Mapping Bushmeat Hunting Pressure in Central Africa

Abstract

Hunting and trade of wild animals for their meat (bushmeat), especially mammals, is commonplace in tropical forests worldwide. In West and Central Africa, bushmeat extraction has increased substantially during recent decades. Currently, such levels of hunting pose a major threat to native wildlife. In this paper, we compiled published data on hunting offtake of mammals, from a number of studies conducted between 1990 and 2007 in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of Congo. From these data sources, we estimated annual extraction rates of all hunted species and analyzed the relationship between environmental and anthropogenic variables surrounding each hunting rate and levels of bushmeat extraction. We defined hunting pressure as a function of bushmeat offtake and number of hunted species and confirm that hunting pressure is significantly correlated with road density, distance to protected areas and population density. These correlations are then used to map hunting pressure across the Congo Basin. We show that predicted risk areas show a patchy distribution throughout the study region and that many protected areas are located in high‐risk areas. We suggest that such a map can be used to identify areas of greatest impact of hunting to guide large‐scale conservation planning initiatives for central Africa.

Urbanization in Africa: challenges and opportunities for conservation

“…Another example for the far and wide-reaching impact of urban residents is the bushmeat trade [32,33]. Demand for bushmeat, a traditional source of animal protein for humans in much of Sub-Saharan Africa is on the rise fueled by dietary preferences of urban residents that are shaped by a combination of urbanization and increased-income effects [34].…”

The well-tempered SIV infection: Pathogenesis of SIV infection in natural hosts in the wild, with emphasis on virus transmission and early events post-infection that may contribute to protection from disease progression

“…HIV-2, on the other hand, arose from multiple transmission of SIVsmm directly from SMs in Western Africa to humans (Ayouba et al, 2013; Hirsch et al, 1989; Sharp and Hahn, 2011). With increasing rates of interaction between African NHPs and humans due to poaching, hunting for bushmeat and deforestation (Cronin et al, 2015; Ziegler et al, 2016), it seems probable that further cross-species transmissions might occur and give rise to new HIVs. Consequently, it is important that further research be carried out to understand the evolutionary dynamics of SIVs in the wild (Aghokeng et al, 2010; Locatelli and Peeters, 2012).…”

Using spatial patterns in illegal wildlife uses to reveal connections between subsistence hunting and trade

“…; Ziegler et al. ). Although the incorporation of spatial dimension makes these studies innovative, most focus on only a single species, even though most hunters and traders deal with multiple species (Conteh et al.…”

“…Records of IWU are usually opportunistically collected and have substantial geographic and temporal biases (Golden et al 2013). A promising recent approach to deal with these datacollection challenges involves fitting spatially explicit models to evaluate the relative role of anthropogenic and ecological factors in determining the geographical distribution of IWUs (Maingi et al 2012;Ziegler et al 2016). Although the incorporation of spatial dimension makes these studies innovative, most focus on only a single species, even though most hunters and traders deal with multiple species (Conteh et al 2015), and one use (e.g., subsistence hunting or international trade).…”