COVID-19, climate change and the edge effects

Abstract

This paper analyses how communities living near parks and wildlife sanctuaries have interacted with the compounded problems of climate change and COVID-19 in Africa. The paper further examines how African governments responded and the consequences thereof. Using the meta-data existing on COVID-19 and climate change in some parts of the continent, we were able to determine the effect of the pandemic and climate change on the communities living near parks and wildlife sanctuaries. COVID-19 is believed to be a disease that was transferred from the wild to people as a result of unsustainable exploitation of nature; hence, the pandemic is impacting protected areas and other parts of human existence. Some say that COVID-19 is a green swan, that is a ‘symbol of radically better times to come’ for the environment and the people on the edge. This is when the lockdowns prevented the tour-hungry populations from visiting on the suspicion that they bring invasive cultures and practices that cause the spread of the pandemic and climate change. But to others, it is a black swan flying with climate change. It increases resource competition, use of resource rents by governments, quick degradation of the environment and reduction of the social contract between citizens and the state. The findings of this paper reveal that for many protected areas, COVID-19 and climate change have already had significant negative impacts on the management capacity, budgets and effectiveness, and the incomes of local communities adjacent to wildlife areas. Further, climate change, aided by COVID-19, has disproportionate impacts on the people living near the protected areas. We recommend that governments in Africa need to be decisive in coming up with win-win solutions for the communities living near protected areas on the continent. A well-managed system for the protected areas and the communities around those areas can be part of the response to the pandemic and changing climate, reducing potential recurrences of such events and building a more sustainable future.