Being a nature lover means you’ll enjoy spending a lot of time outdoors in the very heart of nature. However, it doesn’t have to end there because you can make plenty of money from your passion. This piece highlights the best jobs for nature lovers.
Park Ranger
Park rangers are the heartbeat of most natural reserves, state parks, and national parks. They are responsible for enforcing rules protecting the natural environment and all life. Aside from environmental protection, they also educate and protect tourists. To fully prepare yourself for this role, you’ll need to attend any of the park ranger colleges in your proximity.
Environmental Engineer
There are many reasons why any nature lover would sign up to be an environmental engineer. First, this career allows you to protect the environment you love so much. You’ll be tasked with working with a team to create innovative solutions that prevent environmental hazards.
When you sign up as an environmental engineer, you may spend some time indoors in an office; however, you will also spend a great portion of your work time in the great outdoors.
Also, environmental engineers earn an impressive salary. On average, these engineers make six figures annually. Additionally, there are several job opportunities for environmental engineers in the private and public sectors.
Wildlife Biologist
The role of a wildlife biologist is one of the most exciting for people who love nature. A job as a wildlife biologist will take you closer than ever to animals. You’ll spend plenty of time studying animal behavior in the wild. However, you may choose to study them in captivity in a zoo.
Wildlife biologists are also called zoologists and are often employed by universities, conservation organizations, and government agencies. Getting a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Conservation is recommended if you want a career as a wildlife biologist.
Sustainability Manager
Being a nature lover without a flair for sustainability is impossible. This job role sees you focus on caring for the environment and fighting deterioration. They are the progenitors of innovative waste management plans.
Unlike other job roles that take you closer to nature, you’ll spend most of your time as a sustainability manager in an office, attending calls and meetings. So, it’s essential to have strong communication and critical thinking skills to process plenty of information.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Are Some Ideal Job Options for Individuals Passionate About Nature?
For nature enthusiasts, careers like park ranger, environmental scientist, or wildlife biologist are excellent choices. Park rangers work directly in natural settings, managing parks, educating visitors, and conserving wildlife. Environmental scientists study the impact of human activity on the environment, while wildlife biologists focus on the behavior and conservation of animals.
How Do Careers in Ecotourism Cater to Nature Lovers?
Ecotourism offers unique opportunities for those who love nature by allowing them to combine their passion with work. Jobs in ecotourism include eco-tour guides, sustainable travel planners, or wildlife photographers. These roles involve leading nature-focused tours, promoting conservation efforts, and providing educational experiences for travelers in natural settings.
What Role Do Conservation Organizations Play in Providing Fulfilling Careers for Nature Lovers?
Conservation organizations offer diverse career paths for individuals committed to protecting the environment. Jobs such as conservation biologist, environmental educator, or sustainability coordinator are typical within these organizations. Conservation biologists work to preserve ecosystems and endangered species, while environmental educators raise awareness and promote environmental stewardship.
Conclusion
Contrary to popular opinion, being a nature lover doesn’t necessarily have to stop at being just a passion. You will gain more satisfaction earning from a job you also enjoy. As such, we’ve compiled a list of the best jobs for you to help the environment.
As we progress through the 21st century, one of the most important issues of our time is carbon. We create much of it by burning fossil fuels, extracting natural resources, or simply by living our day-to-day lives; we create carbon.
We create much more of it than we should, and the research into climate change backs this up. Many of us have devised innovative ways to counteract and slow down our carbon output, while good solutions are ultimately artificial. As it turns out, nature is our most important ally in fighting the devastating effects of climate change.
According to Frontiers in Forests and Global Change research, old-growth large-diameter trees are the most important carbon sinks we have and are significantly more effective at removing and storing carbon from our atmosphere than any other technology we have available in the present day.
Oregon, USA, and the Blue Mountains Complex region, in particular, has been world-renowned for its natural beauty and resources for hundreds of years. The timber industry makes up much of the natural resource extraction sector. However, despite this fact, this area significantly lacks protections guaranteeing the safety of its natural beauty from those who would profit from taking what is there until there is nothing left.
