Immediate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of wildlife as food among indigenous people and local communities in South America

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a range of effects on the environment and particularly on wildlife, through diverse and sometimes contradictory impact pathways. In this study, based on data collected among indigenous people and local communities from South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, and Peru), we investigated changes in the use of wildlife resources for food during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study generated unique data collected from 756 households in 60 communities and nine sites. We confirm the hypothesis that wildlife use increased as a short-term response to food insecurity during the pandemic, and fish played a more significant role than wild meat in that endeavor. The increase in wild-meat consumption as a response to food insecurity was conditioned by prices and availability (unsuccessful hunts). Wildlife use did not increase as an alternative means to generate income, because communities were cut off from the market economy for several months. Also, whereas the reliance on wildlife emerged as an immediate solution during the first months of the crisis, longer-term strategies prioritized at household level involved diversifying food sources through domestic meat and crop production. Among all available animal-based proteins, local chicken came just after fish as the animal-based source of protein whose consumption increased the most during the first months of the crisis, as a response to food insecurity. We caution that relying on wildlife as a safety net may constitute a poverty trap in cases where the resource is depleted. Although not specifically studied here, access to land and the transmission of traditional knowledge/skills are possible additional determinants of the role that wildlife may play in times of crisis, and this is proposed as an area for future research. Results also attest to local communities expecting more support from their respective national governments, and confirm results from Walters et al. ( 2021) that governments were generally absent or unable to react quickly during the pandemic, leaving households (or their local leaders) with the responsibility to innovate with local solutions and pro-actively adapt to the rapid impacts of the crisis.

Exploring the Implications of COVID-19 on Food Security and Coping Strategies among Urban Indigenous Peoples in Saskatchewan, Canada

“…Data collected from Indigenous communities and local populations in South America, specifically Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, and Peru, demonstrated that wildlife consumption increased as a short-term response to food insecurity during the pandemic. However, the rise in wild meat consumption was hindered by high prices and limited availability due to unsuccessful hunts [38]. These findings highlight the diverse coping strategies employed by individuals and communities to address food access challenges during the pandemic.…”

Changes in wild meat hunting and use by rural communities during the COVID-19 socio-economic shock

“…Conversely, rural families, facing restricted livelihood options and increased urban-rural migration during the pandemic, may have increasingly relied on wild meat as a crucial source of food and income. Nonetheless, McNamara et al's hypotheses are yet to be tested quantitatively: previous attempts to assess the impacts of the COVID-19 shock on wild meat extraction and use mostly used qualitative interviews collected retrospectively and often focusing on single species (Enns et al, 2023;Mendiratta et al, 2022;Vliet et al, 2022;Kamogne Tagne et al, 2022;Briceño-Méndez et al, 2021).…”

Changes in wild meat hunting and use by rural communities during the COVID‐19 socio‐economic shock

“…The hunting of wild animals for food (i.e., wild meat) is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity globally (Abernethy et al, 2013;Schulze et al, 2018) while also providing food and income to many rural communities across the tropics and subtropics (Coad et al, 2019). Wild meat is an easily accessible resource with relatively low entry costs, compared to other livelihood activities (Schulte-Herbrüggen et al, 2013) and, therefore, can provide an important safety net for rural communities during socio-economic crises, civil conflicts, or other shocks characterized by reductions in livelihood opportunities and market access (UNDP, 2023). The economic importance of wild meat to rural communities is well known (Nielsen et al, 2017;Schulte-Herbrüggen et al, 2013), but there is limited quantitative evidence of its use during shocks, potentially because of their unpredictability and hence the lack of comparable data before, during, and afterward.…”