The Bushmeat Trade in Africa


Consequences of Bushmeat Trade in Africa
By Cole Mallard - Voice of America radio (www.voaafrica.com)
Washington
24 September 2007

In Africa, the slaughter of animals for bushmeat is taking an
increasing toll on species long-term chance of survival. Concern has
risen over dramatic declines in wildlife populations and the
difficulty of achieving sustainable consumption in the face of over-
hunting in sub-Saharan Africa.

Heather Eves, the director of the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force in
Washington, gives an overview of the complex bushmeat issue. In this
first of a five-part series, Eves covers the causes, trends, and
effect on health of subsistence and international commercial trading.
She told VOA English to Africa reporter Cole Mallard that bushmeat
comes from wild animals -- anything in size from cane rats to
elephants, with antelope as a common source. She says once the
antelope and other large-bodied species are hunted to extinction,
smaller species are targeted, including primates.

Eves says increased demand and unmanaged economic development, which
increases access to animals, drives over-hunting to the point where
many wildlife populations are threatened with extinction.

DANGEROUS TO HEALTH
Not only is bushmeat hunting unsustainable, it's also linked to
serious health risks. These include the emergence of HIV/AIDS through
a similar virus called SIVs. The virus transfers from primate bushmeat
to humans during the butchering process and then mutates. Eves says
more than 20 species of primates commonly traded, carry different
forms of SIVs.

Other health risks associated with consuming bushmeat include
infection with monkey pox and the deadly Marburg and Ebola viruses.

Eves says bushmeat has been an issue for decades in different regions
of the world. For example, she says over hunting in Asia many years
ago devastated many wildlife populations.

LOGGING LEADS TO LOSS
The task force director says In West Africa in the 1960s, 70s, and
80s, logging resulted in many wildlife populations being reduced to
remnants. Today, very few protected areas still have the original
forest cover necessary for the animals to survive. Eves says most of
the larger mammals were hunted to the point of extinction. She says
logging, as one of "a combination of factors that takes place...in West
Africa, and now in Central Africa, seems to be one of the primary ways
in which bushmeat hunting has become commercialized and therefore
unsustainable."

Eves says effective ways to draw attention to bushmeat concerns is
through factual media reporting. She strongly encourages an effective
awareness campaign working with African experts to bring attention to
the broader public and key decision makers.

She says it's important for the shared information to include all the
relevant perspectives, from hunters and traders to consumers and
decision makers.

The Bushmeat Crisis Task Force director says general objectives should
include effective enforcement of bushmeat conservation measures. This
should be accomplished in conjunction with the communities involved
who live closely with wildlife. The Task Force director underscores
the need for protected areas where wildlife can re-populate into
multiple use land areas.

In addition, Eves says there should be massive growth in alternative
income opportunities. She adds that it's important to provide protein
alternatives to bushmeat and emphasize the need to conserve. The Task
Force director reports that most Africans interviewed express a deep
desire to have wildlife available for future generations in Africa.
She says, "We certainly support that view and that vision, but
unfortunately with the current rate of exploitation, and lack of
resources to counteract it that vision will not be realized."


Some African Countries Take the Lead in Dealing with Bushmeat Crisis
By Cole Mallard Voice of America radio (www.voaafrica.com)
Washington
26 September 2007

Experts say the bushmeat trade has serious environmental consequences
for Africa, depleting wildlife, often to the point of extinction, and
seriously affecting the continent's ecology. Richard Ruggiero is a
wildlife management specialist in the International Conservation
Division of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. In the third of a five-
part series, he tells Voice of America English to Africa Service
reporter Cole Mallard that harvesting bushmeat for food and trade is a
continent-wide problem.

He says hunting bushmeat takes place where there's poverty, a lack of
law enforcement and a lack of protein alternatives:

"Were you to look at West Africa, many countries have really exhausted
their wildlife populations, maybe with the exception of a couple of
national parks. But in general, West African wildlife is so depleted,
mainly from habitat change, conflict with people basically for
agricultural space, but more immediately for bushmeat," he says.

PROBLEM A VARIABLE

Ruggiero says while this is also true in other parts of Africa, it's a
question of degree. "Much of Central Africa, particularly in the
forest block, still has significant wildlife populations. And you
could say the same about the East and Southern African savannahs," he
says.

In the Central African forest block, he says, the remoteness of the
area has been an impediment to hunting wildlife. But that's changing
as logging companies build roads that allow people access to areas
where they can hunt without regulations or controls.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service specialist says Ghana has a program
that is a model for West Africa. Ruggiero says the Ghana "model" is
successful because it shows the value of a government with the
political will to address a long-standing problem that affects not
only biodiversity but also the issues of bushmeat for subsistence,
including nutrition, and the cultural value of wildlife.

The Ghanaian conservation program addresses law enforcement, public
awareness, cooperation and sustainable hunting where appropriate, as
well as avoiding vulnerable species, such as great apes or elephants.

Ruggiero adds that the government of Ghana has shown a willingness to
work with local villagers and farmers, as well as with international
NGOs, which have the resources, personnel and expertise. He says,
"They've developed a policy through this collaborative process that
really is very effective."

He says there's also a group of Central African countries - Gabon,
CAR, Congo-Brazzaville, Cameroon, DRC and Equatorial Guinea - that
have shown great interest in conservation.

But Ruggiero says enforcing policies can be a problem in a developing
country, "since resources are frequently a constraint."

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