[imagesource: Nico Jacobs]

Dolphins in Venice!

Goats roaming the streets of Wales!

Birds in Langebaan!

OK, the first of those is fake news, but it is true that the clarity of the water in Venice’s canals improved dramatically, and some bird species have returned.

I’m sure you’ve chuckled at the #wearethevirus memes doing the rounds (more here), and worldwide, lockdowns have seen greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution slashed around the world, but it’s not all good news on the environmental front.

As The Conversation points out, “most of the world’s biodiversity is found in the low-income countries and emerging economies of the Global South, and in such places, the economic impacts of the pandemic are likely to be devastating for the natural world”.

Whereas many developed countries have social safety nets in place, that protect their poor and vulnerable, the same cannot be said of developing countries.

The resulting poverty and vulnerability may well cause great harm to the environment:

Exploiting natural resources is often the only option for the destitute. Wild animals, fish and forest trees are rarely owned by anyone, and they are found in rural areas where policing is difficult. What’s more, there are often few technical barriers to exploiting them – you don’t need a degree to be able to wield an axe. So, when people are left with nothing, they can always find something to eat or sell in the forest…

At the same time, the surveillance and management of our precious wild places is considerably weakened. Governments are understandably preoccupied with public health, so there is less law enforcement in rural areas. Meanwhile, the shutdown of global tourism has pulled the financial rug out from thousands of protected areas, leaving them without an operational budget for anti-poaching surveillance and other activities.

That has proven to be the case with regards rhino poaching in southern Africa.

The New York Times wrote a piece last week, titled ‘Poachers Kill More Rhinos as Coronavirus Halts Tourism to Africa’, and the sad reality of people turning to desperate measures to survive is in full view.

Let’s hear from Nico Jacobs, founder of Rhino 911, a nonprofit that provides emergency helicopter transport for rhinoceroses in need of rescue in South Africa:

Since South Africa announced a national lockdown on March 23 to limit the spread of the new coronavirus, Mr. Jacobs has had to respond to a rhino poaching incident nearly every day. On March 25, he rescued a 2-month-old white rhino calf whose mother had been killed by poachers. The next day he was called to rescue two black rhinos whose horns had been hacked off by poachers. When he finally tracked them down it was too late — both were dead.

“Just as soon as the lockdown hit South Africa, we started having an incursion almost every single day,” Mr. Jacobs said.

At least nine rhinos have been poached in South Africa’s North West province since the lockdown, he said, “and those are just the ones we know about.”

Rhino Conservation Botswana, a NPO based in that country, said at the time that at least six rhinos had been poached since the country closed its borders to tourists.

The Kruger National Park may have just announced a decline in rhino and elephant poaching since the lockdown was enacted, but it has the funds to keep protecting its animals, whereas other reserves are not so fortunate.

As the number of visitors grounds to a halt, the cost of protecting the rhinos against increased poaching efforts increases:

“These animals are not just protected by rangers, they’re also protected by tourist presence,” said Tim Davenport, who directs species conservation programs for Africa at the Wildlife Conservation Society. “If you’re a poacher, you’re not going to go to a place where there are lots of tourists, you’re going to go to a place where there are very few of them.”

The tourism industry is seeing mass layoffs, and there are fears that game rangers and private reserve guards could be next.

The story of Lynne MacTavish, the operations manager at Mankwe Wildlife Reserve in our North West province, will be familiar to many reserve owners across the region:

“We’re in a situation of zero income, and our expenses are actually going up all the time just trying to fight off the poachers and protect the reserve,” Ms. MacTavish said. “To say it’s desperate is an understatement. We’re really in crisis here.”

To avoid layoffs, Ms. MacTavish has stopped collecting a salary and has cut the pay of her fellow managers by 30 percent. But that will only keep the reserve above water for another three or four months. If things don’t improve, she may be forced to make difficult decisions.

Perhaps most worryingly, Lynne adds that if the lockdown draws on, and people become increasingly desperate, she expects an “onslaught” of poaching.

You can read the rest of that article here.

Of course it’s great news that greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution has dropped in many areas of the world, and it gives scientists a chance to look at what a low-carbon future may hold.

On the flip side, desperate times lead to desperate measures, and some of our most loved animal species will suffer as a result.

[sources:conversation&nytimes]