Advancing National Wildlife Disease Surveillance Planning in Liberia

Wild animal populations are critical for ecosystems and people. In Liberia, surveillance is not routinely conducted in wildlife, despite growing health threats. In March 2025 a training was held to strengthen Liberia’s capacity for wildlife surveillance, building on IUCN-WOAH “General Guidelines for Surveillance of Diseases, Pathogens, and Toxic Agents in Free-Ranging Wildlife”, providing a chance to apply the Guidelines in a national context and gain feedback. Organized with national and international stakeholders, the training sought to enhance knowledge and intersectoral collaboration to monitor and mitigate wildlife-related health risks, through an overview of surveillance; reflection on recent surveillance initiatives; the ALERT game that simulates real-world surveillance scenarios; a field-based portion for surveillance scoping at human-animal-environment interfaces; and designing surveillance programs. A visit to the Central Veterinary Laboratory and Fendell Wetland reinforced surveillance system connections.

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Securing Sustainable Lion Populations and their Connectivity through Promoting Coexistence with Communities in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Lions like any other big carnivores need large, connected areas to thrive, but in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, human-lion conflict—especially due to lion-livestock attacks—has prompted to retaliatory lion killings. To address this, KopeLion developed the Ilchokuti model which involve training and employing local pastoralist young warriors from Maasai and Tatoga pastoralist communities. These trained individuals monitor lions, warn herders of the presence of collared/non-collared lions, recover lost livestock, and respond to conflicts. By reducing threats to both lions and livestock, the Ilchokuti help foster coexistence and build community support for conservation. Their work has improved tolerance for lions, reduced lion killings, stopped traditional lion hunts and enabled safe movement for dispersing lions across village lands. As a result, lions are increasingly seen as a valued part of the landscape, and the Ilchokuti model is now a vital part of securing sustainable lion populations and connectivity in the area.

“CAZ4Lemur” Capacity building and joint action with the local community in Madagascar

This solution is set in Madagascar’s Ankeniheny-Zahamena Corridor (CAZ), a globally recognized biodiversity hotspot that shelters numerous endangered and vulnerable lemur species. The project site, Fierenana—a rural commune in the western CAZ—is designated as an Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) site, uniquely identified as the only place on Earth where at least one critically endangered species survives in its natural habitat.

Despite this ecological importance, conservation efforts face major challenges, including habitat degradation, weak law enforcement, and limited local capacity. The solution, implemented through the “CAZ4Lemurs” project with support from BIOPAMA, addresses these issues by empowering local community-based organizations (COBAs) to manage forest buffer zones and monitor lemur populations. The initiative has enhanced patroller skills and fostered law enforcement. Environmental education is being integrated into school curricula, while legal training strengthens enforcement, and promotes livelihoods.

Enhancing a participatory approach to ecological restoration with the River Guardian Program of Koitajoki

Koitajoki Watershed Restoration is a basin-wide river restoration project. The 200-km-long Koitajoki River flows through peatlands and boreal forests in the borderlands between Finland and Russia. The restoration project takes place on the Finnish side of the watershed. Since the 1950s, the river system has suffered from hydropower construction, peatland drainage, forestry, as well as gold and peat mining. The restoration project aims to bring key features of the Koitajoki watershed back to ecological health by restoring drained peatlands and dredged streams and rivers. The project was initiated by the non-profit Snowchange in 2022 and it is on-going at least until 2027.

In 2023, as part of the restoration project, Snowchange established the very first River Guardian Program in Finland. It is a community-based monitoring program with 18 local individuals, families and communities from the Koitajoki Watershed who all share a passion – recovering Koitajoki as seen through the local socio-cultural matrix of lived landscapes.