One of the central issues for those living in Oregon is wildfires, which destroy land and towns and devastate those living there. Thus, “chainsaw medicine,” as it’s called in the region, is implemented to reduce the number of trees that can be burned to safeguard their communities from destruction and to turn a profit at the same time. However, recent developments in research in forestry have concluded that this might actually be accelerating the problem and making it worse, not better.
Large-diameter trees comprise only 7% of the total number of trees in the Blue Mountains Complex, yet they sequester 50% of the carbon emitted in the region into their bodies. These trees are incredibly carbon-dense and eat up the carbon in the atmosphere cleaning the air and providing important stability to the soil that prevents landslides.
On top of that, trees that are standing or dead actually prevent wildfires due to wind and humidity. The two main contributors to massive wildfires that spiral out of control are dry, windy conditions that lead sparks that would otherwise be contained and extinguished to engulf an entire forest. The forestry industry cuts down large swaths of the forest leading to large open areas with no shade to regulate the temperature and no obstructions to the wind that blows through freely.
And while global climate change does make historic wildfires much worse than they otherwise would be, indigenous peoples for hundreds of years used controlled burns in order to modify their landscape and regenerate the soil that benefits from ash in the dirt.
This new research has the capability to seriously challenge the conventional view on wildfires, as legislation is currently being introduced that can protect the pristine forests of Oregon from the industry that seeks to extract the trees and release all that carbon that otherwise would be contained in the bark.
As the world changes and new technologies are being developed and implemented in order to address our climate crisis, mother nature once again proves to us that often the right choice is to use what we already have. We like to believe that we are the most ingenious and intelligent life on the planet, but ultimately we come from the dirt and will return to it.
It only makes sense that we should begin respecting the solutions that come from the ground and dig our roots deeper to protect what is already here. New legislation that can bring about what is good for the environment has to be of top priority because, at the end of the day, we are not defending nature; we are nature defending itself.
China will plant 36,000 sq km of new forest a year – more than the total area of Belgium – from this year to 2025 as it bids to combat climate change and better protect natural habitats, a senior forestry official said on Friday (Aug 20).
Tree planting has been at the heart of China’s environmental efforts for decades and is a major part of plans to bring carbon emissions down to net zero by 2060.
Li Chunliang, vice-chairman of the State Forestry and Grasslands Commission, told a press briefing large-scale “land greening” programmes would complete 36,000 sq km of afforestation every year through 2025.
“By 2035, the quality and stability of national forest, grassland, wetland and desert ecosystems will have been comprehensively upgraded,” Li added.
China aims to raise its overall forest coverage rate to 24.1 per cent by the end of 2025 from 23.04 per cent at the end of last year, according to its forest and grassland five-year plan published this week.
The plan warned that China’s forest and grass resources were inadequate, especially in drought-prone regions in the north and west. Li did not say what type of trees would be planted but the document said the strategy would rely in part on “natural reforestation”, implying different types of tree would be planted according to the local environment.
Following the destruction of major ecosystems by decades of breakneck economic growth, China has promised to create “ecological security barriers” and protect as much as a quarter of its total territory from human encroachment.
Over the next five years, China will also expand its national park system, create corridors to alleviate habitat fragmentation, and crack down further on illegal wildlife trade, said Chen Jiawen, an official in charge of drafting the new plan.
Separately, market research group comparethemarket.com said on Friday that the city of Beijing alone would need to plant more than 15 million trees a year in order to offset annual emissions.
Singapore and Hong Kong would each have to plant more than 9 million trees a year, while London would need to plant just over 4 million, it said.
A coalition of more than 50 countries has committed to protect almost a third of the planet by 2030 to halt the destruction of the natural world and slow extinctions of wildlife.
The High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People, which includes the UK and countries from six continents, made the pledge to protect at least 30% of the planet’s land and oceans before the One Planet summit in Paris on Monday, hosted by the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
Scientists have said human activities are driving the sixth mass extinction of life on Earth, and agricultural production, mining and pollution are threatening the healthy functioning of life-sustaining ecosystems crucial to human civilisation.
