AHEAD
The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Animal Health for the Environment And Development (AHEAD) initiative was created by WCS’ Field Veterinary Program in response to the growing recognition of the critical role of animal health in both conservation and development projects. Throughout the world, domestic and wild animals are coming into ever-more intimate contact. Without adequate scientific knowledge and planning, the consequences can be detrimental on one or both sides of the proverbial fence. But armed with the tools and expertise that the animal health sciences provide, conservation and development objectives have a much greater chance of being realized - particularly at the critical wildlife / livestock interface where conservation and agricultural interests meet head-on. The AHEAD initiative focuses on several themes of critical importance to the future of animal agriculture and wildlife: competition over grazing and water resources, disease mitigation, sustainable food security, and other issues and potential sources of conflict related to overall land-use decisions and economics. To date, neither nongovernmental organizations, nor aid agencies, nor academia have holistically addressed the landscape-level nexus represented by the wildlife health / domestic animal health / human health triangle.
AHEAD has played an important role during COMACO's early beginnings, with assistance to develop improved husbandry of village chickens in Luangwa Valley as a way of reducing local dependencies on wildlife meat. Additional collaborations are under development.
See www.wcs-ahead.org for more information.
