Protein from forest wildlife (including fish) is crucial to food security, nutrition and health across the tropics. The harvest of duikers, antelopes, pigs, primates, rodents, birds, reptiles and fish provides invaluable benefits to local people both in terms of income and of improved nutritious diets. It also creates, often linked with commercialization, some very important health issues with the spread of several life-threatening diseases (Ebola, SARS). Vulnerability of the resource to harvest varies, with some species sustaining populations in heavily hunted secondary habitats, while others require intact forests with minimal harvesting to maintain healthy populations. Global attention has been drawn to biodiversity loss through debates regarding bushmeat, the “empty forest” syndrome and their ecological importance. However, information on the harvest and the trade remains fragmentary, along with understanding of their ecological, socioeconomic and cultural dimensions. Here we assess the consequences, both for ecosystems and local livelihoods, of the loss of these important resources and propose alternative management options.

1. Wildlife: a forgotten and
threatened forest resource
R. NASI, N. VAN VLIET, M. PINEDO-VASQUEZ
Subplenary: Forest Foods, Medicine and Human Health
October 6th, Salt Lake City,
XXIV IUFRO World Congress

2. Ecological aspects
 Extinction or extirpation of
hunted species
 Food chain feed–back and
Allee effects
 Potential pest outbreaks
 Changes in pollination
patterns
 Changes in seed predation
/ dispersion patterns
 Modification of vegetation
dynamics and biomass
fluxes

3. Socio-economic aspects
 Potential food crisis;
malnutrition
 Deforestation or forest
degradation for
alternative sources of
protein
 Unsustainable harvesting
of other wild resources
(e.g. fish)
 Public health issues
 Loss of income
 Loss of cultural identity

4. Gender issues
• Plays a disproportionately
important role in the livelihoods
and well-being of women (and
children)
• Women play an important role in
the different value chains of these
products and derive crucial income
from the sales
• Women generally invest back their
income into household food and
wellbeing; men more into non
essential goods

5. Wildlife and public health
Emerging diseases
 70% of human diseases are
zoonoses
 SRAS, Marburg, Lassa, Nypah
 Ebola
Nutrition
 Bushmeat nutrient dense food
 Removing bushmeat from diet
will likely increase anemia and
stunting

6. LA
A simplified bushmeat
value chain
Hunters
Transporters
Retailers
Resource
Consumers, rural
Consumers, urban (incl. international)
Wholesalers

7. The scale of bushmeat use and trade
5 million tonnes of bushmeat harvested annually in the Congo
Basin,
 4 million tonnes in the Amazon Basin
 Europe produces 7,5 million tonnes of beef per year
 Brazil produces 8,5 million tonnes of beef per year
Bushmeat Beef

8. Most hunted species

9. Financial and economic evaluation of the bushmeat sector
in Cameroon, Congo and Gabon (€/yr)
Cameroon Congo-Brazza Gabon
Financial profit
- Rural areas
- Urban areas
- Export
9,8 million €
2,1 million €
7,6 million €
0,2 million €
42,3 million €
21,8 million €
20,2 million €
0,7 million €
30,9 million €
17,7 million €
13,2 million €
0,1 million €
(Informal) Contribution to non-oil
GDP
0,14% 1,9% 0,42%
Gross economic benefit (incl.
self-consumption)
122 million € 108 million € 85 million €
Net economic benefit (incl.
opportunity cost of labour)
58 million € 5 million € 62 million €

10. Tackling the protein gap
 Solution can only be combinations of various
actions at different points of the value chain and
of the enabling environment
 Actions need to be combined at various levels
around three main elements:
– Reducing the demand for bushmeat
– Making the off-take, supply more sustainable with proper
management of the resource
– Creating an conducive and enabling institutional and
policy environment

11. Improving sustainability of
supply
 Hunter, rural consumers
– Negotiate hunting rules allowing harvesting resilient species and
banning vulnerable ones
– Define self-monitored quotas and co-construct simple self-monitoring
tools
 Research and extension services
– Develop and disseminate simple monitoring methods
– Understanding the “empty forest” syndrome:
• Role of source-sink effects in hunting areas
• Competition and substitutions effects on forest composition and
structure
– Analyze relationships and trade-off between bushmeat and other
protein sources
• Bushmeat and freshwater fish consumption
• Bushmeat and domestic meat (livestock, poultry…) footprints
• Is there a nutritional transition? Where? Into which alternative protein
source?

12. Improving sustainability of
supply
 Extractive industries
– Enforce codes of conducts and
include wildlife concerns in
companies’ standard operating
procedures
– Forbid transportation on
company’s cars or trucks
– Establish manned checkpoints
(with trained personnel) on main
roads
– Provide alternative sources of
protein at cost
– Organize, support community
hunting schemes
– Adopt and implement certification

13. Reducing demand
 Hunters, rural
consumers
– Develop alternative
sources of protein at a cost
similar to bushmeat
– Improve economic
opportunities in productive
sectors
– Use local media (e.g.
radio) to deliver
environmental education
and raise awareness

14. Reducing demand
 Retailers, urban consumers
– Strictly enforcing ban of protected/endangered species
sales and consumption
– Confiscating and publicly incinerating carcasses
– Taxing sales of authorized species
 International consumers
– Instituting very heavy fines for possession or trade of
bushmeat (whatever the status or provenance of the
species)
– Raising awareness of the issue in airports or seaports
– Engaging and making accountable airline or shipping
companies

15. “Enabling” environment
 National policy makers and agencies (range
states)
– Enhancing ownership, linked to tenurial and rights reform
– Legitimize the bushmeat debate
– Make an economic assessment of the sector and include
in national statistics
– Acknowledge contribution of bushmeat to food security in
national strategies
– Develop a framework to “formalize” parts of the trade
– Review national legislation for coherence, practicality and
to reflect actual practices (without surrendering key
conservation concerns)
– Include bushmeat/wildlife modules in curricula

16. “Enabling” environment
 International policies
– Strict enforcement of CITES
– Ensure wildlife issues are covered within internationally-supported
policy processes
– Link international trade with increased emerging disease
risks
– Impose tough fines and shame irresponsible behavior
 Local institutions
– Negotiate full support of communities that have a vested
interest in protecting the resource
– Increase capacity to setup and manage sustainable
bushmeat markets
– Develop local participatory monitoring tools

17. Bushmeat Research Initiative
www.cifor.org/
bushmeat