Bats are a highly diverse order of mammals found across the world and are facing major conservation threats including land-use change, disturbance, disease, hunting, and climate change (Frick et al., 2020). Some bat species can be reservoir hosts to zoonotic pathogens, meaning that they naturally harbor these pathogens and serve as a source of them (Luis et al., 2013; Brook and Dobson, 2015; Johnson et al., 2020). Following sporadic outbreaks of Nipah Virus in South Asia, the 2002 SARS epidemic, Marburg virus in Central Africa, and the COVID-19 pandemic, fear of bats increased due to expanding awareness of zoonotic spillover risks (Lu et al., 2021; Ejotre et al., 2022; Nanni et al., 2022; Straka and Voigt, 2022; Osofsky et al., 2023). Pressures like habitat disturbance and climate change further increase the risk for zoonotic spillover: as bats become stressed, they are more susceptible to infection and increased pathogen shedding (or releasing pathogens into the environment via excrement or saliva) (Plowright et al., 2024). Many of these threats also increase the potential for contact between bats and humans, which also increases the risk for zoonotic spillover (Eby et al., 2023; Plowright et al., 2024).

One Health, which recognizes that animal, human, and environmental health are interdependent and must be promoted simultaneously, can be used to promote biophilia, or a desire to connect with nature. As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, bat and biodiversity conservation must be promoted writ large to reduce zoonotic spillover risks and prevent pandemics before they begin (Eby et al., 2023; Weber et al., 2023; Plowright et al., 2024; Reaser et al., 2024). Protecting bat populations and their habitats offers significant co-benefits for people and bats; these activities reduce stress and viral shedding in bats while also reducing human-bat interactions. This provides primary prevention of pandemics by reducing the risk of pathogens emerging in the first place. This protection also preserves functioning ecosystem services like pollination and insect control. As key ecosystem players often persecuted due to fear of disease, bats exemplify the need for a One Health approach and biophilia promotion.

Bat diversity is highest in equatorial regions, which are also hotspots for zoonotic diseases and where the bat species known to be zoonotic reservoirs are most commonly found (Schneeberger and Voigt, 2015; Guth et al., 2022).

Activities such as hunting bats for meat consumption or wildlife trade (Latinne et al., 2020; Tanalgo et al., 2023), guano harvesting (Thet and Mya, 2015), cave tourism (Chiarini et al., 2022), and persecution (Schneeberger and Voigt, 2015), which bring people into close proximity with bats, are prevalent in these regions. To address the risks posed by these activities, researchers emphasize the need for integrated approaches that combine biodiversity conservation and public health efforts (Glidden et al., 2021). Strengthening the capacity of conservation and public health leaders in these regions is crucial not only for protecting these species but also for preventing zoonotic spillover (Amuguni et al., 2017). While programs exist that promote either conservation or public health, few address both simultaneously, highlighting a critical gap in the integration of these efforts. Education and collaboration between conservationists and other sectors are crucial for preventing future zoonotic outbreaks and protecting bat populations.

MENTOR-Bat is a fellowship program that builds upon previous U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) MENTOR conservation initiatives, focusing on enhancing the technical, research, and leadership capacities of early-career professionals from the Global South in promoting both conservation and public health. Co-designed with Bat Conservation International (BCI), a science-based, not-for-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO), the program aims to equip fellows with the skills needed to design, implement, and sustain One Health conservation initiatives that protect bats and their habitats while reducing pandemic risks.

Since 1989, the USFWS International Affairs Program has supported over 700 partner organizations to protect wildlife and key wildlife strongholds while developing conservation champions. Recognizing that capacity development is critical for conservation success, USFWS International Affairs launched the Mentoring for Environmental Training in Outreach and Resource Conservation (MENTOR) Program in 2008 to train professionals in technical competencies to promote evidence-based approaches to conservation (Abu-Bakarr et al., 2022). The MENTOR model combines academic and field-based approaches through experiential learning, training, conservation planning, project implementation, mentoring, and problem solving. Fellows earn post-graduate degrees, diplomas, or certificates from national and regional colleges and universities.

Through seven programs, USFWS MENTOR has supported 61 fellows from 11 African countries, fostering conservation leadership across issues including the bushmeat trade, extractive industries, fisheries management, and manatee, great ape, and pangolin conservation (Abu-Bakarr et al., 2022). Alumni of the program have gone on to lead conservation initiatives within governments, NGOs, and the private sector; perform research; manage national parks; and become mentors themselves for new conservationists. They are contributing to long-term conservation leadership and capacity development within program countries and internationally (Abu-Bakarr et al., 2022).