Resilience Assessment and Adaptive Collaborative Management of Shanglin Community’s Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes (Chiayi, Taiwan)

Shanglin community (Chiayi County, Taiwan) is a plain landscape with predominantly Han Chinese population. Bamboo shoot cultivation is the main production activity. The riparian zones of bamboo and secondary forests in the area are home to the endemic Farmland tree frog (Zhangixalus arvalis). It is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. In recent years, the decline of the bamboo shoot industry and changing land use patterns have led to its habitat loss and fragmentation.
In 2018, the Chiayi Branch of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency began promoting Farmland tree frog-friendly farming practices in Shanglin community. In 2021, resilience assessment workshops (RAWs) were used as a tool to better understand local challenges and align conservation and development priorities. RAWs results elicited the need to enhance biodiversity-based incomes and diversify marketing channels, effectively manage water quality and quantity, and strengthen the residents’ resilience to natural disasters.

Coping with Human Lion Conflict Kunene, Namibia, community engagement and response

A prolonged, twelve year drought in Namibia’s arid northwest has exacerbated Human Lion Conflict. Prey species numbers and livestock numbers have plummeted over time (as in November 2022) and continue to do so (November 2024). Farmers, already reeling from severe losses cannot afford additional losses to this free-ranging lion population. An IUCN SOS grant enabled significant mitigation efforts in 6 Conservancies with an area of some 15 000 square kilometers and provided momentum to reduce impacts. Community consultation indicated that, several mitigation measures be implemented. These included developing early warning system, building predator proof kraals(with solar lights), response to incidents, support a community based Lion Ranger system, and concerted community engagement. Impacts of these efforts resulted in increased tolerance amongst community members and a reduction in livestock losses.

How supporting rangers and capacitating them to screen for disease, poisoning and poaching assisted in diagnosing a novel disease in African elephant

Zimbabwe and its neighboring countries have the largest African Savanna elephant population in the world. Some areas have a plethora of animals and these high densities are concern for diseases, poisoning and poaching. VFWT worked with conservation partners to train ZimParks rangers in North West Zimbabwe on differentiating elephant mortality events to determine natural disease incidents vs. wildlife crime scenes, and how to secure and document a crime scene. This all came to fruition when there started to be a number of elephant mortality events in the region. Through investigation and collection of samples, that were subsequently analyzed in the laboratory a novel disease Bicaard taxon 45 was discovered to be the cause of the mortality event. The disease had not been found in African elephant previously, and as a close relation to Pasturella multocida, was cause for concern as to how the disease would affect elephant species.

Mujeres resilientes en las áreas protegidas y conservadas del Municipio de La Calera: una experiencia con el Parque Nacional Natural (PNN) Chingaza, Colombia

La conformación de la red de mujeres inició a partir de una Serie de Talleres teórico – prácticos sobre Clima cambiante y gestión del riesgo de desastres en el territorio Chingaza, como actividades de fortalecimiento de capacidades para guardabosques, líderes comunitarios del Municipio de La Calera (Cundinamarca, Colombia), auspiciado por la Alcaldía de La Calera y el PNN Chingaza. Se buscaba reconocer las áreas protegidas y conservadas del municipio como patrimonio estratégico y en sí como una solución basada en la naturaleza para la reducción del riesgo de desastres y la adaptación al cambio climático. Se hicieron visitas al parque Chingaza, reconocimiento de algunas amenazas de origen socionatural dentro y fuera del área protegida, conocimiento de las zonas de riesgo identificadas en el Plan de Gestión de Riesgos de Desastres Municipal. Se realiza una incorporación del enfoque de innovación para la vida, a través de la educación, comunicación, cooperación y protección de los modos de vida de las comunidades rurales.

Développement de Conventions Locales de Gestion des Ressources Naturelles pour la restauration des écosystèmes

A la différence des planifications spatiales au niveau régionale, communale ou autre, les CL se concentrent sur des ressources précises dont le contrôle social par usagers et riverains est réaliste. Le rôle des chefferies traditionnelle est important.

Les CL jouent sont l’interface entre la base avec ressource concrète, les communes et le dispositif régalien de l’état. Après un processus participatif structuré, les usagers et riverains directes établissent des règles de gestion et signent une convention. Cette Convention est validée par chefferie traditionnelle et commune qui la suivent.

