Mountain Gorillas, Uganda

The coronavirus pandemic has brought unprecedented change to the lives of people around the world. Its impact on health, particularly that of the most vulnerable in society, has been tragic, and the economic ramifications of the resulting disruption will be felt for years to come. In contrast, the implications for the natural world are more ambiguous, with some species standing to gain and some to lose from the current situation. While we have seen several instances of fake news – such as dolphins visiting Venice or an extinct civet reappearing in an Indian city – nature will be profoundly affected.

The story of dolphins returning to Venice may have been debunked, but there are already plenty of real examples of wildlife benefiting from reduced human activity. In the UK, Hedgehogs are one of our most popular mammals, but they have declined precipitously in recent decades, a situation exacerbated by their propensity for getting run over. With many fewer cars on the roads just as the animals are emerging from their winter hibernation, this spring could offer Hedgehogs a welcome respite. By contrast, our flourishing bird of prey populations in Southern England, particularly Buzzards and Red Kites, are highly reliant on roadkill (largely of Pheasants), and the lack of traffic could mean our raptors face a shortage of food.

Across the UK, our roadside verges cover 238,000 hectares, and provide crucial habitat for over 700 species of wildflower, nearly 45% of our total flora. Yet in normal years they are habitually denuded by overzealous maintenance, often simply for the sake of tidiness. During lockdown, however, roadside verges nationwide are being left unmown, allowing flowers, and consequently the countless insects, birds and other that depend upon them, to thrive. Many declining species, such as Meadow Crane’s-bill, White Campion and Field Scabious, could be about to enjoy their best summer in years.

Similarly, 2020 could bring the prospect of a bumper breeding season for Britain’s most disturbance-sensitive birds. Another unexpected consequence of people’s restricted movements has been a huge increase in participation in citizen science campaigns, such as the BTO’s Garden BirdWatch, which has been made free during lockdown. This and other surveys will generate invaluable data on the state of nature in our country, which should help us to protect it better in the future. Many participants may even be newcomers to nature, noticing the wonderful wildlife around them for the very first time. A sense of being disconnected from nature can make people apathetic about conservation; it is easy to believe that exciting wildlife lives only in the savannahs of Africa, or the verdant jungles of South America, but in truth there are natural wonders in even the smallest city garden. If the lockdown is bringing more people to that revelation, then that is good news indeed.

However, many of the world’s wild places rely on tourism for their own survival. Most wildlife destinations are receiving no visitors, and the consequent lack of income will have serious conservation implications. For example, the dearth of tourists in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park means lodges’ revenue has dried up; safari lodges there employ hundreds of local people, but salaries are now going unpaid. Tragically, the Zambian government does not have the means to cover such exceptional unemployment, and so many local farmers are unable to buy the seeds for their annual crops. Low income and a lack of food will likely drive people into the park to hunt bushmeat, and to fell trees for firewood; this encroachment will largely go unchallenged, as the funding for anti-poaching patrols no longer exists. Sadly, this situation could be replicated around many of the world’s most spectacular national parks and reserves. Perhaps, then, this pandemic will prove beyond doubt the vital role that ecotourism plays in global conservation.

East Africa’s Mountain Gorillas are also heavily reliant on tourism, with money from visitors having helped their population rise to over 1000 individuals. However, the world’s largest primates highlight another, as yet uncertain, danger of COVID-19: its potential for directly affecting wildlife. Gorillas are highly susceptible to human respiratory diseases, and although we do not know what affect this virus might have on them, there are few grounds for optimism. We need only look at the devastating impact of chytridiomycosis on amphibians to appreciate the danger posed to wildlife by infectious diseases.

Much has been made in recent weeks of the potential implications of the pandemic on the global trade in wildlife. COVID-19 almost certainly originated in a ‘wet market’ in the Chinese city of Wuhan; in these obscene bazaars are sold a bewildering variety of animals from around the world: living and dead, wild and domestic, common and critically endangered. Such markets have previously been described by scientists as a “ticking time-bomb”, as keeping animals with so many disparate origins in such close proximity (to each other and to people) creates the perfect conditions for novel diseases to spread into humans.

