Conservation and utilization of wildlife in the Congo Basin: How to tackle the protein gap?
1. Conservation and utilization of wildlife in the Congo
Basin: How to tackle the protein gap?
Robert Nasi, Nathalie Van Vliet, Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez
Nutrition and Food Production in the Congo Basin
Brussels, 30 September – 1 October 2013
2. The “Bushmeat Crisis”
Empirical evidence
• Historical: hunting-related
extinctions (passenger
pigeon, American buffalo…)
• Today: 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
3. Importance of wildlife
Ecological
• Keystone species
• Ecological services
Economical
• Local livelihoods, food
security
• Income generation
Cultural
• Social bonding,
• Redistribution
• Traditional ceremonies,
• Taboos
Defaunation
• Not restricted only to
environmental or
conservation issues
• Livelihoods issues are
at least as important
• “Bushmeat hunting”
needs to be
approached as a
socio-ecological
system
4. 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
5. 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
Socio-economic aspects
6. Estimates of the value of the
bushmeat trade range from
US$42 to US$205 million per
year in West-Central Africa.
Current harvest in Central Africa
alone may well be in excess of 5
million tons annually, equivalent
of over 2 billion chickens or 15
million cows!
30 to 80% of the protein intake
of many rural populations
Bushmeat hunting
in Congo Basin
7. A simplified bushmeat
value chain
Hunters
Transporters
Retailers
Consumers, rural
Consumers, urban (incl. international)
LA
Resource
Wholesalers
8. Complex wicked problem, no simple solution or
“silver bullet”
Driven by many underlying causes similar to the
ones that drive poverty
Livelihood issues as important as biological ones
Very important gender dimension to be properly
considered
Interdiction and enforcement only policies cannot
work in the short or medium term
Resource needs to be managed and its use
monitored
Issues at hands
9. 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
10. 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
11. 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
12. 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?
13. 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
14. “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
15. “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
16. Conclusion?
No universal solutions exist to solve the problem
of unsustainable bushmeat hunting in tropical
forests.
Some principles need to be taken into account in
order to achieve the sustainability of bushmeat
hunting:
– Ensure that research is linked to the practices
– Mitigate against the potential for tension between
livelihood and conservation objectives
– Analyse both the livelihood and conservation implications
of a given intervention on all stakeholders
– Search alternative models from other sectors
– Identify the most appropriate entry points
– Employ multi-pronged approaches to a complex problem
by involving different stakeholders