Professeur Gerard Killeen
AXA Research Chair in Applied Pathogen Ecology, University College Cork, Republic of Ireland
Most of the world's biological carbon sequestration capacity and surviving biodiversity lies in the forests, woodlands, grasslands, and floodplains of low and middle-income tropical countries.1 Unfortunately, the ongoing degradation of these exceptionally biodiverse natural ecosystems has accelerated the emergence of novel pathogens that threaten us all.2 The rural communities living at the fringes of these biodiverse areas, where the risks of malaria, zoonoses and emerging infections are greatly exacerbated, are also among the most socioeconomically disadvantaged in the world.3 “Fortress conservation” strategies originating from the colonial era, which protect natural areas by rigorously excluding people from them, have often denied communities any meaningful benefit from the biodiversity they live alongside, while nevertheless exposing them to dangerous wild animals and infectious diseases. In contrast, several success stories of community-based conservation schemes across Africa, based on tourism and climate finance, and our own recent experiences working with a community-run Wildlife Management Area in southern Tanzania point the way forward.4 They illustrate how devolved conservation initiatives may enable rural African communities to simultaneously tackle extreme local poverty and local infectious disease burden, while at the same time protecting the whole world against pandemics, climate change and loss of our collective natural heritage.
