With global conservation at a crossroads, has the time come to rethink strategies in sustaining our world’s wildlife? Bethany Sewell discusses how lockdown could lead to some positive changes in wildlife conservation, with environmental scientist and filmmaker Moza Ackroyd.

Over the past few months as humans have stayed indoors, wildlife has supposedly been taking over our ever-expanding urban dwellings. As sightings from dolphins on the Bosporus, to cougars wandering Santiago have been shared all over social media; it would seem that the separation between humans and nature is beginning to close. However, the picture is not looking so bright for the global conservation industry, as ecotourism has seen a downfall over the past few months.

Many organisations fund projects to monitor critically endangered species and rare habitats through ecotourism and recruitment of overseas volunteers. So, as the logistics of these projects become increasingly impossible to continue, is it time to rethink how we approach conservation post pandemic? And as the idea of ‘gap years’ and voluntourism student experiences have come to a halt, are we presented with new, more sustainable ways of helping wildlife on a local scale? In return, this could be a new and exciting opportunity to build strong conservation strategies worldwide.

Thinking back to a last summer, Moza describes her time and experience volunteering on a dolphin research and Marine conservation project in Zanzibar:

Image: Moza Ackroyd. ‘The boats seen through trees on Kizimkazi Dimbani beach.’

Last summer, I went to Zanzibar, for five weeks, to work as a dolphin research and marine conservation volunteer and visit my family living there. Zanzibar is an island in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of East Africa, and part of Tanzania. It’s famous for its trade history, spices, beautiful beaches, and coral reefs. However, not all is well with the marine world in paradise.

In Zanzibar, dolphin tourism is not regulated, and it was not uncommon to see over twenty tourist boats, all at once, chasing and blocking the path of dolphins. These occurrences have had a significant impact on Zanzibar’s dolphin population, which is predominantly along its south coast. As a result of the constant disturbance the dolphin population has declined, and they have been spending a longer amount of time underwater, further away from Kizimkazi (where the dolphin tours are based). Due to this combination of factors, sightings have become rarer.

Image: Moza Ackroyd. ‘Tourist boats close together because there has just been a dolphin sighting.’

Observing these changes in Dolphin ecology, African Impact with the Kizimkazi community, set up ‘Kizimkazi Ethical Dolphin Tours’, which trains boat drivers in the safest and most dolphin-friendly way to drive their boats and for tourists to enter the water conscious of the wildlife, slowly and quietly.

There are now more than twenty boat drivers dedicated to running ethical dolphin tours. The overall aim being that eventually all the dolphin tours in Kizimkazi will become ethical. Training programmes run throughout the year, supported by the community, African Impact volunteers and staff, which any dolphin tour boat driver can join for free.

Image: Moza Ackroyd. ‘Ethical boat driver.’

How do you think the pandemic could have benefited conservation, now and going into the future?

Our volunteering work was partly focused on ameliorating the effects of dolphin tourism. However, the Tanzanian Government closed Zanzibar to tourism during the pandemic, meaning the dolphins were left entirely undisturbed by boat tours. Despite the lifting of the closure in June, it is likely that there will be less tourists travelling to Zanzibar in the near future, due to ongoing international travel restrictions, and national lockdowns.

A positive environmental impact, stemming from this, is that the dolphins have enjoyed a long period of time with low levels of human disturbance. The hope being that the dolphins will return to their preferred habitat, in force; One afternoon we came across a pod of seventy beautiful bottlenose dolphins, including dolphin calves! All in all, we need to ensure positive conservation and environmental outcomes, which have been identified during the pandemic, are sustained, and not simply a short-term delay to catastrophic ecological impacts.

Many conservation and nature lovers alike have been thinking outside the box and suggesting new ways to take conservation forward into the future. Which organisations and projects have inspired you?

Some of these ideas are discussed in a recent study published in the Nature Ecology and Evolution Journal. It explains that this new time in history allows researchers to observe the effects human activity has on wildlife. The team behind the study suggest that this time of “unusually reduced human mobility,” which has been coined “anthropause,” may provide important understandings of human and wildlife interactions. As a result of this, the Covid-19 Bio-Logging Initiative has been formed, under the International Bio-logging society.

But what does this mean? Bio-Logging is a data collection method to measure and inform effective wildlife conservation. It involves electronically tagging animals using satellite tags, video cameras and accelerometers. These methods allow data collection on movement, behaviour and physiology of wild animals, therefore helping inform effective wildlife conservation. The Covid-19 Bio-Logging Initiative aims to “investigate global wildlife responses to altered levels of human activity during the pandemic.” The objective being to use bio-logging data collected before, after and during this time, to help review human-wildlife interactions and hence help inform new global efforts in sustainable human-wildlife synchronicity.

All over the world, field biologists have been getting involved and fitting animals with electronic tracking devices to help the initiative. You can get involved from home and have a look at the databases and ‘movebank’ showing the animal tracking that is happening all over the world.

Image: Moza Ackroyd. ‘Turtle, Baraka Natural Aquarium, Nungwi, Zanzibar.’

Ways to help with marine conservation from home include becoming involved with dedicated organisations. The Marine Conservation Society (MCSUK) did a talk at my middle school which inspired me to join their Adopt a Turtle scheme, which helps to protect endangered sea turtles.

Another way of taking action is to take part in conservation projects online, such as on citizen science site, Zooniverse. Also, new virtual projects set up as a result of the pandemic have the added benefit that in future, they may lead to fewer international flights being taken to distant locations; flying being a major contributor to climate change which affects marine environments.

Despite this period of restricted travel, there are plenty of opportunities to get involved with conservation projects, locally, globally, and remotely.

Over the past few months, conservation may have collectively become a part of each and every one of our lives; as we seem to be acknowledging our place within nature more than ever. But when all is said and done, conservation is about compromise and finding problems to solutions. A never-ending journey that is constantly transforming and changing the ways in which we work. And while it takes time to adapt to change, this could lead to conservation that is more accessible and positively impactful than ever before.

To find out more about Moza’s time volunteering on the Dolphin Research and Marine Conservation project in Zanzibar, check out her short film.