COVID-19 pandemic damage to wildlife and nature

About a month or so ago, just as the panic caused by COVID-19 was hitting mainstream Ethiopian society and government was starting to take measures to clear crowded markets, close down selected businesses, schools and workplaces, and as folks were running all over the place stockpiling what they can for what they thought would be (and still could be) a long battle with the invisible enemy, I was busy stockpiling my poor old banged up PC’s hard drive with as much content as I could possibly load it with.

My wife is by now used to my ways and didn’t even bother asking why I didn’t appreciate the importance of ransacking our local kiosk or supermarket buying stuff as if they were giving it out for free. I guess I’m lucky that at least one of us in the household has enough common sense to do what a good, sensible law abiding citizen would do during a pandemic of epic proportions.
However, yet again, who can say with absolute certainty that they know what they are doing during such times for which we have little preparedness for? I will let the reader reflect on that and come up with their own answers. To me, any guess is good as the other.
Where were we? Ah, yes, stockpiling. Groceries are important and all, but have you ever imagined the prospect of being confined to your household for weeks or months and running out of entertainment? It seems to me that would be the equivalent of being put under house arrest. I mean, practically, besides the comforts of a reasonably priced couch, your standard flat screen TV, and your personal stash of booze that you guiltily sip when someone is not looking, you are pretty much under house arrest. This prison has no locks and your hosts are not hardened guards determined not to ever let you leave but it’s the invisible virus.
Based on the above description, in my humble opinion, if one intends to survive and keep his sanity, one needs ample amounts of entertainment and a little welcome distraction from the daily dire news cycle about the virus. Thus, the explanation for why my poor old PC was busy overheating for days downloading all sorts of content that varies from music to movies, reading materials and naturally my favorite genre: documentaries.
Accordingly, while home and consuming the product of an intellectual property realized thanks to the endless supply and considerable demand by which the prevailing capitalist system is run and obtained by myself thanks to the marvels of the globalized world and the almost complete access to information produced whenever and wherever, I stumbled upon by chance among the many choices, on season 1 of Netflix’s original TV series “Tiger King”, a real life drama based on the tales of one Joe Maldonado Passage, better known as “Joe Exotic”. Thank you Netflix, you are capitalism’s favorite creation, with the ability to keep us entertained and wanting to consume even more, but that’s another subject by itself.
“Tiger King” revolves around the (still) ongoing story of Joe Exotic, a gun loving, mullet sporting, loud mouthed, queer, exotic animal’s (mainly Tigers, Lions, ligers) zoo owner and his huge beef with another “wildlife sanctuary” owner who goes by the name of Carole Baskin (FYI I believe that Mrs Baskin really fed her ex-husband to the Tigers, but hey, that’s just me)
Importantly the documentary gives close insight to the lucrative business of caging wild animals by taking them away from where they are supposed to live and keeping them in less than ideal conditions for profit. Well, of course the show has its share of twist and turns, drama, death and gruesome scenes to keep the audience entertained, guessing and glued to the screens but at the same time it just details the amount of abuse the animals take and how much of a commodity wildlife has become in the hands of these individuals and their less than ethical organizations.
One statistic that has truly shocked me and that inspired me to write this piece was the fact that there are today more captive Tigers in the United States alone than in the wild in India, China, Russia, and the Borneo area ,the natural habitats of this apex predator.
Another gruesome ongoing saga is the illegal trade of the pangolins in Africa, a mammal whose scales are highly sought after in China for traditional medicinal use and which is traded in astonishing numbers. Curiously enough pangolins are suspected (although so far no confirmation has been given by the WHO or other bodies) to have passed the COVID-19 virus to humans along with bats showing the danger that comes with close contact and with consumption of wild animals.
What has been going on with the state of wildlife and nature conservation for the last several decades in Africa and elsewhere has been appalling. It goes to show that as a civilization, despite having reached the incredible heights we have been able to reach through technology, science and arts, we still can’t really fully grasp the inherent value of all the other inhabitants of this planet unless economic benefit is extrapolated through a form of an organized economic exploitation.
Our continent Africa, being the most blessed in natural resources, biodiversity, varied landscapes and a huge number of wildlife, for centuries or better yet for millennia has been ground zero for abuse and exploitation in many regards, including for its wildlife.
In fact, from the times of the Roman Empire where Lions, Leopards, Crocodiles, Elephants and other countless species were slaughtered for the entertainment of the people at the famed Coliseum, to more recent times in the 19th and 20th centuries, during the colonial era, a systematic killing of wild animals has been witnessed for entertainment or other economic purposes.
Furthermore, through big game hunting, human/wildlife conflict and interaction, farming and/or grazing of protected areas, along with the huge human population growth the pressure on wildlife in Africa has been so heavy that it has led many species to extension or close to extension.
The loss of biodiversity, natural habitats, and the general damage to nature in Africa and elsewhere has simply been of biblical proportions and almost impossible to reverse. Many believe that we still can’t totally grasp the consequences of the damage we have done to our one and only planet.
Although sometimes it is difficult to show direct correlation and causality between events when it comes to issues so complex and vast as the environment and nature, many leading experts think that there is a connection between the recent global events that were marked by huge hurricanes, landslides, artic sheet melting, wildfires, and other acts of nature and activities that have all been registered at record levels.
Unfortunately, even as we speak the onslaught against fauna and flora is still going on in spite of all the efforts of non-governmental groups that work in conservation. The demand for wildlife flesh for consumption, decoration and medicinal use has fueled the illegal poaching and trade beyond control. It is my opinion that the COVID-19 pandemic will add further fuel to the fire.
In Africa, where governments can barely keep up with the demand of their citizens for land, food, shelter transportation, healthcare etc. it comes as no surprise that the wildlife and environment conservation as an agenda never comes to the front of the discussion during political debates or other routine social discussions. The issues of wildlife and environment protection are usually raised as the backstory in the discussion of tourism attraction and the business revolving around this undeniably very important industry that has thankfully created millions of jobs and that has been the backbone of many economies in Northern, Eastern, and Southern Africa.
However, the current COVID-19 situation has posed an even more serious threat to our wildlife. Due to the huge toll the pandemic has put on the travel and tourism industry as once busy and crowded parks and wildlife sanctuaries in East, Southern and Central Africa have been deserted leaving the local populations depending for their livelihoods on the flow of tourism in dire situations.
For instance, in the East African nation of Uganda, during the coronavirus pandemic the main source of revenue for gorilla conservation has been lost and there are fears some of those in surrounding communities who depend on tourists could turn to poaching out of desperation.
According to an interview given by a spokesperson for the Uganda Wildlife Authority, Mr. Bashir Hangi to the Guardian, “they are worried,” and that “If this continues, it’s definitely going to reverse the achievements. There’s no doubt about it.”