This document summarizes a presentation on the bushmeat crisis in Central Africa. It notes that the annual bushmeat harvest in Central Africa may exceed 2 million tonnes, equivalent to over 1.3 billion chickens or 2.5 million cows. Wildlife provides important ecological, economic and cultural benefits but is threatened by unsustainable hunting for local consumption and commercial trade. Factors driving overexploitation include poverty, population growth, commercialization of the wildlife trade, and habitat loss. Lessons indicate there are no simple solutions and that livelihood issues must be addressed alongside biological concerns. Successful management approaches have included game ranching, community-based programs, and new monitoring methods using technology and participatory research.

1. Conservation and use of
wildlife: the bushmeat crisis
MONITORING AND SUSTAINABLY
MANAGING FOREST BIODIVERSITY
FAO – ITTO – IUCN Side Event, CBD COP 9
Bonn, 21/05/2008
Robert Nasi & Nathalie Vanvliet

2. “The forest commands man,
because it is in the forest that man
makes its fields, hunts, collects
fruits and medicine and after many
years old villages become the forest
again”
(Bakota elders, Gabon)

3. Outline





Importance of wildlife
The “Bushmeat Crisis”
Factors affecting sustainability
Lessons learned
Barriers to management

4. In West and Central Africa,
estimates of the value of the
bushmeat trade range from US$42
to US$205 million per year. The
current harvest in Central Africa
alone may well be in excess of 2
million tonnes annually, the
equivalent of over 1.3 billion
chickens or 2.5 million cows!
(Nasi)

5. Importance of wildlife

Ecological
Keystone species
 Ecological services


Economical
Local livelihoods, food security
 Income generation


Cultural
Social bonding, redistribution
 Traditional ceremonies, taboos


6. “Realistically, if changes in attitude
do not occur soon…a fitting epithet
for the loss of [Sulawesi] endemic
mammals and birds may be 'they
tasted good”
(O'Brien & Kinnaird)

7. The “Bushmeat Crisis”

Empirical evidence
Historical evidence of hunting-related extinctions
(passenger pigeon, American buffalo…)
 Today’s evidence of local extirpation because of
hunting (for food or trade in wildlife parts)


Is “doomsday” coming?


Not sure but there is a clear sustainability problem
Biodiversity but also livelihoods of local
people are at stake

8. You have to have at least one
square meal a day to be an
environmentalist
(Borlaug)

9. Factors affecting sustainability








Nature of the wildlife resource
Inappropriate policies and governance
Demography
Poverty and hunger
Increased commercialization of the wildlife
harvest
Logging and other resource extraction activities
Fragmentation and land-use changes
Agricultural sector

10. •Game ranching (Burkina Faso, South Africa,
Namibia, etc.)
•Community based wildlife management
(Zones cynégétiques villageoises C.A.R & Cameroon;
Reserva Comunal Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo Peruvian
Amazon)
•Agreements, protocols to reduce hunting
in logging concession (WCS and CIB, Congo;
WWF and Bordamur, Gabon…)
•Wildlife master plan (WCS and Sarawak
government)
•Bushmeat Crisis Task Force…

11. Lessons learned




Complex wicked problem, no simple
solution
Livelihood issues as important as
biological ones
Driven by many underlying causes similar
to the ones that drive poverty
Blanket interdiction and enforcement only
policies do not work

12. A more realistic starting point might
be to treat the problem as one of
‘helping range states to better
manage a resource in unpropitious
circumstances’ – not of seeking to
impose idealistic and externallydefined conservation aims as a
short-term strategy
(Nasi et al.)

13. Barriers to management




Knowledge of the most hunted species is
at best minimal
Stocks are very difficulty to monitor
Tenure rights often unclear or disputed
Substitution by other sources of proteins is
often impossible

14. New monitoring methods



Improvement of “classical” methods (line
transect, capture-recapture, call…)
New non invasive capture-recapture (dung
DNA)
Use of surrogates (diachronic
comparisons or continuous monitoring of
catches)

15. Atherurus africanus
Osteolaemus tetrapsis
C. callipygus
2
2
Id
Mandrillus sphinx
3
Id
3
small diurnal monkeys
1
Gorilla gorilla
1
0
0
small carnivors
<2
2 to 5
5 to 10
> 10
<2
distance to the village (km)
Panthera pardus
Felis aurata
5 to 10
> 10
distance to the village (km)
C. monticola
C. dorsalis
Thryonomys sp.
2 to 5
3
3
2.5
Atherurus africanus
2
Potamochoerus porcus
Id
Id
2
1.5
1
1
0.5
Tragelaphus spek ei
0
0
<2
Hyemoscus aquaticus
2 to 5
5 to 10
> 10
<2
2 to 5
5 to 10
> 10
distance to the village (km)
distance to the village (km)
small diurnal monkeys
Potamochoerus porcus
C. sylvicultor
C. nigrifrons
2
2
Id
C. dorsalis
3
Id
3
C. monticola
1
1
C. callipygus
0
0
0
5
10
15
20
%
25
30
35
40
<2
2 to 5
5 to 10
> 10
distance to the village (km)
<2
2 to 5
5 to 10
> 10
distance to the village (km)

16. Participatory studies



Resource mapping
Sharing hunters’ life
Understanding household
economies

17. New modeling tools
System modeling
Multi-agent models
Bio-economic models
disperseSansContrainte
| bon |
(self installe = false and: [self age >
(20*30*24)])
ifTrue: [bon := self patch
neighbourhood select: [:a | a
estFavorable].
bon isEmpty ifFalse: [^self
moveTo: (Cormas selectRandomlyFrom:
bon)]]

18. What can you do?
Read the
UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/13/I
NF/9 document and the
CBD – CIFOR Technical
Publication.
They contain useful
information and
recommendations.
Make these options
yours and those of your
countries

19. Special thanks to:
David Wilkie, Liz Bennett, Manuel
Boissière and Charles Doumenge for
the pictures
and to
David Brown, Gijs van Tol, Liz
Bennett, Caroline Tutin, Tim
Christophersen and the CBD NTFP
liaison group for the contents
Robert NASI & Nathalie Vanvliet