Presentation by Miguel Pinedo Vasquez at the symposium, "Innovative ways for conserving the ecosystem services provided by bushmeat" in the 51th Annual Meeting ATBC 2014 in Cairns, Australia.

1. THINKING beyond the canopy
Towards sustainable bushmeat procurement to
improve food and income security in Amazonia
Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez, Pablo Puertas, Medardo Miranda-
Ruiz and Ian Cummins

2. THINKING beyond the canopy
The study focuses on
• To understand hunting as source of food and
income and its impact on game population
dynamics at the household and landscape scale
• To develop spatio-temporal and scale independent
approaches to understand the distribution of
bushmeat in relation to people both in space and
time
• To identify, record and disseminate sustainable
bushmeat harvesting, management and control
• To develop a monitoring system based on
household utility and the role of bushmeat in
providing food and income security

3. x
INPE 2010 3
Location of the study areas in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon
Napo Province dominated by mosaic
landscape and high road density
Napo Province has the highest population
density in the Ecuadorian Amazon

4. x
x
x
xxxxx
Gutierrez-Velez et al 2011 4
Ucayali Region has high density of
roads and population
34.9%
24.7%
65.1%
75.3%
20071993
URBAN
RURAL

5. Women and children provide better information by phone
(N=20 in Peru and N=42 in Ecuador)

6. Information reported:
• Who hunted (women, men or children)
• Where did he or she hunted (Protected or indigenous lands) or
(fallows, forest patches, fields and house garden)
• How did she or he hunted (gun or trap)
• How do households and communities control access to hunting
grounds and determine the number of hunting expeditions
• Species, sex and weight
• Amount sold and consumed, buyers and prices as well as if were
sold fresh or smoked
• Analysis data on species offtake and hunter effort (behavior) as well
as size of hunting grounds and presence of game attractor species
to determine whether harvest is unsustainable or unsustainable
6

7. Representative photographs per habitat
(a) forest and fallow habitat
b) House garden and field habitat

8. Small streams are
managed for
hunting grounds

9. Average hunting expeditions per month conducted by women,
men and children (N=420 in Ecuador and N= 360 in Peru)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Women Men Children
Ecuador
Peru

10. In Ecuador (N= 420)
Protected areas
Mosaic landscapes

11. In Peru (N=360)
Protected areas
Mosaic landscapes

12. The majority of
women build traps
near game attractors
trees

13. Trap and gun hunting by men and
women in Ecuador and Peru
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Ecuador Peru
gun
trap

14. Women prepared meat that is sold
and consumed

15. Men tend to sell all
the catch to
acopiadores

16. Fresh bushmeat usually is more expensive than smoked

17. Bushmeat dishes are mainly offered by
restaurants in Pucallpa

18. THINKING beyond the canopy
Bushmeat and smallholder’s land use system
• A large fraction of the bushmeat that is sold and consumed in Amazonia is harvested from
production landscapes.
• The majority of large-bodied game species are hunted in protected areas while the majority
of small-bodied games species are hunted in forest patches, fallows, house gardens and
agriculture fields
• Forest hunting is mainly unsustainable while garden hunting is mainly sustainable
• Production landscapes contain equally or in some cases higher habitat heterogeneity than
forests
• The chacra system includes techniques for the establishment and management of hunting
grounds and game attractor species
•
• The majority of urban Amazonians own lands in rural areas and have strong connection with
rural people
• Most lands for oil palm cultivation are in mosaic landscape where forest and fallow
fragments are reservoirs of biodiversity as well as providers of multiple socio-ecological
services and goods
• Global demand for oil palm and other commodities is increasing the demand for lands in
Amazonia

19. THINKING beyond the canopy
Recommendations
• Ecosystem services: Key biodiversity that regulate bio-ecological processes
are lost that is leading to the propagation of pests such as rats and poison snakes
such as fret de lance. Keeping forest and fallow fragments in the landscape
should help to control rat and snake infestation in oil palm plantations
• Food security and sovereignty: Conversion of forests and fallows into oil
palm plantations eliminate game species that are important source of protein and
income for women and children. To protect women’s food, land where farmers
could plant their crop, mange game and other products in fallow and forests
should be protected. Local farmers have developed the vuelito system (small plots)
to produce, manage and collect forest resources).
• Functional diversity: The lost of forest and fallow vegetation is leading to the
decline in the abundance and diversity insectivore and raptors birds favoring the
explosion of pests such as beetles and rats. Leaving forest belts at the edge of
plantations should help to maintain insectivores and raptors for pest management
in oil palm plantations.
• Habitat diversity and landscape connectivity: The removal of riparian
vegetation along streams is eliminating the local populations of large rodents such
as agouties and pacas. Local people consider both species as the main predators
of poison snakes. Building and preserving bio-environmental corridors along
streams and swamp areas should help to maintain healthy populations of
agouties, pacas and other predators of snakes, rats and other pests.