CTPH achieves biodiversity conservation by enabling people, wildlife and livestock to coexist through improving their quality of life in and around Africa's protected areas
Conservation Through Public Health achieves gorilla conservation by enabling humans, wildlife and livestock to coexist through improving primary healthcare in and around Africa’s protected areas.
CTPH aims to be an internationally-renowned leader in gorilla research and conservation by improving the health of humans, wildlife and ecosystems that surround the gorillas, and by using a multidisciplinary approach which promotes sustainable animal and human health services, advocacy, education, and research.
The goals of CTPH are centered around an innovative integrated conservation and development approach that focuses on improving the health of local communities to support wildlife conservation through preventing and controlling disease transmission between closely genetically related species such as people and gorillas, and cattle and buffalo. Conservation Through Public Health envisions ecosystems where wildlife and people prosper in shared, dynamic, resilient, and healthy environments.
What CTPH does
Wildlife Health Monitoring
CTPH established an early warning system for disease outbreaks through wildlife fecal sample collection and analysis. In Bwindi Impenetrable National Park CTPH has trained rangers, trackers, field assistants, and community volunteers in gorilla health monitoring through recognizing clinical signs in gorillas and collecting fecal samples from night nests and fresh trails. Samples are analyzed at the Gorilla Research Clinic, which also serves as a veterinary clinic for other animals in the area.
Human Public Health
CTPH is working with the Kanungu District Medical Office and local health centers to improve the health of Bwindi communities. A Population, Health and Environment (PHE) approach is being used to reduce threats to mountain gorillas and other wildlife, by consolidating community based health care to promote family planning, and prevent and control TB, scabies, HIV/AIDS and dysentery. This is done by facilitating the formation of community health volunteer networks, which educate and encourage their community to be more hygienic and have better health practices and conservation attitudes.
Information, Education and Communication
The internet provided by the CTPH Telecentre makes the world smaller, enabling people and businesses to surpass geographical barriers instantaneously. Families are no longer limited to interaction in their own towns, but can reach the rest of the world with the press of a key, allowing them to learn from the international community and address the problems of isolation, poor health practices, and increase access to education and jobs to name a few. Community members, primarily youth, learn computer skills enabling them to become more actively involved in the ecotourism industry, such as e-commerce to market their crafts on the internet while learning about the important and delicate linkages between gorilla conservation, public health, ecotourism and sustainable livelihoods. Another benefit? As the local community’s education and international scope improves, most often so do their health practices.
