What made you first realise the connection between conservation and public health?
In 1996, whilst working as a veterinarian for the Uganda Wildlife Authority in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP), I led a team that identified the first scabies outbreak in the mountain gorillas of BINP. Despite acting quickly to treat the affected gorillas, the outbreak very sadly resulted in the death of an infant gorilla. Thankfully the rest of the gorilla group recovered with Ivermectin treatment. The fatal disease was traced back to the local communities living around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, likely passing scabies on to the gorillas through scarecrows they made from old clothes and placed in crop fields to dissuade birds and wildlife from eating the crops. Since gorillas sometimes ventured out of the forest and into crop fields, it is likely they came into contact with scabies then. A few years later, in 2001 and 2002, another scabies outbreak occurred. Fortunately, there were no deaths because we were more prepared. With only 650 critically endangered mountain gorillas remaining in the wild at the time, I asked myself how we could prevent similar situations in the future and realised that conservation efforts could not be fully realised or successful without also involving and supporting the improved health and wellbeing of community members, particularly those living in close proximity to the wildlife. What resulted was the founding of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) in 2003 with other concerned Ugandans. CTPH is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that focuses on the interdependence of wildlife and human health in and around Africa’s protected areas.
In terms of wildlife conservation, you work primarily with the mountain gorillas of Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Does the Bwindi population face different threats to their survival than the mountain gorillas living in Rwanda, the DRC, and Uganda's Mgahinga National Park?
All our great apes and primates are under significant threat from humans, primarily in terms of habitat encroachment, human-wildlife conflict, poaching, and risk of transmission of zoonotic diseases (Ebola currently creates a major concern for our gorilla populations). Thankfully, the gorillas in Uganda are not directly hunted for meat like some of the primates in other parts of Africa, such as the DRC. They are, however, still affected by hunting and poaching for other bushmeat as they often become injured or killed by snares set for trapping other animals.
