On the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe off the coast of Central Africa
lives a giant.
Alright, admittedly it's a small giant, but it's pretty big by snail standards.
This is the Obô giant snail and it's under threat.
So we at Mossy Earth are working together with our partners to help secure its future.
But some of you may be asking. It's just a big snail, right?
There are countless threatened species, so why should we care about this particular one?
Well, slugs and snails are widely misunderstood creatures.
Many of us grow up knowing them as these strange, slimy blobs
that leave trails everywhere and wreak havoc on the garden plants.
But they're so much more than that.
As detritivores they play an important part
in the decomposition process by breaking down dead material
and releasing nutrients back into the soil.
Much like earthworms, they're an essential part of maintaining a healthy ecosystem.
And this particular species is also culturally important,
as it has been traditionally harvested for food and medicine on the islands.
As you can imagine, that's something that goes both in favour and against the snail here.
It provides an extra reason for its protection,
but it's also a big part of why it's in this situation in the first place.
To help me explain the threats facing this species, we have Martina,
the conservation biologist who's been working directly
to protect these snails since 2017 while developing her Ph.D. and the threats
that we're trying to combat can be broken down into three categories.
The first is the degradation of its habitats, the forests in both islands.
Then there is overharvesting and then there is the introduction
of invasive species, such as the West African giant
land snail that might be passing a disease
that contributed to the decline of this species.
While the IUCN lists the snail as vulnerable, it was last assessed
in 1996, and over the past couple of decades
the number of snails has fallen by approximately 75%,
with their range withdrawing by an estimated 40% on Príncipe Island.
Because of this, our partners have proposed
changing the snails listing to endangered to better represent its current state.
While I could sit here and rattle off stats and figures to you all day,
the snails perception across generations on São Tomé and Príncipe
tell the story of its sharp decline better than I ever could.
The elders know of the snails and have seen them gradually disappear from their lives,
whereas young children are forgetting or didn't even know of the existence
of a species that played such a major part in the lives of their grandparents.
Nobody wants this species gone.
So how are we fighting to bring it back?
So in 2020 several stakeholders in both islands
joined to make the first single species action plan
for the conservation of the species.
Mossy Earth is funding three separate activities under this plan.
one with Fundação Príncipe surveys the most inaccessible areas of the islands
forests in an effort to greater understand the distribution and ecology of the species.
Another takes place on São Tomé and supports the Obô Giant Snail's
Conservation Center to find out more about its diet, reproduction
and the diseases that threaten it.
The third is developed with Lisbon University
and aims to learn more about the genetics of the species
and what areas have the greatest genetic diversity
so that we can decide which locations are more critical for conservation.
Species like the Obô Giant Snail often silently go extinct, as it's far
easier to promote projects around more traditionally cute or popular animals.
I mean, let's be honest here.
If it wasn't for the extraordinary size of this species,
you probably wouldn't be hearing about it right now.
At Mossy Earth, we make a point of funding these less supported animals, and we can only do so
thanks to our members, but with that being said,
we still need to be selective with what we do.
One in four species are at risk of extinction,
and it's nowhere near possible to do projects like this for them all.
If you have the money spare then supporting organizations like us helps,
but the best thing you can do is to start at home.
Help to change the way we view the slimy and the shelled, learn
about your local environment and correct any misconceptions you might have had.
If you have a garden then plant some native species, have a wild area,
and find environmentally friendly alternatives to pesticides.
This is an incredible species, but wherever you are in the world,
you'll be amazed at what you can find around you
that's just begging to have a place to stay.
As the old saying goes, build it and they will come.
But if all this talk of snails has got you craving more,
then why not check out our ongoing series
about our effort to save four snail species on the Madeira Archipelago.
If you couldn't tell, we're kind of big fans of snails here.
Until next time. Cheers.