A recent report questions the wisdom of an outright ban on bushmeat sales:
The report from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), based in Bogor, Indonesia, suggests instead that the bushmeat trade should be regulated, with hunting allowed for relatively common, fast-reproducing species such as duikers (a small antelope) and rodents, whereas endangered species, such as primates, should continue to be protected.
CIFOR is one of 15 international research centres funded by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research -- a partnership of governments, international organizations, and private foundations. The report, published on 16 September, was written in association with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal, Canada. It warns that current levels of bushmeat hunting could result in the extinction of some forest mammals in less than 50 years, posing serious threats to the food security of rural African communities.
There is a tough balance to be found here. On the one hand, you want to limit poaching of endangered species. On the other, overpopulation of non-endangered species could be a problem -- taking over the ecosystem and leading to starvation, and many communities use bushmeat as a primary source of nutrition.
Also, the report suggests that most bushmeat trade is a local village-to-village thing. That makes me wonder how they hope to regulate it. Wouldn't it require going village to village for enforcement? I guess you could argue on the local level that if you want a stable food supply into the future, you can't over-hunt. But it might be a tough sell to communities with limited livelihoods elsewhere.
Here is my question: how much of the bushmeat trade is actually in endangered species as opposed to more abundant animals like antelope? You would think that it would just be easier to pick off an non-endangered species because there are more of them.
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Snares are used a lot, these snares don't discriminate between common and rare species, and baits can attract very different types of animals, from chimps to antelopes. I didn't know about the "Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), based in Bogor, Indonesia', I once wrote a forest management plan for a timberland owner in that area, and I just watched a video of friends meeting in Bogor yesterday, a coincidence.
Some African bushmeat is sold in US, I'd guess the novelty of rare species gives a higher price.
The regulation of the bushmeat trade would probably be most effective at the point of export, at the moment.
Right now, people can make a huge profit over exporting bushmeats to countries like, sadly, the UK -- there is an immense market for it in London, of all places, and the exporters can get almost as much profit off it as the poaching of tigers in Asia gets. It probably needs to be clamped down on the same way the tiger trade is, although hopefully more effectively.
However, it could probably also be enforced on a village-to-village basis if the interested bodies trained and employed locals to enforce the rules, to "guide" hunts towards safe species as well as fight off those who target the endangered, and these rangers are adequately paid so that they themselves don't feel the need to poach.
Endangered species are most definitely targeted, because the "exotic" meats DO have such high value. But the problem is, too, that isolated populations which may in themselves be very small, but which exist densely in a very limited geographical area, get opened up to exploitation in a way they never were before because of things like logging roads penetrating new areas and making access for neighbouring human populations that much easier. There may be only 2000 beasties of a certain species in the world, but if they all exist in a 3 sq. mile area, they will be easy to catch and rapidly wiped out as soon as that area is opened up.
The confounding, compounding problem is that many, if not most, of the African fisheries are currently being overexploited by European and Japanese fishing fleets, and huge coastal populations can no longer count on reef fish as cheap protein -- they HAVE to turn their eyes inland. Until and unless that problem is effectively addressed, every bush species which can be caught will be exploited, regardless of laws.
In Australia our Aboriginal population is still allowed to gather traditional foods. Where I am they are still an important part of the diet. There have recently been calls for an increase in traditional "bush tucker" to reduce the burden of disease particularly diabetes and heart disease.
Robbo