Dr Kalema-Zikusoka, wildlife vet: Saving gorillas

“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.

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(Image: Dr Gladys Kalema Zikusoka Credit Kibuuka Mukisa)