The JRS Biodiversity Foundation joins the global philanthropic community in concern regarding the negative impacts of COVID-19 upon the sectors and issues that we fund. The Foundation is awarding a special set of grants 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 Frankfurt Zoological Society is one of four special awards being made for 2020-2021.

Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) is an international conservation organization based in Frankfurt, Germany committed to preserving wildlands and biological diversity in the last remaining wilderness areas on the planet. FZS manages and conducts biodiversity monitoring activities in nine parks and protected areas in five African countries. Work in these areas depends on the partnership model with the host government and ranges from advisory to co-management, where FZS has total responsibility for park management and budget.  All nine areas in east Africa have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are facing program cuts due to either a decrease in FZS donor funding or a decrease in tourism revenue. JRS funds will sustain biodiversity research and monitoring activities for 24 months in the three parks most impacted: Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, Mahale National Park in Tanzania, and Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe.

Serengeti National Park covers 14,700 km² and is home to some of the world’s largest populations of wildebeest, zebra, Cape eland, lion, cheetah, hyena, and gazelles. Together with Kenya’s Masai Mara It hosts the largest ungulate migration on earth. The park is managed by Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA). FZS works in close partnership with TANAPA and has provided technical and financial support for the park since the 1950s. TANAPA’s conservation science budget in Serengeti has been cut and monitoring activities have been severely curtailed. Funds will support biodiversity monitoring efforts that focus on wildlife ranging behavior and counts, controlled burns and fire suppression, monitoring and removal of roadkill, collection of weather data from stations in the park, monitoring of park hydrology to guide water use, monitoring and removal of invasive species, animal rescue and other veterinary services, and data collection on disease and unnatural deaths.

Mahale Mountains National Park lies at the core of the Greater Mahale Ecosystem, which covers an area of almost 20,000 km² and is an integral part of the of the globally recognized Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Hotspot. The park also protects one of the world’s largest populations of chimpanzees. FZS has supported TANAPA’s conservation activities in and around the park for 30 years. The park’s Ecology department focuses on long-term chimpanzee monitoring, invasive species monitoring and removal, fire risk and impact, and climate change. Due to COVID-19 impacts, all of these activities have stopped. Continuation of the long-term chimpanzee monitoring program, primarily disease surveillance, is critical given the potential risks of COVID-19 to chimpanzees, as is the monitoring and removal of Senna spectabilis, an invasive legume that suppresses the growth of native trees and shrubs that are vital sources of food for wildlife. JRS funds will reinstate chimpanzee and invasive species monitoring, the highest priorities in the park.

Gonarezhou National Park is part of one of the world’s largest transfrontier conservation areas and harbors a population of close to 11,000 elephants within its 5,000 km². The park is managed by the Gonarezhou Conservation Trust, a co-management partnership between FZS and the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks). Biodiversity monitoring efforts in the park focus on predator numbers, elephant numbers and habitat use, baobab distribution and elephant damage, climate change (weather, hydrology), hunting pressure, and human-wildlife conflict. COVID-19 impacts to the park include staff salary cuts and expected staff reductions. The resulting drop in tourism revenue has also stalled the implementation of the Research and Monitoring Framework, an initiative to coordinate a robust and comprehensive research program in Gonarezhou. This program includes ongoing and mostly management-oriented research and monitoring, as well as the identification of important new areas of study to be established in partnership with outside research institutions. Funding from JRS will help to secure the salary of the Head of Research and Monitoring and to implement the Research and Monitoring Framework.

Dr. Peyton West is the Executive Director of Frankfurt Zoological Society – U.S., FZS’s partner organization in America. She has led the efforts of FZS to raise awareness and support in the U.S. for 8 years, with a particular focus on its African Program projects in DR Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Prior to this, she was a Senior Project Director at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)’s Office of Science, Policy and Society Programs, a Curatorial Fellow in the Mammal Department at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo, an exhibit consultant to the Bell Museum of Natural History, and field manager for the Serengeti Lion Project. She has authored and co-authored book chapters, scientific papers and popular articles, particularly on the ecology and behavior of African lions, and she earned her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota.