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The SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 illness are driving a global crisis. Governments have responded by restricting human movement, which has reduced economic activity. These changes may benefit biodiversity conservation in some ways, but in Africa, we contend that the net conservation impacts of COVID-19 will be strongly negative. Here, we describe how the crisis creates a perfect storm of reduced funding, restrictions on the operations of conservation agencies, and elevated human threats to nature. We identify the immediate steps necessary to address these challenges and support ongoing conservation efforts. We then highlight systemic flaws in contemporary conservation and identify opportunities to restructure for greater resilience. Finally, we emphasize the critical importance of conserving habitat and regulating unsafe wildlife trade practices to reduce the risk of future pandemics. In Africa, COVID-19 has created a perfect storm of reduced funding, restrictions on the operations of conservation agencies, and elevated human threats to nature. This Perspective discusses solutions to move beyond this immediate crisis.

Aim Species‐specific conservation strategies are frequently formulated based on species distribution maps, which are challenging to produce, especially at large spatial scales. Our aim was to use a novel empirical approach to predict the national distribution for all six large carnivore species found in Kenya to guide conservation and management decisions by identifying knowledge and conservation gaps. Location Kenya. Methods We collected data on carnivore presence and absence through questionnaire and sightings‐based surveys and analysed the combined data set using single‐season false‐positive occupancy models, which account for imperfect detections and false positives. To predict potential distributions and inform conservation strategies, we used the occupancy outputs to make predictions for unsampled areas and create occupancy‐based distribution maps where ψ > 0.50, to (1) quantify differences with IUCN Red List range maps, (2) quantify overlap with wildlife areas and (3) identify areas of high carnivore richness. Results Large carnivore occupancy was associated with land conversion, habitat and prey availability. Our results suggest that all six species are widely distributed across Kenya and reveal substantial differences to distribution maps compiled by the IUCN Red List. More specifically, our occupancy‐based distribution maps predict much larger distribution for African wild dog (5.09X), lion (4.77X) and leopard (1.46X), similar distribution for cheetah, and smaller distribution for spotted hyaena (0.84X) and striped hyaena (0.65X). For all large carnivores, the vast majority (~80%) of their predicted distribution falls outside wildlife areas and northern Kenya is predicted to have the highest large carnivore richness. Main conclusions Our results are encouraging as large carnivores may be widely distributed across Kenya, in some cases potentially more so than previously acknowledged. However, much of this range lies outside wildlife areas and represent areas of concern both for conservation and human livelihoods illustrating the challenges of conserving large carnivores across their range.

