AHEAD
Update – May/June/July 2010
Dear AHEAD Colleagues:
*Welcome to the second AHEAD Update of
2010. Please note that URL hotlinks for many of the organizations
mentioned below can be found at http://www.wcs-ahead.org/links.html. News
on potential funding opportunities appears towards the end of
this Update.
MINI-TORIAL
"Transboundary Conservation and Transboundary
Animal Disease Management: Impasse or Opportunity?" –
A key economic driver behind existing and proposed transfrontier
conservation areas (TFCAs) in southern Africa is nature-based
tourism that seeks to maximize returns from marginal lands
in a sector where southern Africa enjoys a global comparative
advantage. Nature-based tourism (photographic, trophy
hunting, etc.) now contributes about as much to the gross domestic
product of southern Africa as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries
combined – a remarkable and relatively recent development
documented by the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment. However,
the management of wildlife and livestock diseases (including
zoonoses – diseases
transmissible between animals and people) within larger transboundary
landscapes remains unresolved and an emerging policy issue
of major concern to livestock production, associated access
to export markets, and other sectors, including public health,
in the region. Livestock farming is, of course,
an important traditional way for communities in sub-Saharan
Africa to build and maintain wealth, not to mention attain
food security. Essentially, the TFCA concept and
current internationally accepted approaches to the management
of transboundary animal diseases (TADs) are largely incompatible.
The TFCA concept promotes free movement of wildlife
over large geographic areas, whereas the present approach to
the control of TADs is to use vast fences to prevent movement
of susceptible animals between areas where TADs occur and areas
where they do not, and to similarly restrict trade in commodities
derived from animals. In short,
the incompatibility between (a)
current regulatory approaches for the control of diseases of
agro-economic importance and (b) the vision of vast
conservation landscapes without major fences needs to
be reconciled if SADC countries choose to pursue transfrontier
conservation initiatives in the interest of regional risk-diversification
of land-use options and livelihood opportunities. Economic
development that is based upon a diversified portfolio that
includes both livestock-based and wildlife-related activities
increases opportunities for resilience among southern African
communities and nations subject to threats like climate change.
Fortunately, new approaches to TAD management appear to be
on the horizon, and southern Africa may be uniquely positioned
as a global leader in terms of optimizing land-use choices
in the interest of sustainable economic development and biodiversity
conservation.
NEW CONSORTIA/COLLABORATIONS
*New OIE Collaborating Centre for
Integrated Training in Livestock and Wildlife Health and Management
established –
Since May 2009, the World Organisation for Animal Health
(OIE) has recognized the University of Pretoria Department
of Veterinary Tropical Diseases (DVTD) and its consortium partners
[University of Pretoria (Centre for Veterinary Wildlife Studies,
Department of Animal and Wildlife Sciences, Department of Agricultural
Economics, Extension and Rural Development); Onderstepoort
Veterinary Institute (OVI), SA; Animal Health Department of
the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp, Belgium;
National Institute for Communicable Diseases, SA; National
Department of Agriculture, SA] as a Collaborating Centre for
Training in Integrated Livestock and Wildlife Health and Management.
One of the major roles of the Collaborating Centre is to assist
the OIE in developing and offering training in the management
and health of livestock and game with special emphasis on sub-Saharan
Africa. The training will follow an integrated approach linking
animal and human health, animal production, marketing and trade
of animals and their products, land-use options, rural development,
conservation and environmental health. For more information,
please contact Koos Coetzer Koos.coetzer@up.ac.za and Renè Perridge
Rene.Perridge@up.ac.za.
