Ebola and its effect on the wildlife of africa

Ebola and its effect on the wildlife of Africa The Ebola epidemic in West Africa is having a devastating effect on the African wildlife as it is adversely affecting the continent’s wildlife conservation efforts. Due to the deadly disease, the tourism industry of the whole continent has suffered a major setback. For exampleKenya, which is home to the “big five� animals of Africa; African Lion, African leopard, Cape buffalo, Black/White rhinoceros and the African elephant, thrives on wildlife tourism which accounts for 61% of its GDP. Kenya has some of the largest Wildlife reserves in Africa which are major tourist attractions. The Ebola outbreak zone is more than 3000 miles away from Kenya and despite the fact that there has not been a single case in the country, the wildlife tourism in Kenya has reduced significantly. This reduction in tourism is resulting in fewer conservation funds and many major wildlife parks are being forced to reduce the number of rangers patrolling the area.

This has left the wildlife exposed to hunters and the cases of poaching have seen a sharp rise in recent weeks. Other African Countries are also facing the same problem.

According to Jake Grieves-Cook, former chairman of the Kenyan Tourism Federation, the revenue generated by the safari camps and wildlife parks is used to pay the wages of the wildlife rangers and other measures to protect the wildlife. He said that apart from the income generated from visitors, there are no funds to support conservation efforts. Mr. Jake has himself documented 10 incidents of elephant poaching ever since the Ebola epidemic started and believes that this number would continue to rise if the tourism industry does not recover.

In recent years, the feasibility of maintaining large wildlife reserves has been debated fiercely in many African countries. Many lawmakers argue that the land being used for wild life reserves can generate greater revenue for the state if it is used for agricultural purposes. The decreasing revenue from wildlife tourism is giving further credibility to their idea. Wild life conservationists such as Colin Bell fear that if this downturn in tourism continues, then the vast safaris would soon be converted to agricultural land and this will result in loss of habitat for wild animals.

According to Mr. Bell, the loss of habitat will result in overcrowding and with less food and shelter, it will lead to the deaths of numerous animals.

Africa is home to many endangered species such as the mountain gorilla, African elephant and the black rhinoceros. If the conservation efforts are discontinued, then very soon numerous endangered species would become extinct.

Reference: http://www.researchomatic.com/Endangered-Species-63037.html