Zoomap - Pandemic prevention project launched
The Zoomap research project at the Biosphere Reserves Institute of the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) has started work together with partners from Mongolia and the Philippines. The official kick-off event on 31 May 2023 of the project funded by the Volkswagen Foundation was attended by the project team, the Ambassador of Mongolia B. Mandakhbileg and the Ambassador of the Philippines Irene Susan B. Navidad and the programme manager of the Volkswagen Foundation, Dr Matthias Nöllenburg.
They all shared an awareness of the need for research in this socio-ecological field, as the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the danger of pandemics arising from the transmission of viruses from wild animals to humans.
The Volkswagen Foundation is funding the research project as part of the Social Transformation profile area with the systemic approach to pandemic prevention and combating zoonotic diseases at the socio-ecological interface with 1,045,900 euros. Professor Dr Denise Margaret S. Matias from the Biosphere Reserves Institute and her cooperation partners from Palawan State University (Philippines) and the Mongolian University of Life Sciences (Mongolia) are researching how human interaction with wild animals increases - or reduces - the risk of zoonoses and pandemics. Specifically, the researchers will work with communities in Mongolia and the Philippines. The consumption of the Tarbagan marmot (Marmota sibirica) in Mongolia and the trade in the Philippine pangolin (Manis culionensis) in the Philippines are at the centre of the project. Both species are endangered key ecological species and at the same time hosts of bacteria and viruses in the habitats of indigenous peoples. Methods from the social and natural sciences are used to map past, present and future cultural practices surrounding the consumption of marmots and the trade in pangolins and to develop culturally adapted plans for the containment of zoonoses together with social actors.
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