This has happened before – for example, the 2003 SARS outbreak originated in civets, according to the WHO. In the current case, the virus arose in bats (which are often consumed in China), and was spread to humans via an intermediate host, possibly a pangolin. Indeed, a recent Nature paper has shown that pangolins are so riddled with coronaviruses that they should never be handled without a mask and gloves. These scaly mammals are famously the world’s most trafficked wild animal, and there are hopes that demand for their meat and scales will collapse as a result of this pandemic, granting a reprieve to beleaguered populations in Africa and Asia.

In response to the virus, China has issued a temporary ban on wet markets and the consumption of wildlife. Recognising the real potential of pandemics to strangle their economies, countries around the world are likely to pressure China to make this prohibition permanent, something which has already been called for by the UN’s biodiversity chief. If this occurs, the positive impact on the natural world could be enormous, as the global wildlife trade is a significant driver of biodiversity loss. Already there is evidence that traffickers are experiencing difficulties in moving their products across borders.

However, the illegal wildlife trade is worth tens of billions of dollars a year, and is run by sophisticated, international and well-organised criminal networks, often with significant government support. It therefore seems naïve to expect a simple ban to shut it down; in other parts of the world, restrictive legislation has only served to make traffickers more professional, and their networks more streamlined and harder to infiltrate. Another ironic complication is that the Chinese National Health Commission itself has been actively recommending wildlife products to treat COVID-19, including bear bile injections! Continued cultural reliance on traditional medicine could frustrate attempts to close down the dangerous international trade in wild animals. Ultimately then, we must hope that consumer concern about potential future pandemics leads to a collapse in demand for illegal wildlife products; only this can ensure the demise of the illicit trade.

A broader consequence of this crisis could be the realisation that biodiversity conservation in general is vital for protecting humans from future pandemics. Previous studies have often highlighted the link between habitat destruction and the emergence of new human diseases. Simply venturing into (and subsequently exploiting) new and remote areas brings people into contact with novel pathogens. The fragmentation of natural habitat also causes rapid diversification of disease-causing microbes, dramatically increasing the likelihood of those diseases spreading into humans. And habitat destruction itself often displaces wildlife, bringing it into greater proximity with humans and spreading pathogens as a result; for example, an outbreak of Nipah virus in Malaysia arose when fruit bats displaced by deforestation spread the disease to farmers. Biodiversity loss is a big driver in the emergence of new diseases; now that we understand the dramatic consequences of pandemics, perhaps we will be less eager to exploit nature.

In February, over 1000 delegates from more than 140 countries met in Rome to agree a landmark new UN biodiversity framework, which was due to be signed in October at the 2020 UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, China. That meeting has been postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak. It may be wishful thinking, but if this pandemic has made clear (especially to politicians) the devastating ways in which our own disregard for nature can come back to bite us, then could countries reconvene with a new and genuine conviction to protect biodiversity? If so, that would be some silver lining. Now we know – what happens in Wuhan can affect the whole world. Only through effective global cooperation can we save it.

Ultimately, however, this pandemic’s greatest environmental legacy will not be known until after the crisis has subsided. When the dust has settled and the full extent of the economic devastation wrought by the virus becomes clear, will world governments sacrifice environmental policies and commitments for the sake of short-term recovery? If so, then COVID-19 could prove to be one of the most damaging setbacks in conservation history. Or, will the pandemic have helped us to foster the strong sense of community and shared destiny – both local and global – that will be crucial if we’re to solve the world’s greatest challenges: climate breakdown and biodiversity loss? For the sake of the planet, and of ourselves, we must hope for the latter.

For many years, Naturetrek has been donating money to the World Land Trust (£15 for every long-haul client), which has been used to purchase land in the mountains of Ecuador (click here for more information), partly to offset the carbon emissions involved in our holidays, and partly to protect some of the remarkable biodiversity that exists in the Andean cloudforests. Recently, we’ve been asking clients to match those contributions; thanks to your generosity, 2020 was due to be a record year for donations. However, tour cancellations as a result of COVID-19 have left our project in a precarious position, and our planned new land acquisitions are now in doubt. We are therefore asking clients whose holidays have been cancelled to consider waiving the refund of their pledged donation to help us ensure that our Naturetrek Reserve isn’t another loser of the coronavirus crisis. With your help, we can continue this invaluable conservation work. Thank you!