The good, the bad and the ugly of COVID-19 lockdown effects on wildlife conservation: Insights from the first European locked down country

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic zoonosis has determined extensive lockdowns worldwide that provide an unprecedented opportunity to understand how large-scale shifts of human activities can impact wildlife. We addressed the impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on wildlife in Italy, the first European country that performed a countrywide lockdown, and identified potentially beneficial and negative consequences for wildlife conservation and management. We combined a qualitative analysis of social media information with field data from multiple taxa, data from citizen science projects, and questionnaires addressed to managers of protected areas. Both social media information and field data suggest that a reduction of human disturbance allowed wildlife to exploit new habitats and increase daily activity. The field data confirmed some positive effects on wildlife conservation, such as an increase in species richness in temporarily less-disturbed habitats, a higher breeding success of an aerial insectivorous bird, and reduction of road-killing of both amphibians and reptiles. Despite some positive effects, our data also highlighted several negative impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on wildlife. The lower human disturbance linked to lockdown was in fact beneficial for invasive alien species. Results from questionnaires addressed to managers of protected areas highlighted that the COVID-19 lockdown interrupted actions for the control of invasive alien species, and hampered conservation activities targeting threatened taxa. Furthermore, the reduction of enforcement could cause a surge of illegal killing of wildlife. The COVID-19 crisis, besides having deep socio-economic impacts, might profoundly affect wildlife conservation, with potentially long-lasting effects.

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Management of European Protected Areas and Policy Implications

“…These measures were aimed at reducing the spread of the virus but also decreased significantly the number of people visiting outdoor spaces [25], including PAs, particularly those located in more remote areas, as is often the case for many larger PAs. In European countries, where strict lockdown restrictions were imposed, a reduction in visitor numbers was initially observed (e.g., [26,27]). Likewise, the number of visitors increased rapidly as soon as these restrictions were eased [27][28][29].…”

The Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Urban Street Litter in South Africa

“…The COVID-19 pandemic saw an unprecedented global 'lockdown', with almost two-thirds of the world's human population placed under some sort of confinement by early April 2020 (Bates et al 2020). This offered a unique opportunity to study the impact of humans on the environment (Lindsey et al 2020;Manenti et al 2020;Rutz et al 2020). One of the most immediate and visible impacts was the increase in air quality linked to reduced air pollution (Dutheil et al 2020;Muhammad et al 2020;Stratoulias and Nuthammachot 2020, but see Wang et al 2020).…”

Environmental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic from a (marine) ecological perspective

“…Although some wildlife sighting reports may have been fabricated or exaggerated, they indicate that many types of wild organism benefitted from the reduced exposure to people during the pandemic, with field data confirming increases in species richness in temporarily less-disturbed habitats (e.g. Manenti et al 2020). Similar benefits from reductions in human activities were previously observed in large protected areas or during prolonged episodes of war (Lotze et al 2011, as well as in specific areas such as in the exclusion zones around the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear plants and the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea (e.g.…”

“…This can hamper the collection of continuous time series of observations from natural systems, which in turn are fundamental for ecosystem assessment, management and, ultimately, conservation (Bates et al 2020, Corlett et al 2020, Manenti et al 2020. Governments and conservation organizations faced challenges to ensure surveillance, enforcement and management of national parks and natural protected areas during the lockdown, with a reported increase in illegal hunting and poaching (Buckley 2020, Corlett et al 2020, Gardner 2020, Manenti et al 2020. In the future, conservation organizations, environmental charities and research institutions may face important losses of income and funding, which may have impacts on their ability to tackle climate change and to halt declines in biodiversity.…”