Léa Coralie Moussavou leads community education and environmental awareness at Conservation Justice, a non-governmental organization that aims to protect threatened species from illegal hunting and the animal trade by improving wildlife law enforcement and deterrence.
Mongabay News interviewed Moussavou about her work with the organization and communities in Gabon, a country in Central Africa. Her job involves visiting schools, companies, and locals to talk about the significance of conservation.
Conservation Justice has operated since 2010, initially focusing on supporting wild elephants. However, the organization's efforts now encompass protections for other threatened animal species.
Moussavou described her own relationship to the connections between local culture, conservation, and the need for real conversations about both. As a child, she ate "bushmeat" (meat from poached wild animals), without realizing its source or environmental impact. She told Mongabay, "Today, after a number of training courses in this area and a heightened awareness, I'm careful about the meat I put on my plate."
Moussavou also said the effect of human activity on environmental outcomes wasn't a focus of her own schooling growing up, with teachers speaking broadly about nature but not about how people have the potential to harm or protect it. While this is still likely to be the case for many curricula across the world, she aims to educate people, especially children, so they can also be aware of how their actions affect the Earth.
Research published in 2017 in the journal Current Biology showed that from 2004 to 2014, over 25,000 wild elephants were killed in Gabon — 80% of the total population in the country at the time, according to Science. But many still don't understand the severity of animal poaching in Gabon.
Moussavou and the organization CJ aim to stop poaching and deforestation through environmental education. She notes that this awareness-raising is crucial to helping people understand that the work is not just about wildlife but about human life too.
Moussavou told Mongabay, "We need to make people understand that everything is linked, that we are all in the same boat, and that our project is not about protecting animals at the expense of human beings."
Roughly 90% of Gabon is rainforest. Preserving these biodiversity-rich habitats creates resilient ecosystems and helps prevent food and water insecurity as well. Rainforests can also play a role in regulating the Earth's climate — protecting them has the potential to sequester carbon dioxide, cool the planet, and reduce extreme weather events.
Saving endangered species and promoting sustainable resource management benefits the economy too. Moussavou explained, "Conservation plays a key role in our country, as this sector creates new jobs and helps the state to combat growing unemployment in Gabon."
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Definitely 👍 She has seen her and CJ's efforts work. In one area, locals are developing a system to sustainably manage wildlife. She says this is "a sign of a change in mentality, thanks to our awareness campaigns."
Some research has also pointed to the efficacy of ensuring gender inclusion in anti-poaching operations, though there has also been criticism of some such approaches as "spectacle."
Gabon is not alone in seeking to transform the public's understanding of conservation's importance to all facets of life. Moussavou's educational strategies have the potential to be successful in other countries, including the United States, where wildlife crimes can have a generational impact on everything from fragile habitats to the global economy.
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