The JRS Biodiversity Foundation joins the global philanthropic community concern regarding the negative impacts of COVID-19 upon the sectors and issues that we fund.  The Foundation has elected to make a special series of awards to secure the scientific capacity for biodiversity monitoring in select African parks that are threatened by revenue loss during the pandemic. This investment in the work of the Wildlife Conservation Society is one of four special awards being made for 2020-2021.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) operates the largest and longest standing field conservation program in Africa with projects that protect some of the continent’s most ecologically intact wild places and iconic species. WCS is committed to conserving Africa’s wildlife through partnerships that benefit both people and nature and has identified three priority regions in Africa: Sudano-Sahel; Central African and Gulf of Guinea; and Eastern Africa, Madagascar, and Western Indian Ocean.

Biodiversity data streams are at risk of being disrupted or discontinued because of COVID-19-related budget cuts at four priority areas identified by WCS: Boma National Park, Mbe and Afi Reserves, Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, and Tarangire National Park. In response, WCS will ensure continued biodiversity monitoring and data collection in each of these four parks for two years. This project will also aim to catalyze collaboration and facilitate data sharing among the protected areas.

Boma National Park covers 20,000 square kilometers in South Sudan and is one of WCS’s key long-term, site-based programs in Africa. The Boma and Badingalo Parks ecosystem is ecologically linked with the Sudd, the largest wetland in Africa. It is home to critical populations of elephants, Nubian giraffe, and the great antelope migrations (>1.2 million) of white-eared kob, tiang, and Mongalla gazelle (the second largest land mammal migration in the world). Biodiversity monitoring at Boma Park has been conducted for more than 10 years by WCS, working in cooperation with the Wildlife Service and includes aerial surveys and reconnaissance, camera trapping to monitor wildlife population trends and relative abundance, habitat, and human activity. WCS support to the wildlife rangers through a co-management agreement has protected key endangered wildlife populations of the Park. Despite the armed conflict in the country over the past years, WCS has continued with its field efforts and monitoring program and wildlife protection efforts. The impact of COVID-19 in 2020 has created increased funding challenges to the Boma Park program, the JRS award will provide critical support for continuation of the long biological monitoring program of the Boma Park and surrounding areas (including community areas proposed for future conservancy designation).

Nigeria is a biodiversity hotspot with levels of endemism and species richness comparable to anywhere in the world. Nigeria’s Mbe mountains form an important habitat corridor linking Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary with the Okwangwo Division of Cross River National Park, and together these areas provide an important stronghold for a number of unique species, including the Cross River gorilla, a flagship species for conservation efforts in the region and the most threatened ape in Africa.

WCS monitoring and protection of the critically endangered Cross River gorilla and other wildlife is conducted mainly through support of SMART-based patrols by eco-guards. SMART is an improved law enforcement monitoring system and a suite of best practices that help protected area managers better monitor, evaluate, and adaptively manage patrolling activities. WCS currently employs 14 eco-guards in this area, most of whom are ex-hunters, to enforce local rules and regulations and reduce poaching and other illegal activities. Biodiversity monitoring efforts will be continued with the award from the JRS Biodiversity Foundation to the Mbe and Afi Reserves.

Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park (NNNP) covers more than 4,000 square kilometers of contiguous lowland rainforest in northern Republic of Congo and encompasses one of the most intact and biologically diverse forests in the Congo Basin. WCS operates as the Director of NNNP’s Management Unit under a 25-year Public Private Partnership for the management of NNNP with the Government of Congo. Biodiversity monitoring includes 20 years of elephant forest clearing, or bais, observations throughout NNNP, and methods that include camera traps, acoustic monitoring, aerial surveys, observation platforms at forest clearings, and ground-based sampling to monitor vertebrate species richness and relative abundance. Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park also participates in SMART-based ranger patrols and has maintained a stable elephant population inside the Park since 2006. The gorilla monitoring program in particular is typically dependent on contributions from US zoos that support field conservation, and this award will help offset the disruption in this funding.

Tarangire National Park is located in northern Tanzania, and is an important ecosystem for elephants, as well as other large mammals such as kudu, eland and leopard. WCS operates the monitoring program at Tarangire, where budget cuts place a 26-year series of ecological monitoring data at risk, including intensive monitoring of 28 known family groups of elephants. It is the second longest continuous study of elephants in Africa. The WCS monitoring team works alongside the Northern Tanzania Rangelands Initiative (NTRI), a collaborative effort to conserve the wider Tarangire-Manyara ecosystem. WCS is also looking to expand monitoring work in Tarangire to link up with several organizations in Kenya.

Caleb McClennen is WCS Vice President for Conservation Science and Solutions. In this role, Caleb leads WCS’s cross-cutting strategies designed to mitigate global drivers of environmental decline. Caleb also provides overall strategic leadership for WCS’s organizational efforts to build multi-institutional partnerships to heighten our conservation impact. Previously, Caleb directed WCS’s global marine conservation efforts to improve fisheries, establish effective marine reserves, and conserve some of the world’s most important marine biodiversity. He received his Master’s and PhD in International Environmental Policy and Development Economics from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.