*New 'One Health' program funded by the
EU – ICONZ is aimed at improving
human health and animal production in developing countries through Integrated
Control of Neglected Zoonoses in animals, based on scientific
innovation and public engagement. ICONZ unites
experts from 21 European and African partner institutes collaborating
to develop effective strategies for integrated control of neglected
zoonoses. Effective control in animals will require scientific
innovation to identify and (where necessary) develop tools for
diagnosis and for quantification of disease burdens. Public engagement
at all stakeholder levels will be needed to ensure that strategies
are appropriate for use in affected communities and are adopted
within the policy framework of affected countries. Neglected
zoonoses, such as anthrax, rabies, brucellosis, bovine TB, zoonotic
trypanosomiasis, echinococcosis, cysticercosis and leishmaniasis,
are major causes of ill-health in people in developing countries
in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Control of these diseases
in animals represents an opportunity to address the constraints
they pose to both human health and animal productivity, thereby
contributing to poverty reduction and the Millennium Development
Goals. For more information, please see http://www.iconzafrica.org/ or
contact ICONZ@ed.ac.uk.
NEW RESOURCES & PUBLICATIONS
*AHEAD Great Limpopo TFCA Seed Grant
Final Reports now downloadable as PDFs at http://www.wcs-ahead.org/gltfca_grants/grants.html.
All final reports are now in, so please feel free to take a
look at what Seed Grantees have accomplished during their one-year
projects. The links to PDF reports are at the bottom of each
project's abstract.
*AHEAD Great Limpopo TFCA Working Group
Seed Grantees featured in Worldwatch Institute's "Nourishing
the Planet" Analysis – The Worldwatch Institute's "Nourishing
the Planet" project is assessing the state of agricultural
innovations in Africa—from cropping methods to irrigation
technology to agricultural policy—with an emphasis on
sustainability, diversity, and ecosystem health, as well as
productivity. The project aims to both inform global efforts
to eradicate hunger and raise the profile of these efforts.
The project will also consider the institutional infrastructure
needed by each of the approaches analyzed, suggesting what
sort of companion investments are likely to determine success—from
local seed banks to processing facilities, from pro-poor value
chains to marketing bureaus. The "Nourishing the
Planet" project will culminate in the release of State
of the World 2011, a comprehensive report that will
focus on agriculture and will be accompanied by derivative
briefing documents, summaries, videos, and podcasts. This volume
will be a roadmap for foundations and international donors
interested in supporting the most effective agricultural development
interventions in various agroecological and socioeconomic contexts.
The project’s
findings will be disseminated to a wide range of influential
agricultural stakeholders, including government ministries,
agricultural policymakers, farmer and community networks, and
the increasingly influential non-governmental environmental
and development communities. See http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/archives/.
*New Report from Chatham House Royal Institute
of International Affairs- "Shifting from Emergency Response to
Prevention of Pandemic Disease Threats at Source" (April
2010) – Please see http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/publications/papers/view/-/id/854/ for
a freely downloadable PDF. This report, from a working
meeting recently held in London, recognizes wildlife conservation
as a bona fide sectoral partner, as well as emphasizes the
importance of looking further 'upstream' at the broader range
of factors contributing to disruptions in health at a range
of scales. The work was shepherded collaboratively by two key
programs within Chatham House (the Energy,
Environment and Development Programme and the Centre
on Global Health Security). It's a quick read and worth the
effort!
*AHEAD Great Limpopo Scenario Planning
Overview Report now available- "Current and Future Challenges
in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area - A Scenario
Planning Approach" (by Mike Murphree, January 2010)
is freely downloadable in PDF at http://www.wcs-ahead.org/workinggrps_limpopo.html.
*"Bovine Tuberculosis in Buffaloes,
Southern Africa," de Garine-Wichatitsky M., Caron
A., Gomo C., Foggin C., Dutlow K., Pfukenyi D., Lane E., Le
Bel S., Hofmeyr M, Hlokwe T. and A. Michel. Emerging Infectious
Diseases, May 2010. – See http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/16/5/884.htm.