In the announcement, the HAC said protecting at least 30% of the planet for nature by the end of the decade was crucial to preventing mass extinctions of plants and animals, and ensuring the natural production of clean air and water.
The commitment is likely to be the headline target of the “Paris agreement for nature” that will be negotiated at Cop15 in Kunming, China later this year. The HAC said it hoped early commitments from countries such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Nigeria, Pakistan, Japan and Canada would ensure it formed the basis of the UN agreement.
Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, the executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, welcomed the pledge but cautioned: “It is one thing to commit, but quite different to deliver. But when we have committed, we must deliver. And with concerted efforts, we can collectively deliver.”
The announcement at the One Planet summit, which also saw pledges to invest billions of pounds in the Great Green Wall in Africa and the launch of a new sustainable finance charter called the Terra Carta by Prince Charles, was met with scepticism from some campaigners. Greta Thunberg tweeted: “LIVE from #OnePlanetSummit in Paris: Bla bla nature Bla bla important Bla bla ambitious Bla bla green investments…”
As part of the HAC announcement, the UK environment minister Zac Goldsmith said: “We know there is no pathway to tackling climate change that does not involve a massive increase in our efforts to protect and restore nature. So as co-host of the next Climate Cop,the UK is absolutely committed to leading the global fight against biodiversity loss and we are proud to act as co-chair of the High Ambition Coalition.
“We have an enormous opportunity at this year’s biodiversity conference in China to forge an agreement to protect at least 30% of the world’s land and ocean by 2030. I am hopeful our joint ambition will curb the global decline of the natural environment, so vital to the survival of our planet.”
However, despite support for the target from several countries, many indigenous activists have said that increasing protected areas for nature could result in land grabs and human rights violations. The announcement may also concern some developing countries who are keen for ambitious commitments on finance and sustainable development as part of the Kunming agreement, not just conservation.
Unlike its climate equivalent, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity covers three issues: the sustainable use of nature, sharing benefits from genetic resources, and conservation. The three pillars of the treaty can clash with each other and richer, developed countries have been accused of focusing too much on conservation while ignoring difficult choices on agriculture and providing finance for poorer nations to meet targets.
The HAC, currently co-chaired by France, Costa Rica and the UK, was formed in 2019 following the success of a similar climate body that spurred ambitious international action before the Paris agreement. By promoting action on biodiversity loss, it is hoped early commitments from the HAC will ensure a successful agreement for nature.
Over the last decade, the world has failed to meet a single target to stem the destruction of wildlife and life-sustaining ecosystems.
On Monday, leaders from around the world met in person and virtually at the One Planet summit in Paris to discuss the biodiversity crisis, promoting agroecology and the relationship between human health and nature. Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau addressed the event, which also included statements fromUN secretary general, António Guterres, and the Chinese vice-premier Han Zheng .
The UK government has also committed £3bn of UK international climate finance to supporting nature and biodiversity over the next five years.
Johnson told the event: “We are destroying species and habitat at an absolutely unconscionable rate. Of all the mammals in the world, I think I am right in saying that 96% of mammals are now human being or livestock that human beings rely upon.
“That is, in my view, a disaster. That’s why the UK has pledged to protect 30% of our land surface and marine surface. Of the 11.6bn that we’ve consecrated to climate finance initiatives, we are putting £3bn to protecting nature.”
The funding was welcomed by conservation and environmental organisations, including the RSPB and Greenpeace, but there were questions about the scale of the funding and whether it came at the cost of international aid.
“Increasing funds to protect and enhance nature is critical to help secure success at the global biodiversity conference in China this year. Siphoning off cash from funds already committed to tackling the climate crisis simply isn’t enough,” said Greenpeace UK’s head of politics, Rebecca Newsom.
“This announcement raises concerns that the UK’s shrinking aid budget is being repurposed to pay for nature and biodiversity. As important as these are, the first priority of overseas aid should be the alleviation of poverty,” said Oxfam’s senior policy adviser on Climate Change, Tracy Carty.
