The global pandemic due to COVID-19 (SARS-COV-2) has brought significant disruption to society and the environment. In this study, evidence from newspapers, social media, remote sensing and organisational data were used to assess the impact of national lockdown on forest and wildlife conservation, including the forest-dependent people in Bangladesh. The nationwide lockdown worsened the non-forest income-generating activities of the forest-dependent communities leading to increased pressure on neighbouring forests. Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) data reveal spurred deforestation alerts in May 2020, and about 222 ha forest area had been cleared during January to October 2020, which is 8% more than the whole year of 2019. Despite some positive information about free movement of wildlife in the forest, a total of 112 animals were killed, which is 28 times more than that of the same period in 2019. At the same time, wildlife rescuing plummeted by more than 40%. Complete banning of tourism activities brought a significant reduction in income and employment, leading to collapse of the tourism industry.
Post-Doc available to study the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on wildlife
The global pandemic due to COVID-19 has disrupted the forest related economy; animals killings soared 28 times in the lockdown period.Reading time: 2 min
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Publication date: Monday 08 November 2021