Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Primate Research and Conservation

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  • Kim E. Reuter
  • Seheno Andriantsaralaza
  • Hansen, Malene Friis
  • Marni Lafleur
  • Leandro Jerusalinsky
  • Edward E. Louis
  • Jonah Ratzimbazafy
  • Elizabeth A. Williamson
  • Russell A. Mittermeier

There is evidence to suggest that the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may hamper our achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Here, we use nonhuman primates as a case study to examine the impacts of COVID-19 on the ability to achieve biodiversity conservation and management sustainability targets. We collected data through a survey of members of the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group from January to March 2022. Of the 93 ex-perts that responded to our survey, we found that 39% had not been able to visit any of their field sites since March 2020, 54% said they had less funding available for their primate-related work, and only one out of ten said they had managed to achieve at least 76–100% of their planned primate-related work since March 2020. Six out of ten respondents (61%) felt that primate conservation efforts in protected areas were worse than before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and one-third (33%) felt hunting was happening more frequently than before. This study provides evidence of the impacts of COVID-19 on progress towards achieving the SDGs, and provides practical lessons learned for biodiversity conservation efforts moving forward.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1214
JournalAnimals
Volume12
Issue number9
Number of pages18
ISSN2076-2615
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Li-censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

    Research areas

  • conservation, COVID-19, novel coronavirus, primates, SARS-CoV-2, sustainability

ID: 307526671