This article was amended on 12 January 2020 to better reflect that the High Ambition Coalition (formed 2011) and the High Ambition Coalition for People and Nature (formed 2019) are separate organisations
The Pacific Ocean is the deepest and largest ocean on the planet, the ocean is located between a number of continents as depicted by the image below, these include the Australian, Asian, North and South American continents. Interestingly, the Pacific Ocean derives its name from the Latin phrase ‘Mar Pacifico,’ meaning a peaceful sea. The name was coined by the first European explorer to reach the Pacific, Ferdinand Magellan in the early 1520s, after sailing through a patch of calm waters on the ocean.
The size of the Pacific Ocean
The Pacific covers an estimated area of 165.25 million square kilometers ( 63.8 million square miles), covering about 30% of the earth’s surface. The size of the Pacific exceeds the total expanse of all the world’s seven continents. The Pacific also represents about half of the planet’s total water surface area.
Economic importance
Although its name refers to a calm and peaceful sea, the Pacific is a massive body of water teeming with life. Every year, the Pacific Ocean contributes billions of dollars to different countries across the world through multiple economic activities, as an example fishing from the Pacific contributes over 70% of the world’s catch.
Additionally, the Pacific is a great source of natural resources, including metal, sand and minerals. Even with the large quantities of mineral resources, only a few have been exploited, such as magnesium, bromine, and salt. The ocean also contains large deposits of oil, gas, and petroleum.
The Pacific is responsible for providing some of the key shipping and trade routes globally, including the North and South Pacific routes. The North Pacific route connects North America (specifically the West Coast) to East Asia. In terms of trade volumes per route and distance, the North Pacific route is the longest and the largest compared to other channels. The South Pacific route, on the other hand, interconnects Western Europe, North America, New Zealand, and Australia. Worldtradia released some stats back in 2017 that saw the North Pacific trade route see traffic volumes (number of vessels) of 30.5 million. The next busiest route being the North Atlantic with volumes just over 22.3 million.
The depth of the Pacific
The Pacific is the deepest ocean on earth, with an average depth of 13,000 feet (4,000 meters). Scientifically, the deepest points of any ocean are known as deep trenches. Out of the 20 major trenches worldwide, 17 of them are found in the Pacific, with the Mariana Trench being the deepest of them all. The Challenger Deep (which is the deepest point in the Pacific and on earth) measures at 10,994 meters (or 36,040 feet). In 2012, it took James Cameron, a National Geographic explorer and film producer, 2 hours and 36 minutes to reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep.
The Pacific is shrinking by 1cm a year
Scientists have discovered that the Pacific is shrinking at a rate of 1cm per year due to tectonic plates. Let’s put the academic hat back on and explore the why, tectonic plates are pieces of the earth’s crust and uppermost mantle, commonly referred to as the lithosphere. As an estimate, the plates are around 100 km (62 mi) thick and mainly consist of two types of material: oceanic crust and continental crust. This crust is always in a state of flux i.e. constant motion. The movement of these plates occur at a rate of a few centimetres per year, causing a collision known as subduction. As a result, the Pacific plate pulls away from the North American plate at about 1cm per year, causing the ocean to shrink in the same proportion.
What Is the Pacific Ring of Fire?
The largest volcano on earth is located in the Pacific, with over 75% of the world’s volcanos coming from the ocean’s basin. The volcanoes and earthquakes that originate from the Pacific occur from an area in the ocean known as the Ring of Fire. The occurrence of earthquakes and volcanoes here are as a result of heavy volcanic activity and the movement of tectonic plates. It is reported that over 80% of the world’s tsunamis also occur in the Pacific’s Ring of Fire.
Islands of the World
There are hundreds of thousands of islands across the world, some of which are yet to be inhabited. Among the endless list of ocean islands found on the planet, the Pacific has the highest number. With about 25,000 islands, the Pacific Island countries have become home to millions of people. This total equates to their being more islands in the pacific than in all the other oceans put together, why? The reason being is because the Pacific experiences the highest volcanic activity compared to all other oceans, thanks to the vigorous movements that occur in the Ring of Fire. Following oceanic crust movements that happen at the floor of the ocean, this can lead to a series of oceanic or volcanic islands being formed.
