Virus is ‘biggest threat to conservation’

The Coronavirus outbreak is the biggest threat to conservation, the head of a charity which protects African wildlife has said.

The number of virus cases in Africa remains relatively low but the outbreak has devastated Africa’s tourism industry, which is worth an estimated $30 billion a year.

Charlie Mayhew of Tusk told the BBC that his organisation expects to lose two million dollars from cancelled fundraising events alone.

Mayhew said organisations across the continent were having to lay off thousands of staff members – leading to a decline in the number of rangers protecting wildlife, but also increasing the number of now unemployed people who are having to turn to poaching to survive.

“This is definitely the biggest threat we have seen to the conservative world in the thirty years I’ve been working in it,” he said, adding that the years of progress made across Africa could be “undone very quickly” by the virus.