Michael O'Brien-Oneyka

Michael O'Brien-Oneyka, a protected areas specialist based in Kenya, speaks with Earth Live about the devastating impact of COVID-19 on wildlife conservation and the communities that depend on it.

When international tourism ground to a halt in 2020, the economic model that supports protected areas across East Africa collapsed almost overnight. O'Brien-Oneyka describes the cascading effects: lost revenue for park management, job losses in communities surrounding protected areas, and a sharp increase in poaching and illegal resource extraction as alternative livelihoods disappeared. The conversation is a stark illustration of how fragile the funding model for conservation can be.

The interview offers critical lessons for building more resilient conservation economies, the importance of diversifying revenue sources beyond tourism, and why the well-being of communities living near protected areas must be central to any conservation strategy.