This presentation by Stephanie Brittain was delivered during the online event 'Why eat wild meat? Insights from Africa and lessons for COVID-19 responses' on Wednesday, 4 August. The event explored why people eat wild meat and how to design interventions that can help improve sustainability and safety. Stephanie Brittain is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford focusing on local knowledge and drivers of wild meat consumption in Cameroon.

1. @StephBrittain
Credit: Stephanie Brittain
Designing wild meat alternative
projects
Project preferences from Cameroon
Dr. Stephanie Brittain
University of Oxford
@StephBrittain

2. @StephBrittain
Scenario-based interviews
in four villages with differing
characteristics
Interviewed 171 people
from 171 households
On-the-ground research: site & methods

3. Scenarios allow us to explore how people would engage with different projects, and what
the projects impact on hunting and consumption of wild meat could be.
7 scenarios presented:
o Current situation (baseline scenario)
Then, six scenarios offering fish rearing and chicken farming projects at different scales:
o Food only at household level
o Food + income at household level
o Food + income (plus community benefit element) community level
Two key questions
A) How would each scenario affect your rate of wild meat consumption over the next 5
years? (e.g., increase, decrease, no change), and why?
B) How would each scenario affect your rate of wild meat hunting over the next 5 years?
(e.g., increase, decrease, no change), and why?
Scenarios

4. 5
10
15
20
1−Baseline
2−fish
(consum
ption
only)
3−chicken
(consum
ption
only)
4−fish
(consum
ption
&
incom
e)
5−chicken
(consum
ption
&
incom
e)
6−fish
(consum
ption
&
incom
e
com
m
unity)
7−chicken
(consum
ption
&
incom
e
com
m
unity)
Odds
Ratio
Activity
Consumption
Hunting
Probability that each scenario will reduce wild meat hunting and consumption
Results- predicted reduction in hunting &
consumption

5. @StephBrittain
o Projects offering food & income result in much better
predicted reduction in household hunting and consumption
o Household scale projects result in greater predicted
reductions in hunting & consumption
o Alternatives project designers should consider how culturally
accepted the alternative offered is- will it replace wild meat
as a food or will it act as an additional income instead?
o Poorly designed alternatives may result in a waste of
financial resources, a failure both for biodiversity and for
people.
o Predictive approaches such as scenarios have the potential to
help inform and refine the design of alternatives projects
before they are implemented.
Conclusions

6. NEW: Guidance for alternatives project design
We must better consider rural people’s food security and their
often-ignored preferences, if we are to design acceptable
alternatives that achieve both social and conservation goals.
In five steps, the guidance explains how practitioners can help to
develop the right project for the community in which they work,
and support communities to develop their own sustainable
alternatives to illegal and/or unsustainable hunting.
We urge practitioners to use the tool and are looking for projects
to put the tool into practice
@StephBrittain

7. Thank you
@StephBrittain
www.iccs.org
Dr. Stephanie Brittain
Stephanie.brittain@zoo.ox.ac.uk