The El Nino Climate Cycle
El Nino is the Pacific’s climate cycle that impacts weather patterns globally. The pattern consists of unusual warming of the waters on the surface of the Eastern Pacific. El Nino influences local weather, the strength of ocean currents, and temperatures across South America, Australia, and beyond. This cycle has a significant impact on the global climate, and to some extent, can cause some lasting changes. The 2016 El Nino saw severe droughts in Africa and South-East Asia, catastrophic coral bleaching in the Great barrier reef and wildfires in Indonesia and Canada.
The La Niña Climate Cycle
The impacts of a La Niña climate cycle tends to be the exact opposite of the impacts of an El Nino Cycle. La Niña represents a period of cooling for the surface ocean waters across the tropical west coast of South America. During a La Niña year, winter temperatures in the US will be cooler than normal in the Northwest and warmer than normal in the Southeast.
The Birthing of Hurricanes
Hurricanes, also known as typhoons when formed over the Pacific, are the most violent storms experienced on earth. Evidence in the past has proven that the Pacific can stir extremely strong hurricanes. Hurricane Patricia, for example, was the strongest Pacific typhoon ever recorded in history, affecting Central America, Texas, and Mexico. Typhoon Nepartak is another Pacific storm that significantly affected Taiwan.
Hurricanes and cyclones are fuelled by warm sea surfaces (the Pacific being warmer than any other ocean on earth). The warmth of the Pacific waters can be persistent for a year, allowing a hurricane to last longer. This is why La Niña and El Nino are never ignored.
Increased marine pollution
Being the largest ocean on earth, the Pacific extends to several continents and a significant number of countries. Consequently, the ocean is more exposed to high levels of pollution. The Pacific is particularly prone to plastic, which comprises over 90% of the visible pollutants and debris covering the ocean. Studies indicate that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (the ocean’s garbage collection site) has grown 100 times bigger than it was 40 years ago. Nuclear waste and ocean dumping have also contributed to marine pollution significantly.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the ocean’s collection of debris (caused by human activity). A lot of plastics are pushed by the ocean currents into floating patches of debris, forming the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). Today, GPGP is the largest plastic accumulation zone in the world’s oceans, covering an estimated area of 8 million square kilometres. The patch is so huge that it is estimated to be 2.3 the size of Texas. There are collective efforts by international organisations and individuals to control GPGP from growing.
Overfishing of the Pacific
Overfishing is the primary contributor of decline to aquatic life worldwide. Research shows that large quantities of fish are removed from the Pacific (every year) , far exceeding the rate they are able to reproduce. An estimated 1.6 million pounds (over 725,000 kgs) of fish are removed from the reefs of Pohnpei each year. Generally, over 30% of the species found in the coral reefs of Oceania are threatened with extinction.
In 2013, there was a recorded decline in the population of Pacific bluefin tuna. The Pacific bluefin tuna is one of the rarest fish species found in the Northern Pacific. The same trend has continued to date. In 2018, the value of a Pacific bluefin tuna was ranging at above $320,000. This is due to the continued decline in the Pacific bluefin tuna stocks. Why? The answer is simple, overfishing! And what promotes overfishing? Overfishing can be as a result of the increase in illegal fishing, lack of fishing regulations and increased human activity in the ocean.
Summary
This Ocean is a lifeline to almost everyone on this planet, we therefore, need to respect it. The ocean doesn’t belong to us, we don’t own it, we shouldn’t see it as a trash can!! Instead, humanity should consider ourselves as “stewards”, protecting the ocean and its inhabitants, so it can support future generations of life, both sea life and human life. Our mindset has to change!
As coronavirus halts nature-based tourism worldwide, employees and their communities are struggling to stay afloat.
There are fears they could even become prey to criminal networks.
For more than two decades, M Khairi spent his days working as a park guide, accompanying a steady trickle of tourists keen to trek across the lush forests of western Indonesia or spot an endangered orangutan.
But like thousands of others who earn a living from the 56 conservation sites across the archipelago – all shuttered since March to help stem the spread of the novel coronavirus – Khairi is now out of a job and struggling to make ends meet.
“It’s enough to buy rice,” said the 48-year-old, whose income has plummeted about 75% to $17 per week.