Emergence of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in wildlife in southern
Africa has implications not only for the conservation of the
wildlife species affected but also for the health of humans
and livestock living at the wildlife–livestock–human
interface. Bovine TB in South Africa's Kruger National
Park was first found in African buffaloes (Syncerus
caffer)
in 1990 and likely entered the park by cattle-to-buffalo
transmission. Bovine TB infection has been spreading northward;
in 2003, infection was confirmed in a buffalo ≈60 km
south of the Limpopo River. In 2005, a case was confirmed only
6 km south of the river (D. Keet, unpub. data). In 2008, we
isolated Mycobacterium bovis from African buffaloes
in Zimbabwe.... The management implications of bovine
TB in buffaloes in Gonarezhou National Park are considerable.
Once bovine TB is established in a native free-ranging maintenance
host, eradication is unlikely. Evaluation of the prevalence
and distribution of the infection in wildlife and livestock
populations on the Zimbabwe side of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier
Conservation Area is urgently needed. Control options in wildlife
are limited, but chances of success are greater if control
measures are initiated at the early stage of disease spread
into a new area. Adequate risk-mitigation strategies should
be developed and implemented to reduce the risk for bovine
TB transmission to livestock and humans living at the periphery
of the unfenced Gonarezhou National Park. Failure to promptly
assess the situation and adopt appropriate measures would have
far-reaching conservation, economic, and public health consequences,
not only for Zimbabwe but also for the political and social
acceptance of the transfrontier conservation areas in southern
Africa.... This work was conducted within the framework
of the Research Platform 'Production and Conservation in Partnership'
(RP-PCP) and the Animal & Human Health for the Environment
And Development project...."
*Year 1 Draft Implementation Plan for AHEAD-Kavango-Zambezi initiative now
downloadable in PDF – please
see http://www.wcs-ahead.org/workinggrps_kaza.html.
*New WCS annotated bibliography on "Public
Health Impacts of Ecological Degradation" now downloadable
in PDF – please see
http://www.wcs-ahead.org/print.html.
*New IFPRI (International Food Policy
Research Institute) Analysis: "Climate Change Implications
for Water Resources in the Limpopo River Basin" – This
paper analyzes the effects of climate change on hydrology and
water resources in the Limpopo River Basin of southern Africa,
using a semi-distributed hydrological model and the Water Simulation
Module of the International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural
Commodities and Trade (IMPACT). The analysis focuses on the
effects of climate change on hydrology and irrigation in parts
of the four riparian countries within the basin: Botswana,
Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Results show that water
resources of the Limpopo River Basin are already stressed under
today’s climate conditions. Projected water management
and infrastructure changes are expected to improve the situation
by 2030 if current climate conditions continue into the future.
However, under the four climate change scenarios studied here,
water supply situations are expected to worsen considerably
by 2030. Assessing hydrological impacts of climate change is
crucial given that expansion of irrigated areas has been postulated
as a key adaptation strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa. Such expansion
will need to take into account future changes in water availability
in African river basins. To
download the complete report, see
http://www.ifpri.org/publication/climate-change-implications-water-resources-
limpopo-riverbasin?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=
Feed%25253A+ifpri-climate-change+%252528New+from+IFPRI+on+
climate+change%25252
*The Earthscan Reader in Poverty and Biodiversity
Conservation, 2010, edited by
Dilys Roe and Joanna Elliott – In
the last decade, biodiversity loss and persistent poverty in
developing countries have been recognised as major international
problems that require urgent attention. However, the nature
and scale of the links between these two problems, and between
efforts to address them, has been the subject of much heated
debate. Understanding the different elements of this debate
is critical if we are to move towards constructive solutions. This
Reader provides a guide to, and commentary on, the different
strands of the current conservation-poverty debate through
a selection of key readings from both the conservation and
development literature including policy documents, journal
articles and reports. The breadth of material will help readers,
including both students and professionals, to locate current
debates within their wider contexts. Free inspection copies
are available for university faculty and instructors. For
more information, see http://www.earthscan.co.uk/?tabid=101812.
