Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka

Conservation Through Public Health: Gorilla Conservation Coffee – Uganda

Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is a Ugandan veterinarian and founder of Conservation Through Public Health, an organisation dedicated to the coexistence of endangered mountain gorillas, other wildlife, humans, and livestock in Africa.

Kalema-Zikusoka was Uganda’s first wildlife veterinary officer and was the star of the BBC documentary, Gladys the African Vet. In 2009 she won the Whitley Gold Award for her conservation work. In December 2021 she was proclaimed a United Nations Environment Programme’s Champion of the Earth for Science and Innovation for her work with the One Health initiative.

Following her demonstration of pathways for human diseases to harm or kill gorillas, Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka and a few others founded Conservation Through Public Health to improve both human and ecological health in Africa.

CTPH is a non-profit organisation based in Uganda and the USA that conducts programs that protect gorillas and other wildlife from human and livestock disease risk; that reduce human and livestock diseases in the vicinity of wildlife; that increase the local use of family planning; and that use Information/ Communication Technology both to help local development and to educate people about the environment. Kalema-Zikusoka is the CEO of the organisation.

“If you make the community feel that you care about them, then there’s less need to fight them.“

When Kalema-Zikusoka was 25, she was appointed to be the veterinary officer for the Ugandan Wildlife Service, which later merged with Uganda’s national parks to become the Uganda Wildlife Authority. She was the first person to hold that position. She pioneered the first wildlife translocation to restock Uganda’s national parks following years of poaching during Uganda’s civil wars.

In 2015, CTPH established a program called Gorilla Conservation Coffee. Under this arrangement, the non-profit improves the livelihood of the surrounding community by assisting in getting international market prices for the community’s Arabica coffee crop. With increased incomes, the community’s illnesses and disease burden is reduced. Hence less disease is transferred to the resident gorillas. Also, a small fee is charged and retained by the farmers, whenever tourists traverse their gardens, when on gorilla treks through the community.

She has global recognition for her “unique contribution to international environmental protection and conservation”, as related to her work in environmental protection and co-existence between communities and mountain gorillas in Uganda.

“Conservation has traditionally been about focusing on the wildlife species and their habitats and it hasn’t really involved people that much. It was all about fences and fines.”

Publication: Walking With Gorillas

Website 1) Gorilla Conservation Coffee
Website 2) Conservation Through Public Health

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GorillaConservationCoffee
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gladyskalemazikusoka/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-gladys-kalema-zikusoka-b26200a/
Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/DoctorGladys, https://twitter.com/GCCoffee1

Video 1) Youtube Channel – Conservation Through Public Health
Video 2) Youtube Channel – Gorilla Conservation Coffee