“Around 500 of us have lost our jobs,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation of his fellow guides at the Gunung Leuser National Park on Sumatra island.
Globally, more than 3.5 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, with deaths topping 250,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
As countries move to contain the respiratory disease by shutting down their economies and enforcing restrictions on movement, national parks and conservation areas are also feeling the pain.
From guides and forest communities who rely on visitors for a living, to conservation efforts in protected areas and the wildlife that depend on those habitats, environmentalists warn the pandemic could have far-reaching consequences.
Indonesia’s foreign tourist arrivals fell 64% year-on-year in March to about 471,000, or fewer than half of January’s number, as the coronavirus outbreak discouraged travel, data from the statistics bureau showed.
The government has warned that the country could lose more than $10 billion in tourism revenue this year.
Khairi, who has four children to support, has managed to find low-paid manual work in a rubber plantation but has received no financial help from the local government and is worried about the future.
“It’s very bad for all of us now,” he said.
Criminal networks
In Africa, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit communities that rely on the wildlife tourism business for their survival in countries like Rwanda, Kenya and Botswana.
More than 70 million tourists visited Africa last year, according to the U.N. World Tourism Organization – many enticed by safaris, game drives or trophy hunting.
But with airports and borders now closed, most of those revenues have evaporated overnight.
Not only has that cut off the economic activities of millions of impoverished families living in and around Africa’s national parks and protected reserves, it has also damaged forest conservation and anti-poaching efforts.
With little government funding, the continent’s national parks largely depend on tourism revenue to run their operations and care for the animals and plants that thrive there.
“The lack of funds means parks cannot do frequent patrols as they need fuel for their cars and they need food for rangers to go on patrol,” said Kaddu Sebunya, chief executive officer of the African Wildlife Foundation.
“There are no tourists and fewer rangers around due to social distancing measures, making it easy for criminal networks to harvest natural resources.”
Sebunya said his biggest worry was for the 20 million-30 million Africans who earn a livelihood directly or indirectly from tourism.
Many are involved in eco-tourism projects – from running safari lodges to giving village tours or selling traditional produce and handicrafts – and have no other way to eke out a living besides subsistence farming.
Conservationists fear that desperate communities – which have for decades helped control deforestation and poaching – may be exploited by criminal gangs to poach endangered animals or cut down trees for the charcoal trade, to get by.
“People are not going to sit home and starve. They will rely on what natural resources are next to them. If it’s a forest, they will cut the trees. If it’s a park, they will hunt the animals. If it’s a river, they will over-fish,” said Sebunya.
Those laid off from jobs in tourism lodges or as rangers “know the parks better than anyone else” and are at risk of being targeted for recruitment by poachers, he added.
‘Desperate times’
The 46 UK-based charities that form The Wildlife Trusts are also dealing with unprecedented challenges from the pandemic.
Conservation in Britain – one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries – has become harder than ever during the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Some staff at the network have been furloughed while those still working have lost valuable time on dealing with a proliferation of illegal activities such as shooting wildlife and fly-tipping, it said.
Vital conservation work has had to be put on hold, meanwhile, leading to an explosion of invasive species, deterioration of rare wildflower meadows, stalled reintroduction of wildlife and potential loss of species such as dormice.
“These are desperate times for our movement as income from visitor centres and fundraisers has crashed, yet the demands of caring for thousands of nature reserves are higher than ever,” said Craig Bennett, CEO of The Wildlife Trusts.
Bennett also pointed to the negative impact of delays in new legislation, the halting of animal vaccination programmes and beach clean-ups, and a rise in fly-tipping, vandalism and theft on nature reserves, as well as illegal shooting of rare birds.
Governments worldwide have their hands full dealing with the “human emergency” of COVID-19, making it difficult to argue for investment in nature right now, said Onno van den Heuvel, global manager of the Biodiversity Finance Initiative at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
But biodiversity conservation provides an estimated 22 million jobs globally, he said, adding that during lockdowns, people could help by crowdfunding ongoing projects.