Protected areas fall far short of securing the space needed to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem function at a global scale and in the face of climate change. The prospects of conserving biodiversity in working landscapes help buffer the insularization effects of protected areas and hold great potential for biodiversity conservation on a landscape scale but depend on finding adequate space and a meaningful place in the lives of rural land users. Using a case study in southern Kenya, we show that the conservation of large open landscapes, biodiversity and the coexistence between wildlife and livestock can be achieved indirectly by reinforcing pastoral practices that depend on open space, mobility, social networks and institutional arrangements governing common‐pool resources. Pastoral practices and wildlife both depend on large multiscale interactions within interlinked social and ecological systems, which are threatened by land fragmentation, alienation and degradation. We show that large open spaces can be maintained by using a conservation approach starting from within community aspirations that emphasize the links between livelihoods, productivity, efficiency and resilience in pastoral economies and the secondary benefits of wildlife enterprises. Scaling up from an ecosystem to multi‐scale approach benefits pastoral communities by building resilience and new economic opportunities. In the process, the expanded scale conserves regional biodiversity and large free‐ranging herbivore and carnivore populations underpinning ecosystem function and the nationally important tourism industry centered on the Kenya–Tanzania boundary. The ‘inside‐out’ approach to the conservation of wildlife and biodiversity is place‐based, draws on local knowledge and informal governance arrangements and avoids the stigma of wildlife conservation driven by outside agencies. The human‐centered approach reinforces land health and spatial connectivity and encourages multi‐level and distributed governance arrangements embedded in large regional and national jurisdictions. Translated Kikemikali Maeneo ya uhifadhi, ukuzingatia mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa, hayajafikia kiwango kinachohitajika kudumisha uendelevu wa bianuwai na utenda kazi wa ikolojia ulimwenguni. Kuhifadhi bianuwai kwenye ardhi inayotumika na watu yaweza kusaidia kuzuia maeneo ya uhifadhi kuwa visiwa, hivyo basi kuimarisha uwezo wa kuhifadhi bianuwai kwa maeneo makubwa ya mazingira. Lakini hili lategemea kupata nafasi ya kutosha, na umuhimu wake kutambulika katika maisha ya watumia ardhi vijijini. Kutumia uchunguzi wetu kwenye eneo la kusini mwa Kenya, twaonyesha ya kwamba uhifadhi wa maeneo makubwa ya mazingira yaliyowazi, uhifadhi ya bianuwai, na usawa wa utangamano baina ya wanyamapori na mifugo kwawezekana kupitia kuimaarisha tabia za ufugaji zinazotegemea maeneo yaliyowazi, uhamaji, mifumo ya kijamii, na mipangilio ya taasisi zinazoongoza rasilimali za watuwengi kwa pamoja. Mila na itikadi miongoni wa jamii za ufugaji, na wanyamapori, wote hutegemea mwingiliano ya kijamii na kiikolojia, ambayo inayotishiwa na ugavi wa ardhi, kutengwa na uharibifu. Tunaonyesha kwamba maeneo mengi ya ardhi yaliyo wazi yaweza kudumishwa kutumia njia ya uhifadhi mazingra ambayo inanzia ndani ya matamanio ya jamii, ambayo inasisitiza uhusiano kati ya riziki, tija, ufanisi, na ujasiri katika uchumi wa ufugaji, na pili, faida zinginezo zitokanazo na biashara zinazotegemea wanyamapori. Kupanua kiwango kutoka kwa mfumo mmoja wa ikolojia, hadi kwa mifumo nyingi, inafaidi jamii za wafugaji kwa kujenga ujasiri na fursa mpya za kiuchumi. Katika mchakato huo, kiwango kilichopanuliwa huhifadhi bianuwai ya kikanda pamoja na idadi kubwa ya wanyamapori, walanyasi na walanyama, ambao inashikiria utendakazi wa ikolojia pamoja na kumarisha chumi muhimu ya utalii kwenye eneo ya mipaka ya Kenya na nchi jirani ya Tanzania. Njia hii ya, “kuanzia ndani kuelekea nje\" kakita uhifadhi wa wanyamapori na bianuwai, hutofautiana kutoka mahali moja hadi nyingine, kulingana na ujuzi ulioko mtaani na mipango ya utawala isiyo rasmi na huzuia unyanyapaa unaotokana na uhifadhi wa wanyamapori ambao unaendeshwa na mashirika ya nje. Njia hii inayozingatia binadamu, huimarisha afya ya ardhi, uunganisho wa anga na pia inahimiza mipangilio ya utawala ya ngazi tofauti iliyowekwa kwenye mamlaka kuu ya kikanda na ya kitaifa. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

In savannas, mapping grazing resources and indicators of land degradation is important for assessing ecosystem conditions and informing grazing and land management decisions. We investigated the effects of classifiers and used time series imagery—images acquired within and across seasons—on the accuracy of plant species maps. The study site was a grazed savanna in southern Kenya. We used Sentinel-2 multi-spectral imagery due to its high spatial (10–20 m) and temporal (five days) resolution with support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF) classifiers. The species mapped were important for grazing livestock and wildlife (three grass species), indicators of land degradation (one tree genus and one invasive shrub), and a fig tree species. The results show that increasing the number of images, including dry season imagery, results in improved classification accuracy regardless of the classifier (average increase in overall accuracy (OA) = 0.1632). SVM consistently outperformed RF, and the most accurate model and was SVM with a radial kernel using imagery from both wet and dry seasons (OA = 0.8217). Maps showed that seasonal grazing areas provide functionally different grazing opportunities and have different vegetation characteristics that are critical to a landscape’s ability to support large populations of both livestock and wildlife. This study highlights the potential of multi-spectral satellite imagery for species-level mapping of savannas.

