Background

What is the bushmeat crisis?

In Africa, forest is often referred to as “the bush.” Thus, wildlife and meat derived from it is referred to as “bushmeat.” This term applies to all wildlife species, a number of which are threatened and endangered species used for this meat. The commercial, unsustainable hunting and trafficking of wild animals for food has become the most significant immediate threat to the future of wildlife in Africa and around the world; it has already resulted in widespread local extinctions in Asia and West Africa. This threat to wildlife is a crisis because it is rapidly expanding to countries and species which were previously not at risk, largely due to an increase in commercial logging, with an infrastructure of roads and trucks that link forests and hunters to cities and consumers.

Many varieties of species are vulnerable to the bushmeat trade and great apes are particularly susceptible to overhunting due to their slower reproductive rates and unique social structures. The continued survival of Africa’s great apes (i.e. gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos) is precarious as the bushmeat trade expands. Populations are declining at an alarming rate and scientists are suggesting that the majority of great apes will become extinct in our lifetime.

Ecological impacts of the bushmeat trade

Commercial hunting threatens the survival of a significant number of endangered species protected by international laws. Though deforestation is a menace to wildlife, hunting constitutes a more immediate threat. Overexploitation of prey species, such as duikers—which reports indicate are a primary target for the bushmeat trade—will result in the loss of predators such as leopards and golden cats. In addition, loss of wildlife from hunting means loss of seed-dispersing animals, altering both the structure and function of the forest and potentially causing irreversible ecological effects with global consequences.

Sustainable vs. unsustainable hunting—the human impact

The consumption of bushmeat has long been practiced to sustainably support human communities throughout the course of human existence and is a part of human history throughout the world. However, in recent years the escalation of bushmeat hunting beyond the scope of sustainable use to wholesale slaughter of animal populations and illegal, commercial bushmeat trafficking, has reached a crisis stage where immediate action must be taken to protect vulnerable species from extinction.

The bushmeat crisis is a human tragedy as well: the loss of wildlife threatens the livelihoods and food security of indigenous and rural populations. Small human populations, such as the forest dwellers of the Congo and the Amazon, are dependent on the food they gather from the forest for survival. The bushmeat hunting done by these groups for their own consumption has had little impact on animal populations in the past. However, the wholesale slaughter of animal populations occurring related to illegal bushmeat hunting and trafficking is also reducing the ability of these isolated groups to support themselves. Human rights organizations have expressed concern that these groups may disappear within the next decade if nonsustainable bushmeat trafficking is not halted.

The short-term economic benefits derived from the commercial bushmeat trade, though expedient for poor families today, may jeopardize economic opportunities for future generations.

Health Issues Posed by Bushmeat Trade and Consumption

Bushmeat is linked to deadly diseases

The hunting and consumption of bushmeat is increasingly linked to deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and foot and mouth disease. Hunting of wildlife by humans is an ancient practice that carries a substantial risk for cross-species transmission. Approximately three-fourths of emerging human infectious diseases are caused by zoonotic pathogens. These include agents responsible for global mortality (e.g., HIV-1 and -2, influenza virus) and others that cause limited deaths but result in high case-fatality rates and for which no effective therapies or vaccines exist (e.g., Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Nipah virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS-associated coronavirus).

Understanding what fuels the bushmeat market—few alternative sources of protein and growing demand for meat

According to the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, most of the 24 million people who live within the forests of Central Africa consume the meat of wildlife and for many it is the primary source of animal protein. One million metric tons of wildlife is killed for food in Central Africa each year. With given current population growth rates, it is likely that demand for bushmeat will increase by two to four percent per year, a rate that exceeds the replacement potential of already overhunted wildlife populations. Complicating matters, wildlife populations in these forests are not as productive as their savanna counterparts and so game ranching, while successful in East and southern Africa, is unlikely to be viable in West and Central Africa. The meat of domestic livestock is available in markets located close to savannas and to ethnic groups with a tradition of pastoralism. But domestic stock is primarily viewed as savings and insurance rather than sources of protein. In addition, tsetse flies and trypanosomiasis severely limit cattle raising in the forested and scrubby savanna landscapes typical of the region.

Hunting is very profitable in the short-term

Bushmeat offers poor families with few income-generating opportunities a lucrative income.

Commercial logging and mining increase demand for bushmeat

Loggers construct roads into the forests to harvest trees, opening it to hunters. Employees of logging and mining operations rely on bushmeat for food. They also have the economic means to purchase weapons and have logging trucks to transport meat. Illegal mining of coltan in Central Africa (a mineral used in the manufacture of cellular phone capacitors) helped fund the war in Democratic Republic of Congo, resulting in many deaths and a severe decline of wildlife killed for food for the miners, soldiers, and refugees.

In Summary: Key Issues Posed by the Bushmeat Trade

Ecological impact: Growing demand for meat, where effective natural resource protection is lacking, is leading to unsustainable harvesting and collapse of wildlife populations.

The severe ecological impacts on entire forest systems as prey species, like duikers, are unsustainably depleted is causing a ripple effect as their predators, such as leopards, lose an important food source and the forest loses an important seed disperser for growth and rejuvenation.

At the current rate of slaughter, the future of numerous species, such as great apes, is precarious; many researchers estimate their extinction within the next few decades.

Economic impact: Loss of wildlife means a potential loss of long-term ecotourism income.
Bushmeat is one of the few income-generating opportunities for poor, rural families, but the profits are short-term. As wildlife is rapidly depleted, so is that economic boon.

Global health impact: Hunting and consumption of wildlife is linked to the spread of infectious diseases. As the bushmeat trade expands globally, so may the global spread of deadly disease.

Solutions for the Crisis: What's Being Done?

The Zoological Society of San Diego is a partner with the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force. This nongovernmental organization and several other conservation organizations, working with several nations’ governments and the private sector, are currently seeking ways to address the bushmeat crisis. Wildlife resource management issues are complex and ever changing in order to adapt to social, political, economic, and ecological conditions. Below are some solution strategies the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force and other organizations are participating in:

• Encouragement of private industry to use forest resources in a sustainable manner
• Financing for protected areas, management, and monitoring
• Developing economic and protein alternatives to bushmeat sale and consumption
• Increased field research on the illegal bushmeat trade
• Enforcement of existing laws and wildlife management policies
• Education, outreach, and media focus on the bushmeat crisis.
  

Sources:

Eves, H., J. Stein, D. Wilkie, and Bushmeat Crisis Task Force (BCTF), 2002. BCTF Fact Sheet: The Bushmeat Crisis in West and Central Africa. Bushmeat Crisis Task Force. Washington, D.C. 2 pages.
Great Ape Survival Project
Taylor, L., S. Latham, M. Woolhouse, 2001. Risk factors for human disease emergence. Philosophical Transactions, Royal Society of London.
Smolinkski, M., M. Hamburg, J. Lederberg, 2003. Microbial threats to health: emergence, detection and response. Washington: The National Academies Press.