UNDP is now considering specific crowdfunding campaigns for three to six countries to raise money to keep rangers in their jobs, for example, while also supporting their communities, many of whom were already poor before the pandemic, he added.
“Parks are closed, tourists are at home, and their revenue sources have been drying up – and they’re really in immediate need of additional funding,” he said.
A new study, by the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences at Stanford University has suggested that deforestation could lead to a rise in the occurrence of diseases like COVID-19.
Its findings suggest that when forests are cleared for agricultural use, the chances for transmission of zoonotic, or animal-to-human diseases, increase.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus, the cause of COVID-19, is thought to have originated from animals.
Viruses that jump from animals to people, like the one responsible for COVID-19, will likely become more common as people continue to transform natural habitats into agricultural land, according to a new study.
The analysis reveals how the loss of tropical forests in Uganda puts people at greater risk of physical interactions with wild primates and the viruses they carry.
The findings have implications for the emergence and spread of infectious animal-to-human diseases in other parts of the world, and suggest potential solutions for curbing the trend.
“THE COMBINATION OF MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE, LIKE DEFORESTATION, AND POVERTY CAN SPARK THE FIRE OF A GLOBAL PANDEMIC.”
“At a time when COVID-19 is causing an unprecedented level of economic, social, and health devastation, it is essential that we think critically about how human behaviors increase our interactions with disease-infected animals,” says lead author Laura Bloomfield, an MD student in the School of Medicine and a PhD candidate in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources within the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences at Stanford University.
Forest loss and the next COVID-19
People have converted nearly half of the world’s land into agriculture. Tropical forests have suffered the most, with some of the highest rates of agricultural conversion over the last few decades.
In Africa, this has accounted for about three-quarters of recent forest loss. What remains, outside protected parks and preserves, are small islands of forest in a sea of farmland and areas where farmland intrudes into larger forested areas.
In Uganda, decades of migration and the creation of farmlands outside Kibale National Park have led to a high density of people trying to support their families at the edge of forested habitats. Ordinarily, people avoid wild primates because they are well-known carriers of disease, and many are protected by Uganda’s Wildlife Authority. However, continued loss of forested habitat means wild primates and humans are increasingly sharing the same spaces and vying for the same food.
“WE HUMANS GO TO THESE ANIMALS. WE ARE FORCING THE INTERACTION THROUGH TRANSFORMATION OF THE LAND.”
When people venture into forested areas for resources and when animals venture out of their habitats to raid crops, the chances increase for transmission of zoonotic—or animal-to-human—disease. A prime example is HIV, which is caused by a virus that jumped from wild primates to humans via infected bodily fluids.
Losing forest boundaries
Unlike previous studies that examined the issue from primarily an ecological standpoint, the new study is the first to integrate landscape-level ecological factors with individual-level behavioral factors and weigh risks to human health.
The researchers began by collecting land use survey data from small-scale farmers living near forest fragments. They combined this information with high-resolution satellite imagery from the same time period to model how landscape patterns and individual behaviors together make certain people more likely to have contact with wild animals.
They found the strongest predictors of human-wild primate contact were the length of the forest boundary around people’s homes and the frequency with which people ventured into these forested areas to collect small trees for construction material. Searching for these pole-like trees entails spending more time deep in primate habitats than other forest-based activities.
The researchers were surprised to find some of their assumptions turned upside down. For example, small fragments of residual forest—not larger expanses of habitat—were most likely to be the site of human-wild primate contacts due to their shared borders with agricultural landscapes.
Similarly, the researchers speculate that increasing intrusion of agriculture into forests and resulting human activities in these areas could lead to more spillover of infections from wild primates to humans worldwide.
Preventing human-primate interaction
The researchers suggest that relatively small buffer zones, such as tree farms or reforestation projects, around biodiversity-rich forests could dramatically lessen the likelihood of human-wild primate interaction.
Using external resources, such as national or international aid, to provide fuel and construction material or monetary supplements could also reduce pressure on people to seek out wood in forested areas.
“At the end of the day, land conservation and the reduction of forest fragmentation is our best bet to reduce human-wild animal interactions,” says coauthor Tyler McIntosh, a former graduate student in the Stanford Earth Systems Program now working at the Center for Western Priorities.