Conservation in eastern and southern Africa has historically centered on megafauna and protected areas (PAs), yet, in the face of rapid change, biodiversity outside of PAs is under threat. With policy changes underway in Kenya, we have performed an analysis that (a) quantifies how inclusive the current PA network is of the country's vertebrate diversity, and (b) identifies wildlife policy areas that need reform to achieve conservation targets. We found that species richness of mammals, birds, and amphibians is highest in areas of intermediate human pressures, whereas Kenya's current wildlife conservation policy focuses on land use (LU) types with the least human pressure. Percentage of range overlap for amphibians, mammals, and birds were all highest in rangelands followed by agricultural (cultivated) areas and then national PAs. Out of 1,535 terrestrial vertebrate species, 80 had no range overlap with national PAs. The current wildlife PA network adequately covers only 16% of amphibians, 45% of birds, and 41% of mammals. In addition, we used a biodiversity importance score which demonstrated the importance of rangelands and agricultural areas for biodiversity conservation. Finally, we observed that the distribution of current PAs, and the focus of Kenya's wildlife policy in general, is in areas of lowest human pressure, often with the highest large mammal densities. However, other biodiversity indicators ‐ such as bird and plant species richness ‐ show that areas under human‐dominated LU currently support substantial biodiversity. Overall, our analysis demonstrates that formal PAs and wildlife policy presently cover only a small fraction of national biodiversity, which resides mainly in human‐dominated landscapes that are undergoing rapid change. These findings echo global calls for a landscape‐based approach to conservation policy and practice that promotes the coexistence of people and wildlife within social‐ecological systems.

Recent increases in ivory poaching have depressed African elephant populations. Successful enforcement has led to ivory stockpiling. Stockpile destruction is becoming increasingly popular, and most destruction has occurred in the last 5 years. Ivory destruction is intended to send a strong message against ivory consumption, both in promoting a taboo on ivory use and catalyzing policy change. However, there has been no effort to establish the distribution and extent of media reporting on ivory destruction events globally. We analyzed media coverage of the largest ivory destruction event in history (Kenya, 30 April 2016) across 11 nation states connected to ivory trade. We used an online-media crawling tool to search online media outlets and subjected 5 of the largest print newspapers (by circulation) in 5 nations of interest to content analysis. Most online news on the ivory burn came from the United States (81% of 1944 articles), whereas most of the print news articles came from Kenya (61% of 157 articles). Eighty-six to 97% of all online articles reported the burn as a positive conservation action, whereas 4–50% discussed ivory burning as having a negative impact on elephant conservation. Most articles discussed law enforcement and trade bans as effective for elephant conservation. There was more relative search interest globally in the 2016 Kenyan ivory burn than any other burn in 5 years. Ours is the first attempt to track the reach of media coverage relative to an ivory burn and provides a case study in tracking the effects of a conservation-marketing event. Los incrementos recientes del tráfico de marfil han deprimido las poblaciones de elefante africano. La aplicación exitosa de la ley ha resultado en el acopio de marfil. La destrucción de estas reservas de marfil es cada vez más popular y la mayor parte de la destrucción ha ocurrido en los últimos cinco años. La destrucción del marfil tiene la intención de enviar un mensaje firm e en contra del consumo de marfil promoviendo el uso del marfil como un tabú y catalizando cambios en la política. Sin embargo, no ha habido un esfuerzo para establecer la distribución y extensión de la cobertura m undial de los medios sobre los eventos de destrucción de marfil. Analizamos la cobertura mediática sobre el evento de destrucción de marfil más grande en la historia (30 de abril de 2016 Kenia) en once países conectados con el mercado de marfil. Usamos una herramienta de rastreo de medios en línea para buscar canales mediáticos en línea y sometimos a cinco de losprincipales períodos impresos (por circulación) en los cinco países de interés para el análisis de contenido. La mayoría de las noticias en línea sobre la quema de marfil vino de los Estados Unidos (81 % de los 1,944 artículos), mientras que la mayoría de los artículos impresosprovino de Kenia (61% de los 157 artículos). Del 86% al 97% de todos los artículos en línea reportaron la quema como una acción positiva de conservación, mientras que del 4% al 50% de los artículos discutieron que la quema de m arfil tiene un impacto negativo sobre la conservación de los elefantes. La mayoría de los artículos argumentaron que la aplicación de la ley y la prohibición del mercado son efectivas para la conservación de los elefantes. Hubo un mayor interés mundial de búsqueda relativo a la quema de marfil en Kenia en 2016 que con respecto a cualquiera de las otras quemas en cinco años. Nuestro trabajo es elprim er intento por rastrear el alcance de la cobertura mediática en relación a una quema de marfil y proporciona un estudio de caso en el seguimiento de los efectos de un evento de mercadotecnia de la conservación. 摘要：最近象牙偷猎的增加导致非洲大象种群減少。而执法的成功落实使象牙大量囤积。现在越来越多的囤积 象牙巳被销毁，且大部分销毁发生在最近五年内。进行象牙销毁是为了强烈反对象牙消费，这既能促成对象牙 使用的忌讳，又能促进政策的改革。然而，目前还没有建立起全球的媒体对象牙销毁事件大范围的深入报道。我们分析了 1 1个与象牙贸易有关的国家对历史上最大规模象牙销毁事件(肯尼亚 2016年4 月3 0 曰)的媒体 覆盖度。我们用网络媒体抓取工具来捜索网络媒体，并对我们关注的五个国家的五个发行量最大的报纸媒体进 行了内容分析。焚烧象牙的网络新闻大多来自美国（占1，944篇文章的81%)，而报纸新闻大多来自肯尼亚（占 157篇文章的61%)。86 - 97% 的网络报道认为焚烧象牙是ー种积极的保护行动，同时有4-50% 的文章讨论 到此举对大象保护存在负面影响。大多数文章认为法律的实施和贸易禁止对大象保护有作用。全球范围内，对 2016 年肯尼亚象牙焚烧的搜索兴趣是这五年的象牙焚烧事件中最多的。我们的研究首次试图追踪媒体报道对 象牙焚烧的覆盖范围，并提供了追踪保护市场事件影响的ー个案例研究。

