Integrating One Health and Conservation to promote Sustainable Development

Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka

Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Conservation Through Public Health

Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka has become one of the leading conservationists and scientists working to save the critically endangered mountain gorillas of East Africa.

Under siege by poachers, loss of habitat and warfare, “Dr. Gladys” has discovered another serious threat to these majestic creatures—transmission of human diseases to gorillas called “zoonotic transmission”—afflictions ranging from tuberculosis to scabies. Her mission: to improve African public health to save the gorillas from human-borne illnesses. Gorillas and humans have a 98 percent genetic resemblance, making transmission of diseases between the species highly probable.

As Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), a grassroots, nonprofit organization based in Uganda with a US Office in North Carolina, Dr. Gladys promotes conservation and public health by improving primary health care to both people and animals in and around protected areas in Africa with a vision to control transmission of disease where people, wildlife and livestock meet.

The 40-year-old doctor, trained at the University of London’s Royal Veterinary College, has won accolades from Africa to the U.S. In 2008, she was honored with the San Diego Zoo’s “Conservation in Action Award” and was among eight women given an award for outstanding contribution towards tourism development and women empowerment in 2007. She was the recipient of the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship in 2006.

After deciding to be a veterinarian at age 12, Dr. Gladys became a conservationist at 18. Studying for her career, she conducted research on intestinal parasites in wild chimpanzees and parasites and tourist-habituated and non-tourist-habituated mountain gorillas. She found gorillas visited by tourists had a higher parasite rate than those not visited, implying that tourism can have a negative impact on mountain gorillas’ health.

Between 1996 and 2000, she set up the first Veterinary Unit in the Uganda Wildlife Authority, pioneering the first wildlife translocations in her country since the 1970s and developed the first community education campaigns on risks of humans and gorilla disease transmission among others.

An articulate, polished advocate, Dr. Gladys has been featured in documentaries on BBC 1, National Geographic, Animal Planet, MNet and Uganda Television.

Abstract

Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) are critically endangered with an estimated population of 880 individuals found in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and the Virunga Volcanoes shared between Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). People living around gorilla habitat are among the poorest in Africa, with limited access to basic social services, and high population growth has pushed people to settle closer to gorilla habitat, sometimes resulting in conflict and disease transmission.

Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), a Ugandan registered NGO and US registered non-profit was established in 2003 after fatal scabies skin disease outbreaks in mountain gorillas in 1996 and 2001/2002 were traced to people living around the park who have very little health care and information on zoonotic disease prevention and control. This was the first record of disease transmission from humans to gorillas at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

CTPH promotes biodiversity conservation by enabling people, wildlife and livestock to coexist through improving their health and livelihoods in and around Africa’s protected areas. CTPH’s vision is for people, wildlife and livestock to live together in balance, health and harmony with local communities acting as stewards of their environment. CTPH’s goal is to prevent and control disease transmission between people and wildlife while cultivating a winning attitude to conservation and public health in local communities.

CTPH uses a One Health approach to conservation that addresses many of the new 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). CTPH has four main integrated programs: (i) wildlife health/conservation through gorilla health monitoring and fecal sample analysis at a Gorilla Research Clinic; (ii) community health through building Village Health and Conservation Teams and (iii) alternative livelihoods through strengthening community based approaches to address poverty (iv) advocacy and coalition building where CTPH is a member of the Uganda National Zoonotic Disease Task Force for effective outbreak response and coordinates a Uganda Population, Health and Environment (PHE) Working Group.

The following plans have started (i) building a permanent home for the three programs, a Health and Gorilla Conservation Center that will also be a study site through hosting local and international students, government and non governmental organizations; (ii) scaling up the model to other locations and protected areas in savannah, mountain and forest habitats including Queen Elizabeth and Pian Upe Wildlife Reserve in Uganda; Mount Elgon National Park in Uganda and Kenya and Virunga National Park in Democratic Republic of Congo; (iii) strengthening research through partnerships with Universities to evaluate and improve the impact of the One Health and conservation approach.

Session

KN-2 » Plenary: Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka (08:30 - Monday, 11th January, Kirinyaga )

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