MENTOR-Bat is the first multiregional iteration of the USFWS MENTOR Programs and spans three continents with cohorts from Cameroon, Colombia, and Indonesia. Under the American Rescue Plan Act that the U.S. government enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, USFWS received funding “for research and extension activities to strengthen early detection, rapid response, and science-based management to address wildlife disease outbreaks before they become pandemics and strengthen capacity for wildlife health monitoring to enhance early detection of diseases that have capacity to jump the species barrier and pose a risk in the United States”. USFWS International Affairs recognized the opportunity to apply the MENTOR model by establishing transdisciplinary teams aimed at reducing high-risk interactions between humans and bats while promoting bat conservation (The American Rescue Plan Act, 2023). The program advances the established USFWS MENTOR Model of connecting transdisciplinary teams of fellows with long-term mentors, senior conservation leaders, and international experts who guide the fellows, teach problem solving techniques, and foster the development of creative solutions in learning partnerships that continue throughout the careers of both mentors and fellows.

Each country MENTOR-Bat cohort consists of three fellows and one mentor, selected through a competitive application and interview process. Each mentor is a bat ecology, behavior, and conservation expert while fellows come from an array of backgrounds, including ecology, wildlife conservation, veterinary medicine, virology, environmental education, geology, and public health. The eighteen-month program consists of virtual learning; in-person workshops; pilot project design and on-the-ground project implementation in program countries; educational outreach about bat conservation and One Health in program countries; a final in-person MENTOR-Bat Outcomes Workshop; and a MENTOR Forum on conservation leadership. The project structure is as follows:

MENTOR-Bat launched in Colombia in April 2024 and cross-cutting themes emerged across the cohorts, including a passion for community education on bat conservation and healthy coexistence; understanding how ecological pressure on bats can increase zoonotic disease spillover risks; and building an international network of professionals who are interested in and passionate about bat conservation and community outreach for coexisting with bats.

Many bat conservation programs do not incorporate public health initiatives or zoonotic spillover risk reduction messaging. Conversely, many public health campaigns advise people to avoid contact with bats without also educating about their ecological benefits and how safe coexistence is possible, which ultimately hinders conservation efforts. Few programs simultaneously promote biophilia and enhance pandemic prevention, despite their interconnection.

Successfully promoting conservation and zoonotic spillover risk reduction together is challenging. After bats were identified as the potential source for spillover of SARS-CoV-2 that led to the COVID-19 pandemic, some countries culled bats (Lu et al., 2021). While these actions were intended to reduce bat populations near people, they created additional risk by elevating the potential for bat-human contact during culling (Lu et al., 2021). While there was no report of a second spillover of SARS-CoV-2 from bats, this strategy likely increased the risk of this happening rather than reduced it. Bolstering global health security is often framed within strategies such as stockpiling medical countermeasures and building health systems capacity. While these are certainly needed to strengthen disease outbreak and pandemic response, they are downstream, secondary prevention approaches that focus on responding to an outbreak long after a disease has emerged and is spreading through a human population (Plowright et al., 2024). With 75% of emerging infectious diseases originating in animals, the world must also advance upstream strategies to prevent spillover and pandemics from occurring in the first place (Shaheen, 2022). Such nature-based primary prevention strategies for pandemics have significant shared benefits for humans, animals, and the environment and are estimated to cost a mere 1% of what it costs to respond to a pandemic (Bernstein et al., 2022; Plowright et al., 2024). Primary prevention of pandemics also costs less than 1/20^th of the value of human lives lost each year to emerging viral zoonoses (Bernstein et al., 2022).

Nature-based strategies to prevent the spillover of bat-borne pathogens and consequent disease emergence can be broadly grouped into three countermeasures: protecting where bats roost, protecting where bats forage, and protecting people at risk (Plowright et al., 2024). These countermeasures function through two general mechanisms: 1) reducing the risk of pathogen infection and shedding in bats by ensuring that access to high-quality food and shelter is readily available and that they are not under allostatic overload, and 2) reducing opportunities for pathogen exposure to people or livestock in close proximity to bats that could serve as potential pathogen reservoirs (Kessler et al., 2018; Eby et al., 2022; Plowright et al., 2024). Examples of these countermeasures include protecting and restoring bat foraging and roosting habitats, working with stakeholders who have close contact with bats through economic and livelihood activities (e.g., guano harvesters, cave tourists, people who hunt and consume bats) to adopt safe practices that reduce both stress and disturbance in bats while minimizing opportunities for pathogen exposure, and raising awareness about the ecological and economic roles of bats. Involving stakeholders in the strategy development and decision-making process, as well as raising awareness can inform people’s attitudes toward bats, encouraging them to become stewards of bats and their ecosystems rather than persecuting them out of fear of disease. By implementing strategies grounded in bat and ecosystem conservation, as well as education on safely coexisting with bats, MENTOR-Bat aims to build capacity for the primary prevention of potential future pandemics.