Numlock Sunday: Krista Langolis on the future of conservation without American support

Photo by Hu Chen on Unsplash

By Walt Hickey

Welcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.

This week, I spoke to Krista Langlois, an editor at BioGraphic who worked on the four-part feature series Conservation Enters a New Era. Here’s what I wrote one story from the package:

When USAID was dismantled early last year, there were enormous consequences for human beings, including the cutting of HIV/AIDS treatment. This funding cut has claimed an estimated 834,000 lives (two-thirds of them children) as well as $290 million lost for schools and clinics in Liberia alone. Beyond the human tragedy, USAID was the largest backer of biodiversity protection in the world and was a thrifty, inexpensive way to secure substantial conservation gains the world over. It directed $94,693,461 to East Africa alone, money which is now gone. This is having immediate consequences; for instance, the Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia paid guards to protect the forests. These guards are often directly rec…