neroparent.blogg.se - Back of chimpanzee hand

1 Such employee health programs would provide preventive steps (vaccinations and health education), clinical assessment, and case management services to all protected-area conservation employees. The Great Apes/Human Health Working Group-part of the World Conservation Society’s Animal Health for the Environment and Development (AHEAD) initiative-has stated that “protecting employee health should be considered a ‘critical control point’ in terms of protecting the health of wildlife,” including conservation programs for wild apes. In Gombe, for example, both researchers and park personnel often live inside the park boundaries and occasionally have direct contact with chimpanzees. “The fewer the visitors, the less the risk of disease transmission.”Ĭonservation employees are another group that has been identified as a potential threat to chimpanzee health due to their close exposure-sometimes on a daily basis-to great apes. “Gombe is the most expensive national park in Tanzania to visit, and I’m glad of it,” Mushi says. Matatu Mushi, chief park warden in charge at Gombe National Park, says that Gombe can accommodate up to 1,500 tourists per year-but that he prefers to maintain the current average annual of 700 to 800 visitors. Recommendations from the authors of a study carried in Kibale National Park in Uganda-which suggests that chimpanzee populations there are exposed to human diseases through regular contact with both tourists and local residents-included educating tourists regarding appropriate vaccinations, requiring handwashing prior to entering chimpanzee habitats, using facemasks during sighting visits, and restricting the number of visitors allowed in the protected area. There may be several inexpensive ways that human-to-animal disease transmission can be reduced in protected areas. Reducing the Risk of Zoonotic Disease Transmission Other recommended solutions have not yet been implemented, including: establishing conservation employee-health programs in all great ape protected areas enforcing stricter rules regarding tourists and park personnel’s contact with chimpanzees and mobilizing the international conservation community, including the United Nations, to develop and enforce stronger and more-effectve protection policies for the remaining great ape populations across sub-Saharan Africa.

Maintaining ongoing scientific research efforts.

Conducting conservation outreach and education programs and.

Addressing the health and livelihood needs of local communities through community development projects.

Limiting the number of tourists each day who are allowed to observe chimpanzees.

Park staff, scientists, and locally based organizations are working to find solutions to a difficult problem: Can humans and chimpanzees coexist so that communities are able to maintain their livelihoods without compromising chimpanzees’ health and habitat requirements? Several actions to help protect chimpanzees against further population decline have already been taken. Although tracing a disease’s origin back to a specific host can be extremely difficult, scientists working in African national parks such as Gombe, Kibale (in Uganda), Parc de Volcans (Rwanda), and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest (Uganda) believe that humans are most likely the transmitters of diseases such as polio, pneumonia, measles, and scabies, which have affected the parks’ respective ape populations over the past four decades. Human-to-animal (zoonotic) disease transmission is another reason for worry. With more people living around the national park, surrounding forests have been cleared to make way for houses and farms, reducing the national park to a 35 square-kilometer island forest. The dramatic decline in the Gombe chimpanzee population is largely due to a significant reduction in suitable forested habitat for the great apes. The result has been a steady decline in the chimpanzee population residing in Tanzania’s smallest national park, from 150 chimpanzees in the 1960s to about 90 today (see Why the Chimpanzees of Gombe National Park Are in Jeopardy). (August 2006) The chimpanzees of Gombe National Park in Kigoma Region, Tanzania, have come under increased pressure from four decades of high human population growth in the region and an associated increase in human activity and disease.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Policy and Advocacy Communications Training.

Management of Complex Technical Programs.

Distilling Research for Non-Technical Audiences.

Adaptive Learning and Knowledge Management.

Family Planning, Maternal and Reproductive Health.