*Community Management of Natural
Resources in Africa: Impacts, Experiences and Future Directions,
2009, by Dilys Roe, Fred
Nelson, and Chris Sandbrook – More
than twenty years have passed since community-based natural
resource management (CBNRM) rose to prominence in different
parts of Africa as a strategy for rural development, local
empowerment, and conservation. Led by new ideas about
the merits of decentralized, collective resource governance regimes,
and creative field experiments such as Zimbabwe's CAMPFIRE,
these community-based approaches evolved in a wide range
of ecological, political, and social contexts across Africa.
This review provides an unprecedented pan-African synthesis
of CBNRM, drawing on multiple authors and a wide range of
documented experiences from Southern, Eastern, Western and
Central Africa. The review discusses the degree to which
CBNRM has met poverty alleviation, economic development
and nature conservation objectives. In its concluding
chapter, the report suggests a way forward for strengthening CBNRM
and addressing key challenges in the years ahead. The document
is freely available in PDF and for sale in hard copy at http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=17503IIED.
*New technical disease cards available
on-line from the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) – Collaboration
among scientists from OIE Reference Laboratories around the
world and other relevant experts has led to an updated compilation
of 33 technical disease cards, including cards on 32 OIE-listed
priority diseases such as foot and mouth disease, highly pathogenic
avian influenza, Rift Valley fever and bluetongue. The update
was possible thanks to support from USDA-APHIS (USA). The
cards are currently available online in English (http://www.oie.int/eng/maladies/en_technical_diseasecards.htm)
and will also be translated into French and Spanish. In the
coming months, the OIE intends to publish an illustrated "Atlas
of Transboundary Animal Diseases" which will include technical,
disease-specific pictures. For non-technical audiences,
the OIE has also published information on selected animal diseases,
including zoonoses, in a "Questions and Answers" format
online in three languages at http://www.oie.int/eng/ressources/en_diseasecards.htm.
*May 2010 issue of Africa Geographic features
editorial by John Hanks on the need for collaborative networks
like AHEAD to solve today's complex environmental problems – see "Signing
Off" essay called "Joint Effort Required" on
p. 72 of the May issue on news stands now! For more information
on Africa Geographic, please see http://www.africageographic.com.
*Great Limpopo TFCA 'Wiki' Projects Table
continues to be updated – See http://www.wcs-ahead.org/gltfca_projects/projects.html.
Thanks to all who continue to enter their projects!
RECENT FORA OF INTEREST
*10th AHEAD (Animal & Human Health
for the Environment And Development) Great Limpopo Transfrontier
Conservation Area (GLTFCA) Working Group (WG) meeting held
February 24, 25 and 26, 2010 at the Casa do Sol Hotel & Conference
Center, Hazyview, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, with
more than 120 participants from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South
Africa. Last year’s meeting involved almost 80 participants,
and now we’ve exceeded 120! Needless to say, we were
quite (pleasantly) surprised at the growing regional demand
for the cutting-edge, practical type of information-sharing
and networking the AHEAD-GLTFCA initiative has come to
be known for. Many attendees told us this forum has become
one of southern Africa’s most important working fora
when it comes to conservation and development, and a number
of participants were also actively interested in the incipient AHEAD-Kavango-Zambezi initiative,
with many important side-meetings occurring late into the evening
hours!
This year’s meeting included three components: a one-day “One
Health” symposium of invited scientific papers and offered
poster papers; a second day of final reports on AHEAD-GLTFCA
Seed Grant projects, offered papers and posters; and a final
morning session on conceptual frameworks and improving interdisciplinary
/ transdisciplinary research and conservation and development
outcomes in the GLTFCA. Following an inspiring opening keynote
address by Dr. Jakob Zinsstag of the Swiss Tropical Institute
on Day 1, there were three Day 1 symposium sessions: Emerging
and Transboundary Diseases; Ecology, Land-Use Mosaics and
Transboundary Natural Resource Management; Economics and
TFCAs; and a concluding discussion session on One
Health.
