African Wildlife & Environment Issue 77 FINAL ISSUE

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

the likelihood of the virus spreading. In protected areas and many rural villages, the risk of infection is lower if certain mitigating factors are strictly enforced. In these times of strict lockdown, the spike in cases might be lowered, but the economic situation worsens, the longer the lockdown continues. Apart from the obvious economic challenges protected areas in the form of national parks and private reserves are facing as a result of

For now, one of the most immediate practical measures is to put people into quarantine so that they are isolated from others. The practice of quarantine began during the 14th century, in an effort to protect coastal cities from plague epidemics. Cautious port authorities required ships arriving in Venice from infected ports to sit at anchor for 40 days before landing.The origin of the word quarantine is from the Italian 'quaranta giorni', or 40 days. Scientists use a basic measure

the cessation of all tourist activities, the rise in poaching is a constant threat due to communities being hard hit and resorting to 'bush meat' poaching. As a result, the counter-poaching initiatives have been ramped up in most protected areas to protect the biodiversity that underpins the success of these areas. Some however have

to track the infectiousness of a disease called the reproduction number, also known as R0 or 'R naught'.This number tells us how many susceptible people, on average, each sick person will in turn infect. In South Africa there are far more people congregating in the city environments, where close contact is guaranteed, and this obviously heightens

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