Another Corona-Crisis

Since the pandemic began, I've been spending a lot of time fretting about how zoos and aquariums are holding up to the loss of revenue caused by closures.  This is in no small part driven by the fact that my paycheck comes from one.   Unfortunately, zoos and aquariums aren't the only places that are seeing a disappearance of visitors in these chaotic times.  If people aren't breaking their quarantine to go down the street to their local zoo, you can certainly bet that vacations abroad - including vacations that are ecotourist in nature - are also on hold.

That undoubtedly has made a lot of people very sad - I remember how excited I was to go to Africa, and how upset I would be if the chance to go was snatched away at the last minute.  It can also be bad for animals.

In many parts of the world that are economically poor but rich in biodiversity, wildlife tourism is a major source of revenue.  Tourism provides local governments with the financial resources to protect their wildlife and provides local peoples with a vested interested in protecting wildlife, and maybe even turning a more-tolerant eye to some of the less-convenient aspects of living in proximity to wild animals, such as crop-raiding elephants.  If those cash cows dry up, suddenly protecting wildlife doesn't seem like such a great investment for people who, biodiversity or not, need to make a living.

Park rangers and guides can find themselves being laid off.  Tour operators, hoteliers, and restaurateurs find themselves with no business.  Some folks may find themselves with no other options than to poach, illegally cut wood, or perform other exploitative and unsustainable practices.   If they do, they'll probably find fewer paid park employees to stand in their way.

At the same time, some ecotourism options may have to be shuttered even after the pandemic ends, at least until we better understand it.  How awful would it be if some American or European trekker on vacation in Rwanda accidentally gave the last mountain gorillas coronavirus and pushed the species over the edge?

In the two months or so since this disaster has began, it's become kind of a tacky cliche that people claim that the natural world is rebounding ("Earth is healing... we're the real virus... blah, blah, blah").  In truth, we're all in this together.  Sure, theoretically the natural world will survive the tanking of our economy... but I'd hate to see what kind of damage we'd do on our way down.