The second day included an incredible array of final reports
from all of the AHEAD-GLTFCA Seed
Grant projects (http://www.wcs-ahead.org/gltfca_grants/grants.html).
As an added highlight, the Bennde
Mutale Community Theatre Group performed one of their plays focused on conservation
and development challenges in the Great Limpopo TFCA, work that
was supported by one of the Seed Grants. The final morning
included a working session on conceptual frameworks and how,
going forward, the AHEAD-GLTFCA initiative can best continue
to contribute to supporting interdisciplinary applied research
and management needs in the GLTFCA. Following the closing
of the formal meeting, a smaller group of stakeholders was assembled
(as planned in advance) to evaluate the future niche of the AHEAD-GLTFCA
initiative, and the roles SANParks and other key partners such
as the University of Pretoria would likely need to take-on for
sustained success. This planning meeting was timely and productive,
and the implementation of the agreed actions will ensure the
ongoing progression toward full regional ownership of the AHEAD-GLTFCA
initiative, allowing WCS to play a less active role, incrementally,
over the next several years- the type of catalysis originally
envisioned.
PDFs of most of the PowerPoint presentations from the diverse
agenda of the 10th AHEAD-GLTFCA WG meeting
are now available online at http://www.wcs-ahead.org/workinggrps_limpopo.html,
and the meeting photo gallery is also now posted. The final minutes
from the 10th meeting of the AHEAD-Great
Limpopo TFCA Working Group will be emailed to AHEAD-GLTFCA
WG members
and posted on the website in PDF as soon as they are finalized.
Special thanks go to our South African hosts, and our sponsors
(including the Rockefeller Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation,
as well as IUCN).
UPCOMING MEETINGS / CALLS FOR PAPERS
*EcoHealth 2010 Conference: 18-20 August,
2010, London, United Kingdom –The London
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is delighted
to invite you to London for the 2010 EcoHealth Conference on
the theme: Global EcoHealth Challenges; Multiple Perspectives. This
is the third biennial conference of the International
Association for Ecology and Health (IAEH). Association
members have special rates for this and all EcoHealth conferences,
and we invite all conference participants to become members
of the IAEH. Our aims are:
– To bring together academic institutions,
government bodies and civil society groups to discuss jointly
the major challenges facing people, wildlife and ecosystems
internationally at the end of this first decade of the 21st
Century;
– To place a major emphasis on the perspectives of peoples
most vulnerable to the harms of ecosystem destruction, including
indigenous peoples, women, and young people. For more
information, please see http://www.ecohealth2010.org/.
*Call for Papers: "Towards a New
Knowledge for Scale Sensitive Governance of Complex Systems," meeting
to be held November 10-12, 2010, Wageningen, the Netherlands –Wageningen
University and Research Centre invites abstracts, which should
be 300-400 words and will be reviewed for originality, scientific
merit and relevance to the conference themes. A condition of
submission is that, if accepted, one of the authors will present
the paper at the conference. Policies have many impacts
on environmental and human processes at different spatial and
temporal scales. Climate change, biodiversity, energy consumption,
water resource management, and food security are a few of the
many examples illustrating the complex multi-scale interactions
within and between environmental and human processes. This
observation fits well within a long history of disappointments
in policy and management related to our environment and indicates
that scale sensitive governance approaches are required. Abstracts
are due May 31, 2010, and should be sent to scaling.governance@wur.nl.