As climate change continues, the risk will only rise.
The common guillemot (known as the common murre in North America) breeds in both the Pacific and the Atlantic and is among the most abundant seabirds in the northern hemisphere. But like many other seabirds, its numbers have declined over the last few decades. Part of that decline is due to the marine environment – a seabird’s home and hunting ground – becoming increasingly unpredictable and difficult to survive in.
Between the summer of 2015 and the spring of 2016, a marine heatwave swept the northern Pacific Ocean that was hotter and lasted longer than any since records began in 1870. Known as “the blob”, the heatwave caused sea surface temperatures along the Pacific coast of North America to rise by 1-2°C. That may sound trivial, but it was enough to cause massive disruption in the marine ecosystem. The fish that common guillemots normally eat, such as herring, sardine and anchovy, either died or moved into cooler waters elsewhere, leaving the guillemots with little to eat. As a result, many birds starved.
This is because guillemots live up to 40 years and mature slowly, producing a single egg per annual clutch. A female may start breeding at the age of seven and continue to breed each year until she dies. Most seabirds live similar lives because the food on which they rear their offspring is often a long way from land. Ferrying food back to the breeding colony is what limits how many offspring they can rear in any one year. Rearing just a single chick at a time makes sense, but if many adult birds of reproductive age die, there are no new chicks to replace those birds that are lost, and so the population declines.
Seabirds wrecked by ocean warming
Researchers based the estimate of one million dead guillemots on the numbers of dead or dying birds that washed up between California and the Gulf of Alaska. A total of 62,000 birds were found on 6,000km of coastline, but not all birds that die at sea end up on beaches. Previous studies have shown that the number of birds actually found dead needs to be multiplied by at least seven times – and possibly as much as several hundred times – to find the minimum estimate of the total numbers dead. That means that “one million dead seabirds” might actually be a conservative guess.
According to the new study, breeding populations in the Gulf of Alaska suffered a 10-20% decrease in numbers. Complete breeding failure, where birds either failed to lay eggs or failed to rear any chicks, was reported at 22 regularly monitored guillemot colonies in Alaska during the breeding seasons of 2015, 2016 and 2017. Complete breeding failure is extremely unusual among guillemots and it’s a clear sign that food is in extremely short supply.
The appearance of unusually high numbers of dead birds washed up on the shoreline is referred to as a “wreck”. Wrecks of common guillemots and related species such as puffins have been known about for many years. These population crashes may be a regular aspect of guillemot biology, but this one was far larger and over a much wider geographic area than any wreck seen before.
In most cases, wrecks are the result of persistent stormy conditions, disrupting the availability of fish on which seabirds like guillemots and puffins depend. When seas are rough and the weather harsh, the increased energy demands can kill many birds. The most recent wreck in the UK and western Europe occurred in the spring of 2014, and it killed at least 50,000 birds, mainly common guillemots and Atlantic puffins.
The common guillemot populations in the Pacific and western Europe will probably recover from both of these recent wrecks, providing there’s no further turmoil, but there’s no room for complacency. The only way scientists will know if populations have recovered is by monitoring the birds. It’s an activity that is generally regarded as the lowest form of scientific endeavour, but one that’s absolutely vital in a world of declining wildlife.
I’ve been studying and monitoring the number of common guillemots on Skomer Island, Wales since 1972. In that time, I’ve realised how essential this work is to understanding how guillemot populations work. Beach counts of dead seabirds allow scientists to detect unusual events, but these counts are meaningless without information on the overall size of the population. Without regular monitoring of seabird colonies on North America’s west coast, the researchers wouldn’t have known what proportion of the total population died, and would have missed the total breeding failures in the Alaskan colonies.
The North Pacific common guillemot wreck was unprecedented for the sheer numbers of birds killed, and the vast region over which it occurred. But the marine heatwave that caused it may be just a taste of what is to come for seabirds around the world as climate change accelerates.
Tim Birkhead, Emeritus Professor of Zoology, University of Sheffield
This article is published in collaboration with The Conversation.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.