The recent call to halt biodiversity loss by protecting half the planet has been hotly contested because of the extent to which people might be excluded from these landscapes. It is clear that incorporating landscapes that implicitly work for indigenous people is vital to achieving any sustainable targets. We examine an attempt to balance the trade‐offs between conservation and development in Enonkishu Conservancy in the Maasai Mara, using a working landscape approach. Mobile livestock production strategies are theoretically consistent with wildlife‐based activities and can present a win‐win solution for both conservation and development. We explore the success and failings of Enonkishu's evolving attempts to achieve this: addressing the criticism of the conservation sector that it fails to learn from its mistakes. We found that Enonkishu has had considerable positive conservation outcomes, preventing the continued encroachment of farmland and maintaining and improving rangeland health relative to the surrounding area, while maintaining diverse and large populations of wildlife and livestock. The learning from certain ventures that failed, particularly on livestock, has created institutions and governance that, while still evolving, are more robust and relevant for conservancy members, by being fluid and inclusive. Practical implication: Diverse revenue streams (beyond tourism, including a residential estate, livestock venture and philanthropy) enabled Enonkishu to withstand the pressures of COVID‐19. Livestock is crucial for defining the vision of the conservancy, and the institutions and governance that underpin it. Enonkishu Conservancy theory of change summary including their end goals, mission and vision and how these can be achieved. Diverse revenue streams enabled Enonkishu to withstand the pressures of COVID‐19. Livestock is crucial for defining the vision of the conservancy, and the institutions and governance that underpin it.

Militarisation of conservation (sometimes known as 'green militarisation') is an issue of growing international interest. Rhino horn is immensely valuable (in 2013 its value exceeded that of gold or cocaine), and its illegal trade has attracted widespread attention. Conservationists have declared a 'war' on poaching, with extensive military resources deployed to combat it. This sometimes includes operations which are referred to, particularly in the media, as 'shoot-to-kill'. These can be tantamount to extra-judicial killings. We scrutinise this issue using 'Just War' principles, to explore whether the 'war' on poaching meets the criteria expected of armed conflict. Our perspective suggests that it fails both ethical and pragmatic examination. This piece encourages conservation scientists, and the public, to consider which actions are justified in protecting wildlife, and how we should rethink conservation policy to achieve ethical, successful outcomes for both people and wildlife.