Impoverished communities often turn to illegal extraction of resources from protected areas to alleviate economic pressures or to make monetary gains. Such practices can cause ecological damage and threaten animal populations. These communities also often face a high disease burden and typically do not have access to affordable health care. Here we argue that these two seemingly separate challenges may have a common solution. In particular, providing health care to communities adjacent to protected areas may be an efficient and effective way to reduce the disease burden while also improving local perceptions about protected areas, potentially reducing illegal extraction. We present a case study of a health centre on the edge of Kibale National Park, Uganda. The centre has provided care to c. 7,200 people since 2008 and its outreach programme extends to c. 4,500 schoolchildren each year. Contrasting the provision of health care to other means of improving community perceptions of protected areas suggests that health clinics have potential as a conservation tool in some situations and should be considered in future efforts to manage protected areas.

中文翻译：

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提供医疗保健以改善社区对保护区的看法

贫困社区经常求助于从保护区非法开采资源，以减轻经济压力或获取金钱收益。这种做法会造成生态破坏并威胁动物种群。这些社区还经常面临沉重的疾病负担，通常无法获得负担得起的医疗保健。在这里，我们认为这两个看似独立的挑战可能有一个共同的解决方案。特别是，向保护区附近的社区提供医疗保健可能是减轻疾病负担的有效途径，同时还能改善当地对保护区的看法，从而可能减少非法开采。我们介绍了乌干达基巴莱国家公园边缘的一个健康中心的案例研究。该中心为 c 提供了护理。7、自 2008 年以来已有 200 人，其外展计划扩展到 c。每年有 4,500 名学童。将提供医疗保健与提高社区对保护区认知的其他方式进行对比表明，在某些情况下，卫生诊所具有作为保护工具的潜力，应在未来管理保护区的努力中加以考虑。