Wildlife-Friendly Beef: Reconciling Conflicts between Wildlife Conservation and Livestock Agriculture in Southern Africa’s Largest Transfrontier Conservation Area
Principal Investigator: Steven Osofsky
Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences
Email: s.osofsky@cornell.edu
Sponsor: Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future
Title: Wildlife-Friendly Beef: Reconciling Conflicts between Wildlife Conservation and Livestock Agriculture in Southern Africa’s Largest Transfrontier Conservation Area
Project Amount: $142,750
Project Period: July 2017 to December 2018
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant):
Vast wildlife migration-disrupting fences are currently used to keep southern African cattle free from the foot and mouth disease (FMD) viruses harbored by wildlife, as international trade requires beef be free of FMD. A new proposed approach for processing beef so it cannot spread FMD would facilitate access to beef markets for small-scale farmers living with wildlife, as well as unlock the ecological and economic viability of the region’s vast transfrontier conservation areas by making disease control fencing unnecessary. If FMD management without fences proves feasible for beef trade, the implications for sustainable land use and livelihoods would be extraordinary.