Many people associate me with primates’ conservation following the highly publicised breakthrough discovery of an isolated population of de Brazza’s monkey in northern Kenya. The de Brazza’s monkey is rare and highly threatened in Kenya. Until the discovery, western Kenya was a known eastern limit of the species distribution in Africa. The unique location where this new population is found - isolated mountain ranges of the arid north 200 km away from the hitherto known population and occurring to the East of the Great Valley, led to speculation of speciation and hence the great interest in this discovery. However, I am not here to talk about monkey discovery in this bushmeat blog. The point I want to drive home is that I am not new to wildlife conservation and success for that matter and whatever I have achieved in the past is only a measure of the minimum. To make sure I succeed in bushmeat, I decided to expand my knowledge and capacity to pilot bushmeat projects in Kenya by enrolling for a post-graduate course on Bushmeat under the prestigious MENTOR Fellowship program. The MENTOR (Mentoring for ENvironmental Training in Outreach and Resource Conservation) Fellowship Program was established by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the College of African Wildlife Management- Mweka, Tanzania, and the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group to train and build the capacities of emerging conservation leaders in order to build a network of eastern Africa wildlife professionals who can lead efforts to reduce illegal and unsustainable bushmeat exploitation at local and regional levels. I am one of the eight Fellows under this program.
The 8 MENTOR Fellows, 4 Mentors, the Program Coordinator USFWS Official and BCTF Director More high profile African wildlife issues have long overshadowed illegal bushmeat exploitation. The illegal use of wild meat (bushmeat) is perhaps the least documented, but most far-reaching use of wildlife in eastern and southern Africa. It is believed to involve more people and to have a greater effect on wild animal populations, including those in protected areas, than any other wildlife activity. Due to lack of information, the problem is not getting the attention it deserves and very little has done so far. Today, Bushmeat off take in Kenya is still seen as subsistence activity that has no impact on wildlife population. I beg to differ and that is the reason why I have started this blog to show you just how significant the level of bushmeat off take is in Kenya and the entire East Africa. Bushmeat use in Kenya is no longer a subsistence activity but a highly profitable illegal trade.
Iregi Mwenja USFWS MENTOR Fellow
8 Comments posted on "Welcome to the Bushmeat blog"
sheryl, washington dc on May 2nd, 2008 at 8:09 am
Hi, and welcome. I’m glad to see this blog and all the new blogs that cover a single problem affecting many species. I think there a few “regulars” here who’d like to learn more about the bushmeat trade and how we can stop it here in the U.S. s.
bushmeateastafrica on May 2nd, 2008 at 8:20 am
Sheryl, Thanks for being the first to comment on this blog just a few minutes after I published it. please watch this blog for more information on bushmeat and how you can stop it. contact me on iregim@yahoo.com for contacts of people spearheading bushmeat campaigns in the US. I am sure they will be very happy to share with you.
Theresa Siskind St Petersburg FL on May 2nd, 2008 at 11:45 am
Mwenja, yes, we all want to help. Too often now, the news is very bleak coming from Africa. Poaching for bushmeat and poisoning of wildlife must be dealt with, if we are to save many endangered and threatened species. As we are all aware, there is a world wide food crisis taking center stage, caused in part by the use of certain crops, for fuel. This food crisis, will only make the bushmeat trade more prolific. Like Sheryl implied, we “regulars” will do whatever we can to assist you and your team.
Sukuma Kenya on May 2nd, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Iregi,
bushmeateastafrica on May 3rd, 2008 at 1:23 am
Theresa, I am glad you see the connection between the food crisis and bushmeat proliferation. As far as kenya is concern, the decision makers have buried their head very deep in the sand on this critical problem of bushmeat and we will not be expecting any “good” news from them. Research has shown that bushmeat is the fall back food for many poor communities during drought and the level of off take will rise during the period of food crisis. I support sustainable use as opposed to our restrictive non-consumptive use policy in Kenya where we see buffaloes dying in hundreds after reaching carrying capacity in Lake Nakuru NP while a few kilometers outside the park people are dying oh hunger! I will bring up this issue later in a new post.
bushmeateastafrica on May 3rd, 2008 at 1:31 am
Sukuma Kenya, I am glad to see a Kenya getting interested. let see if together we can make a difference.
morgann on May 6th, 2008 at 5:48 am
jesus christ after suuch a remarkable presentation.dont worry God who sees from far wil rewad you bout the good work’take heart & keep me posted of events 2 come.once again stay focusd on the big dream.mogan
Samuel FOPA on May 14th, 2008 at 5:11 am
Very much happy to see you people interested in the bushmeat issue.during my Diploma days in CAWM-Tanzania, as a Cameroonian, my coolleagues from East and southern africa laughted at me when I told them that eating bushmeat or a meat from the wild, that eating chimps or gorilla was not a problem, but was critical to wildlife conservation. They consider us cannibals and said that never happen in their own part of Africa. after research following the Mweka, 2000 conference on African Wildlife Management in the new millenium, i discovered that, bushmeat from Kitui district in Kenya came from Tsavo east National Park, taht there was oaching for bushmeat in the Sertengeti plain. That zebra meat is found in black market in Zambia, Mozambique and even South Africa. In 2001, I had the opportunity to present a paper on the Bushmeat Crisis in Subsaharan Africa in Naivasha -Kenya during a workshop organised by DSE, where I revealed all these problems to the DSE scholars at CAWM-Mweka. Friends where astonished.What I would like to emphasized is that, the bushmeat crisi is a fact and nowadays is becoming a pandemic. we have to join effort to seek for solutions. Sincere thank for your interest in this issue. Post a comment
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Iregi Mwenja is one of the 8 USFWS MENTOR Fellows from E. Africa studying a post-graduate course on Bushmeat in CAWM Mweka. He is a leading wildlife biologist with 8 years field experience in East Africa
