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Dr Kalema-Zikusoka, wildlife vet: Saving gorillas

Dr Kalema-Zikusoka, wildlife vet: Saving gorillas

The Interview vor 4 Monaten

A Ugandan wildlife vet on how saving gorillas actually starts with improving human lives.

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“We were able to improve the health of the gorillas and people
together. What we do is we improve the health and the livelihoods
of the local communities. Because as long as people are poor,
they're going to keep entering the forest to poach and collect
firewood and they're going to end up making the gorillas sick, or
picking up diseases from wildlife in the forest.” Myra Anubi
speaks to Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, a Ugandan wildlife vet and
founder of Conservation Through Public Health, about the approach
she developed to help save mountain gorillas from extinction.

When she began her work in 1994, their numbers had fallen to just
a few hundred. Not just because of habitat loss and poaching, but
because of human diseases.

Rather than focusing only on treating the animals, she realised
the solution lay with the people living alongside them. Better
health and livelihood opportunities meant less poaching and less
need to rely on the forest, reducing the risk of disease and
protecting the gorillas.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our
world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC,
including episodes with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky,
and Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the UN. You can listen
on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at
0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out
three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your
podcasts. Presenter: Myra Anubi Producers: Osman Iqbal Editor:
Justine Lang and Damon Rose Get in touch with us on email
TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on
social media.

(Image: Dr Gladys Kalema Zikusoka Credit Kibuuka Mukisa)