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Experts from East and Southern Africa have some grass roots
ideas for tackling the immense challenges Africa faces at
the wildlife / domestic animal / human health interface—
and they hope the West is listening.
 A
new book, Conservation and Development Interventions
at the Wildlife/Livestock Interface: Implications for Wildlife,
Livestock and Human Health, features some of the
most innovative conservation thinking in Africa today and
provides real-world examples of the critical role animal health
plays in both environmental conservation and economic development.
The book, and the related initiative the Wildlife Conservation
Society, the IUCN Species Survival Commission Veterinary Specialist
Group, and partners have helped launch (Animal Health for
the Environment And Development or AHEAD), focus on several
themes of critical importance to the future of wildlife, animal
agriculture and, of course, people: competition over grazing
and water resources, disease transmission, local and global
food security, zoonoses, and other potential sources of conflict
related to land-use decision-making and the reality of resource
constraints. Addressing these issues is of critical importance
to Africa’s people, to Africa’s wildlife heritage,
and to Africa’s global trading partners. Clearly, animal
health issues, and their implications for human health and
livelihoods, must be addressed by any regional development
or conservation strategies — including those involving
transboundary ‘peace parks’— if they are
to succeed. Few cross-sectoral solutions have been offered
until the publication of this book.
There is probably no region on earth where animal health
policies and their downstream consequences have had as tangible
an effect upon the biotic landscape as in Africa, southern
Africa in particular. In many parts of the world, land-use
choices are often driven by government (domestic and/or foreign)
incentives or subsidies that can favor unsustainable agricultural
practices over more ecologically sound natural resource management
schemes. Of course, livestock will remain critically important
both culturally and economically in much of the region. But
provided with a better understanding of disease epidemiology
and grasslands ecology, land-use planners can begin to take
the true costs associated with both disease control schemes
and environmental degradation related to livestock management
practices not well-suited to a particular ecosystem into account,
and therefore more often favor a return to natural production
systems. For example, in semi-arid parts of southern Africa,
foot and mouth disease control programs, implemented to support
beef production for an export market, may not be as profitable
or as environmentally sustainable as a return to multi-use
natural systems emphasizing endemic wildlife species (consumptively
and non-consumptively). When it comes to animal health programs
and policies in transboundary landscapes, where domestic as
well as wild animals have opportunities to cross international
borders, making the right decisions becomes even more critical.
Launching AHEAD with a focus on southern and East Africa,
particularly with the World Parks Congress being hosted by
South Africa, was indeed a very logical decision for us.
The benefits of a more holistic land-use management perspective
also extend to pastoralists, people who derive the bulk of
their subsistence directly from livestock – people who
are often marginalized in African economies and political
systems. By recognizing the ecological and economic significance
of pastoralist land-use practices, conservation and development
programs can lead to improved livelihoods via more strategic
and efficient mechanisms for animal (and human) health care
delivery, and for disease surveillance. Of course the extraordinary
benefits of sound management at the wildlife/livestock/human
interface reach well beyond pastoral communities. One need
only look at global travails with SARS or avian influenza,
foot and mouth disease, or “mad cow,” to see the
tremendous social and economic importance of these issues.
“We hope that conservation and development colleagues
from within and, as importantly, outside of the health science
professions will find this volume thought-provoking, insightful,
practical, and applicable to their daily work,” notes
Dr. Steve Osofsky, Senior Policy Advisor for Wildlife Health
for the Wildlife Conservation Society, long-time member of
the World Conservation Union’s Veterinary Specialist
Group, and the book’s editor. “As socioeconomic
progress demands sustained improvements in health for humans,
their domestic animals, and the environment, we hope we’ve
been successful in drawing attention to the need to move towards
a ‘one health’ perspective— an approach
that is the foundation of our conservation work, and a theme
pervading this unique volume.”
Osofsky, S. A., Cleaveland, S., Karesh, W. B., Kock,
M. D., Nyhus, P. J., Starr, L., and A. Yang, (eds.). 2005.
Conservation and Development Interventions at the Wildlife/Livestock
Interface: Implications for Wildlife, Livestock and Human
Health. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. xxxiii
and 220 pp.
Click here to download the complete
book:
Low-res
version, 6.5 MB
High-res version, 27 MB
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