Please see http://www.scalinggovernance.wur.nl/UK/Conference for
more information.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
*Global Health Academy at The University
of Edinburgh launches a new Distance Learning course in Biodiversity,
Wildlife and Ecosystem Health for which scholarships
are available – Five Global Health
Academy Masters Scholarships are available from the University
(2 for MSc by research and 3 for E-Distance Learning courses)
for 2010-11. Anyone interested in applying for International
Animal Heath or Emerging and Neglected Infectious Diseases on-line
courses or in undertaking a residential Public Health Masters,
Centre for International Public Health Policy (CIPHP) please
see http://www.globalhealthacademy.ed.ac.uk/ for
further details. Information on the various MSc programs is
available as follows:
– MSc in Biodiversity, Wildlife and Ecosystem Health - http://www.web.mvm.ed.ac.uk/
– MSc
in International Animal Health - http://www.internationalanimalhealth.ed.ac.uk/
– MSc in Emerging and Neglected Infectious Diseases - http://www.enid.mvm.ed.ac.uk/
*International Foundation for Science
(IFS) Research Grants, applications due December 30, 2010 – Applications
for IFS Research Grants are welcome from young scientists in
developing countries to do research on the sustainable management,
use or conservation of biological or water resources. This
broad statement covers natural science and social science research
on agriculture, soils, animal production, food science, forestry,
agroforestry, aquatic resources, natural products, water resources,
etc. Applications are accepted all year and are to be
made on an IFS Application Form. For more information, please
see the links below or contact program administrators directly
via http://www.ifs.se/About/contact_us.asp:
http://www.ifs.se/Programme/eligibility.asp
http://www.ifs.se/Forms/how_to_apply.asp
http://www.ifs.se/Forms/list_of_all_forms.asp
*Eco EID Pre-announcement for Call for
Proposals for South East Asia – In collaboration
with CIDA and AusAID, the IDRC Ecohealth team is pleased to
circulate a Pre-announcement for the Ecohealth Emerging Infectious
Diseases Research Initiative (Eco EID) Call for Proposals for
South East Asia. The Call is being developed by the IDRC
Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health Program Initiative and
the Global Health Research Initiative. CA$5 million will
be available via a Call for Proposals to be launched in mid-2010
for up to four multi-country ecohealth research projects. This
will be an open competition for projects of four years duration. Research
funded through the Eco EID initiative's Call for Proposals
in South East Asia will apply an ecohealth approach to improve
the understanding of the environmental, societal, and economic
interactions associated with development that predispose the
region to disease emergence and spread. It will also assist
in the development of intervention strategies that sustainably
prevent or limit the spread of emerging infectious diseases.
For additional information, please see http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-151369-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
or contact EcoEID@idrc.ca.
If you have items for the next AHEAD Update, please
just let us know – thanks.
"What is AHEAD?" Animal & Human Health
for the Environment And Development was launched at the
2003 IUCN World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa. By
assembling a ‘dream team’ of veterinarians, ecologists,
biologists, social and economic scientists, agriculturists, wildlife
managers, public health specialists and others from across East
and southern Africa, the Wildlife Conservation Society, IUCN,
and a range of partners tapped into some of the most innovative
conservation and development thinking on the African continent
– and AHEAD was born.
Since then, a range of programs addressing conservation, health,
and concomitant development challenges have been launched with
the support of a growing list of implementing partners and donors
who see the intrinsic value of what WCS has called the “One
World, One Health” approach. AHEAD is a convening, facilitative mechanism, working to create enabling
environments that allow different and often competing sectors
to literally come to the same table and find collaborative ways
forward to address challenges at the interface of wildlife health,
livestock health, and human health and livelihoods. We convene
stakeholders, help delineate conceptual frameworks to underpin
planning, management and research, and provide technical support
and resources for projects stakeholders identify as priorities.
AHEAD recognizes the need to look at health and disease not in
isolation but within a given region's environmental and socioeconomic
context.
All the best,
Steve
Steve Osofsky, DVM
Wildlife Conservation Society
Director, Wildlife Health Policy
WCS AHEAD Coordinator
sosofsky@wcs.org
ph/fax: 1-703-716-1029
www.wcs-ahead.org
Please see the News Archives
page for previous AHEAD updates. |
