On the Fundayao Podcast, host Timo Balz speaks with Professor Walter Musakwa (University of Johannesburg, Fundayao co-founder) about human–wildlife conflict in Southern Africa, where people and animals increasingly share space due to land clearing, population growth, unfenced and transboundary parks, and broader pressures such as climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss, leading to crop and infrastructure damage, injuries, and deaths. Musakwa outlines geospatial approaches to identify and manage conflict, including high-resolution satellite imagery (e.g., Pleiades for large herbivores), GPS collars, camera traps, acoustic “soundscape” devices, and participatory mapping via cell phones and community diaries. He emphasizes combining indigenous knowledge with GIS to locate hotspots and corridors, support community-led solutions, inform park responses, and influence policy, while democratizing access through open data and simple tools like Google Earth and possibly Baidu Maps.
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
01:12 What Human Wildlife Conflict Means
03:10 Why Conflict Is Increasing
04:08 Remote Sensing and GIS Methods
07:16 Seeing Animals From Space
08:23 Participatory Mapping and Trust
09:06 Citizen Science Upload Initiative
12:28 Hotspots Policy and Park Response
15:36 Indigenous Knowledge Meets Satellites
18:47 Democratizing Data Access
21:54 China Africa Satellite Data Potential
24:38 Advice for Early Career Scientists
28:08 Closing and Call to Connect