The Effect of COVID-19 on Wildlife Conservation

With fewer cars on roads and the human population confined to their homes for most of 2020, many consider a resurrection of our natural world as a positive outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with spending cuts to conservation projects and increased poaching accounts, the outlook for conservation post-COVID is not looking so bright.

It was proposed that the ‘anthropause’ (reduced mobility during the pandemic) would highlight the human impact on the natural world and reveal useful insight into human-animal interactions. There were multiple accounts of unusual wildlife encounters, with dolphins inhabiting a harbour of Trieste, Italy, and sightings of pumas strolling through the streets of Santiago, Chile.

However with the pandemic Asia and South America reported dwindling numbers of people entering national parks and billions of dollars were lost in ecotourism. This led to an increase in poaching due to the mass redundancy of park rangers and regulation enforcement lacking. Specifically in India, the Mayurjharna Elephant Reserve Project had to be abandoned. This led to elephants entering villages, damaging crops and homes, and five elephants killed. Furthermore, this region recorded its first case of ivory poaching in years.

A lot of attention falls to Africa, where conservation initiatives rely heavily on funding from tourism. Reports suggest that the global shut down cost the continent’s wildlife sector $29 billion employing 3.6 million people. In some cases, low-income countries turned to the exploitation of natural resources in an attempt to mitigate the financial burden.

Closer to home, a recent report by 57 wildlife organisations warned that the COVID-19 pandemic posed a serious threat to conservation, with organisations having to pull back on their conservation efforts or close altogether.

For certain urban species, the pandemic has created new challenges. For example, those that rely on food waste from humans such as rats, gulls, and monkeys struggled to survive under the conditions. Furthermore, in some countries that allowed exercise outdoors, the population flocked in their masses to parks and green spaces, disturbing the resident wildlife.

Despite, problems associated with funding and lack of ecotourism caused by the 2020 pandemic, there have been some benefits. As well as the stagnation of global transport hindering the illegal wildlife trade, the reduction of shipping traffic allowed scientists to study marine fauna in their most natural state without anthropogenic influence.

It is still unclear what the long-term effects caused by the pandemic may be. We hold our breath and hope for a brighter future.

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