Cette approche s’appuie sur une expérience de longue date de la GIZ . Les CL décrits ici ont été mis en œuvre par la GIZ dans le cadre du projet AREECA, un projet régional financé par l’IKI. Le projet a été mis en œuvre pour le compte du Ministère Fédéral Allemand de l’Environnement, de la Protection de la Nature, de la Sécurité Nucléaire et de la protection des Consommateurs (BMUV).

Agroecology Leadership Academy

Nearly 12 million hectares of fertile soil are lost globally every year, leading to serious consequences for the world’s food supply and climate, particularly in the arid regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The inhabitants of these areas, who rely on the land for their sustenance, are the most affected. Over the course of one year, the Agroecology Leadership Academy has collaborated with 38 leaders from seven countries and different agriculture-related sectors to promote agroecological practices aimed at conserving and rehabilitating soil in climate-smart, environmentally friendly ways. The initiative has strengthened individuals, organisations, and networks by enhancing their leadership skills and technical knowledge in agroecology. Participants from Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Madagascar, and Tunisia engaged in various projects, tested innovative approaches, formed alliances, and contributed to shaping transformative processes and narratives for change.

Afforestation des forêts sacrées au Cameroun : Protéger le patrimoine écologique et culturel à travers des pépinières utilisant

Les Forêts Sacrées (FS) dans la région de l’Ouest du Cameroun, historiquement protégées par le droit coutumier en tant que sites rituels et sources pour la pharmacopée traditionnelle, sont aujourd’hui menacées par la pression démographique et l’absence de gestion durable des terres. Le projet AREECA, mis en œuvre par la GIZ en collaboration avec MINEPDED et MINFOF, protège et restaure ces écosystèmes uniques en établissant des pépinières locales pour produire des plants d’espèces indigènes issue des semences et sauvageons de ces mêmes forêts. En 2023/24 trois pépinières ont été mises en place dans ou à coté de forêts sacrées dans les communes de Batcham, Fongo Tongo et Babadjou, permettant de produire 6413 plants d’arbres locaux, incluant parmi d’autres le Cordia africana et Prunus africana. Puis ces plants étaient plantés dans les mêmes 3 FS et dans 3 autres FS de la zone. Le projet intègre également la création de Conventions Locales impliquant les communautés assurant une gouvernance participative et durable pour ces FS

Desert Vipers Cricket Franchise – JA The Resort BioBlitz

Global biodiversity is in decline, including in the Middle East. Historically, there have been limited wildlife observations in the UAE, so this event aimed to boost the number of national recorded observations.

Desert Vipers – a cricket franchise playing in the ILT20 league in the UAE – undertook a BioBlitz at their team hotel, JA The Resort, with Nature Wave and students from Jebel Ali School. The event lasted 90 minutes, with groups recording species at three locations on-site at the hotel using iNaturalist, competing against each other to record the most species.

The hotel uses treated wastewater to create a stunning area for its guests, cultivating several dozen irrigated plant species. It is also situated next to the sea, meaning there are a range of different habitats, so this solution aimed to understand in greater detail how many species were being supported by the site.

In total, 97 species were recorded over 310 observations, and all parties involved had a superb time, learning more about nature and biodiversity.

Promoting Community Coexistence with African Wild Dog

African wild dogs living in community conservation areas in northern Kenya face challenges due to predation on livestock, which results in a negative perception and, at times may culminate in retaliatory killings. Additionally, there is an ever-increasing threat of catching diseases like rabies and canine distemper that comes mainly from domestic dog populations. As the human population increases it will only mean more domestic dog vs. wild dog interaction and hence more chance for negative attitudes and disease spread.

Over the 3 project years, we were able through grassroots community engagement to change the perception from 10% positive (the percentage of people willing to Coexist with African Wild Dogs in the same shared grazing areas) at the beginning of the project to about 70% positive at the end.

We also increased the Rabies and Canine distemper vaccination coverage area from less than 6000 km2 to over 10,000 km2.

Effectively no wild dog deaths from diseases during the project period.