservation through zoonotic disease screenings that promoted human and wildlife health. By highlighting the interconnection of human, animal, and environmental health, collaboration, instead of competition, was emphasized and promoted. Wildlife disease screening results provided Sabah State Health Department with actionable data to inform risk mitigation policies at the state level.
Multiple partners were involved with the renovation of an empty building to create a laboratory meeting international biosafety and biosecurity standards, and while the initial investment was from outside sources, in recent years local leadership has taken on a larger role in management. The success of the PREDICT project demonstrated the importance of the laboratory to local and global research efforts, earning a larger investment, both financial and bandwidth-wise, from local leaders. This has allowed budding partnerships to further develop and deepen over time.
When the PREDICT project began working in Sabah there was no laboratory dedicated to wildlife sample testing that met the necessary standards for biosafety. The financial and logistical hurdles of building the necessary infrastructure from the ground up were too high for this project, making a brand-new lab not an option. Instead, SWD and CM identified an existing empty building belonging to SWD in Sabah and renovated it to meet international laboratory standards, as detailed in the Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories Guidelines (6th Ed.) for Biosafety Containment Level 2 requirements, to establish the WHGFL. These upgrades saved the project time and money, allowing samples to safely remain in Sabah for virus screening and creating a state-of-the-art lab for SWD and DGFC to pursue genetic and forensic research.
While the existence of current physical infrastructure that can be built upon is the most important factor, support from the Sabah state government, Sabah Wildlife Department and Dr Stuart D. Blacksell from MORU enabled the necessary changes to be carried out.
As vital as a biosafe and bio-secured laboratory is for any area aiming to do disease screenings, most locations do not have the space, capacity, or resources to build the required infrastructure from the ground up. While facing this logistical and financial challenge, the project team found innovative solutions using the resources currently available in-country and low-cost sustainable solutions to create this state-of the art facility. When designing a laboratory, it is important to consider exactly what samples, activities and processes will be conducted in the lab, conduct a full risk, and gap assessment and design a facility to manage these risks and hazards tailored to your specific needs.
Public awareness on environmental and biodiversity conservation
Community buy-in and participation are key building blocks for project success and sustainability. These depend in large measure on community awareness of the project itself, as well as its intended benefits, beneficiaries, and long-term viability. Raising awareness around new protected areas, revised laws/regulations, community conservation agreements, etc. is also a key element of effective enforcement and interdiction, and assuring community adherence to conservation plans.
Creation and dissemination of messages that are comprehensible to locals, using appropriate vernacular (including media such as radio that do not require universal literacy)
Increased awareness of the benefits of environmental conservation increases community feelings of ownership of planted seedlings
Local community authorities play a vital role in involving community members and consensually ensuring adherence to agreed regulations
Deforestation and loss of biodiversity take place in situations where there is a lack of awareness of the importance of forests for biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihoods among local communities
Limited alternative livelihoods sources drive unsustainable utilization of forest resources and other factors including weak enforcement capacities to limit wildlife and forest crimes
Communities are willing to change when provided with viable options as was evident from the adoption of SRI rice production resulting to reduced pressure to encroach on forest land for agricultural production
For initiatives to be effective, viable and sustainable, economic alternatives to using forest resources need to be provided, to compensate for losses incurred due to restrictions imposed on the use of the forest resources
The overall project objective is "to facilitate a transformative shift towards sustainable land and forest management in the forested landscape of Savannakhet Province in order to secure the critical wildlife habitats, conserve biodiversity and maintain a continuous flow of multiple services including quality water provision and flood prevention." This transformative shift to sustainability is predicated on the provision of adequate alternatives to unsustainable resource use. Previous unsustainable usages of the project's forested landscapes (e.g. logging, poaching) will not cease unless replacement livelihood activities provide an economic benefit and improve income generation for participating villagers.
Integration with other project activities (e.g. if improved animal husbandry methods could keep cattle and buffalo near villager’s homes, then the manure from these animals could be collected and processed to make organic fertilizer which could be used for home gardens and rice production)
Recruitment of support specialists
Planning and preparation
Needs assessments
SWOT analyses
Monitoring and Evaluation
Conservation contracts
The quality of livestock extension activities is vital
Livelihood activities need to be integrated with all project activities, rather than siloed
Targets and indicators should be adhered to
Activities should be designed to identify how they address the overall goals and objectives of the project
Community Conservation Agreements are a negotiated exchange of benefits in return for changes in resource use, depending on verified performance. Once a village development committee and government authorities formalize a Conservation Agreement, it is used as the framework for all development activities within the project, and integrated with land-use planning. Benefits are channeled through village development funds, and include support for village development committees in managing the funds by building village level capacity, thereby ensuring that appropriate access and benefit sharing provisions are included in all CAs.
Community engagement
Village institution development
Livelihood / income support
Wages (training & equipment) for conservation jobs (patrolling, monitoring, reforestation)
Investment in social services and infrastructure
Investment in livelihood activities
Project teams need to monitor and assess the compliance and performance of the villages with the CAs
CAs need to be renegotiated when necessary to ensure long-term suitability and community engagement
Incentives for high performance (and disincentives for low performance) should be built in.
Scientists are often criticised for their inability to communicate research expeditions and outcomes to public audiences, both in the nations where they operate and also internationally. Nekton was founded on the principle of bringing science and story-telling together to amplify host nation scientists as leading voices and ambassadors. During the expedition, the first descents were undertaken by Seychellois scientists. Through partnership with Seychellois media, content was produced, published and broadcast within Seychelles. In partnership with Associated Press and Sky, content from the expedition was published and broadcast in 140 countries globally including 18,000 articles (in print and digital) and over 4000 video broadcast packages. These included the first live subsea documentary series, newscasts and Presidential Address by the President of Seychelles, Danny Faure.
Flexibility in planning daily activities
Mutual understanding of science and media needs and activities
Narratives owned by the host nation country
Partnerships with host nation and international media partners.
Pre-familiarisation of science and communication team is imperative to ensure an easy workflow
Science and Communication plans need to be co-produced together to identify and then create content that reflects these ambitions.
Workflow analysis, Partnership building, and Overall planning
Years of research and conservation practices have not only stressed the importance of biodiversity data but also revealed the flaws of current workflow, ranging from inefficient data management, lack of data integration, to limited public-accessible data applications. Moreover, such workflow is mainly man-powered and often involves a lot of repetitive work, taking up huge amount of conservationists’ time.
Following the rapid development of technology, we have gradually realized the potential of technology to bring solutions to our “pain points” for long. In order to utilize technology tools in places in most needs, a systematic review and analysis of the current workflow was conducted to identify bottlenecks with high priorities and the possible solutions. The contemplation began in May 2018 and was materialized starting from Jun 2019 after potential technical partners emerged. Based on the systematic workflow analysis and close partnership, we made a step-by-step plan, aiming at developing modules one by one, considering our limited resource and manpower (e.g., from community-based camera trap monitoring assistant app, to BiA tool, to citizen science data visualization platform, to camera trap data management system).
A systematic review of current workflow and gap analysis that indicates where technology tools can help
Reliable and supportive technical partners (through trial and error)
An ambitious yet practical plan
Engaging various colleagues in the discussion of workflow and technical solutions is helpful to collect more valuable ideas.
Different technical companies have different work styles. Choose the ones that suit your work style and values.
To enable automatic and instant biodiversity impact assessment enquiry, the BiA tool has been developed to facilitate enquiry services for land planners and other interested parties via Azure platform. The BiA tool works by overlaying the enquiry site or region (or existing construction projects) with multiple geographic layers including species distribution and protected area range to investigate if the site or region is within certain distance (e.g., 3 km, 5 km) from and may cause impact on endangered species habitat and/or protected areas. The assessment reports illustrate ecological and environmental risks of construction projects for decision-makers and could hopefully promotes them to take biodiversity into consideration.
A brief timeline of the BiA tool:
Apr-Jun 2020: team formation, requirement communication, system development plan
Jul-Sept 2020: tool development
Oct 2020: trial test, application and dissemination
(in preparation) Apr-Sept 2022: system upgrade
Years of data collection accumulation and constant thinking of data application approaches.
Theoretical & technical basis accumulated from long-term research and conservation practice.
Promotion of the BiA tool to its potential users, like governments, investors, and enterprise.
Keeping track of tool operation and user feedback to devise further upgrade of the tool.
Data application is the foremost step in the whole data workflow, where the data turns into valuable information for stakeholders. Effective data application reports should bear the audience in mind (e.g., being concise and focused).
The complete of development and releasing is not the last step for a tool. Finding potential users and persuading them to use the tool is also very important. A tool has to be used to provide the most value.
Spatial and temporal campaign page displaying gingko investigation results
Shan Shui Conservation Center
Species records in Yunnan province
Shan Shui Conservation Center
[GIF] Home page and spatial campaign page (e.g., squirrel investigation results)
Shan Shui Conservation Center
[GIF] Spatial and temporal campaign page (e.g., gingko investigation results)
Shan Shui Conservation Center
[GIF] Data visualization on different administrative division levels (e.g., Zhejiang Province)
Shan Shui Conservation Center
During nature watch campaigns, citizen scientists are invited to observe and record wildlife timely, which not only strengthens the connection between citizens and nature but also serves as a promising species distribution data source. Species record data collected by citizen scientists via online questionnaire automatically flows into the visualization platform database (after data cleaning and manually periodically check) and turns into intuitive and attractive visualized charts and maps (two types: spatial, spatial and temporal) via Power BI. The platform, with both web and mobile version, provides real-time feedback to citizen scientists’ nature watch efforts, boosting their sense of accomplishment and motivating their future participation in nature watch activities. Moreover, since the platform integrates multiple nature watch campaigns with links to web articles about specific analysis of each campaign, it offers a broad range of biodiversity knowledge and enables “virtual nature watch” for citizens to get to know wildlife in other regions.
A brief timeline of the platform:
Jan-Feb 2021: form team, analyze analysis, make blueprint
Mar-Jun 2021: develop database and platform
Jul-Aug 2021: trial test
Sept 2021: go live and promotion
A well-designed data-collection questionnaire and automatic data cleaning mechanism to ensure data quality and a manually periodically check (normally once a season) to ensure data reality.
Visualization methods selection and aesthetic design with the engagement of citizen scientists.
PowerBI technology.
Citizen scientist WeChat community operation and maintenance.
As a public outreach product, it would never be too much for polishing contents and aesthetic design to make the platform user-friendly and attractive.
Engaging users in the planning stage and collecting their thoughts is very helpful for identifying user needs.
Questionnaires are needed to be well-designed and citizen scientists are needed to be well-trained before recording data. Otherwise, it’s easy to cause data loss.
