Category: Bushmeat kenya | Date: Aug 31 2009 | By: bushmeateastafrica

Slobbering, panting and blinking in the dawn light, the latest weapon in the fight against poachers emerged from the belly of a Kenya Airways jumbo jet.

Packed in two wooden crates, Pension and Drastic, two six-year-old British bloodhounds, got their first glimpse of Kenya last week as they began their new lives helping to protect the country’s wildlife.

After years of decline, poaching is on the increase, and the dogs will be deployed to hunt ivory and bushmeat poachers across a landscape famous for its elephants and home to Kenya’s ……. Read more

Technorati : Bushmeat, Bushmeat trade, Ivory Poaching, Kenya, Poachers, Wildlife Conservation

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Category: Bushmeat kenya | Date: Aug 30 2009 | By: bushmeateastafrica

On Tuesday, August 25^th the East African Wildlife Society, Monsanto Fund and the Taveta community formally launched the Taveta Conservation and Alternative Livelihood Project. The project main goal is to reduce bushmeat poaching through awareness rising, training and provision of alternative protein and income through working with local partners. The event was also the handover ceremony for the Ksh. 4 million check from Monsanto Fund to EAWLS. It was attended by Monsanto’s Mr Kinyua M’Mbijjewe and Mr Daniel Otunge, myself for EAWLS, Area Councilor, Area Chief, Fisheries Officers, Community leaders among others.

Below are photo of the launch,

The planning

Technorati : Alternative livelihood, Bushmeat, Community, East African Wildlife Society, Monsanto, Taveta, fish farming

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Category: findings | Date: Aug 20 2009 | By: bushmeateastafrica

Appalling photos reveal lemur carnage in Madagascar [warning: graphic images]
Rhett A. Butler, wildmadagascar.org
August 20, 2009

As governance collapses and aid disappears, commercial poaching emerges. New pictures released by Conservation International depict a troubling development in Madagascar: the emergence of a commercial bushmeat market for lemurs.

In the aftermath of a March coup that saw Madagascar’s president replaced at gunpoint by the capital city’s mayor, Madagascar’s reserves - especially in the northern part of the country - were ravaged by illegal loggers. Armed bands, financed by foreign timber traders, went into Marojejy and Masoala national parks, harvesting valuable hardwoods including rosewood and ebonies. Without support from the central government - or international agencies that pulled aid following the coup - there was no one to stop the carnage. But now it emerges that timber wasn’t the only target.

Read more.

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Category: findings | Date: Aug 19 2009 | By: bushmeateastafrica

Going by these latest media reports, the killing of rare and Endangered primates for bushmeat in Africa and Asia has hit alarming rates leading to demands for more action from the international community. “In northern Sarawak (Malaysia), the killing of primates has become a ‘normal’ practice in rural longhouses”. And in Madagascar where unscrupulous businessmen at taking advantage of the breakdown in law and order, “..the latest scandal is the sale of lemurs as bushmeat to restaurant owners who have been ordering the killing of the animals”.

Are we doing enough to help protect our cousins the non-human primates from this commercial trade? If you think it doesn’t concern you, think about HIV/AIDS and other diseases that have been passed on to us where they develop into an epidemic and become a serious problem worldwide!

Widespread killing of primates in Sarawak (Malaysia)

Tuesday August 18, 2009

By STEPHEN THEN

Native folks and some city dwellers are slaughtering primates - in some cases mother and baby - to have them as exotic meat which is said to ”very tasty”. These practices are widespread and despite repeated complaints and reports to the State Wildlife Department and State Forestry Department, it seems to be getting worse. In northern Sarawak, the killing of primates has become a “normal” practice in rural longhouses”.

Read more..

Action demanded to halt ‘pillage of Madagascar’

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Category: Bushmeat kenya | Date: Aug 15 2009 | By: bushmeateastafrica

I have spent the last week in the field working with communities on a bushmeat project that is supporting alternative sustainable livelihoods. Here is a sneak peek of the consultation that is going on!

Technorati : Bushmeat trade, EAWLS, Kenya, Poaching, Taveta, food security

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Category: Bushmeat kenya | Date: Aug 11 2009 | By: bushmeateastafrica

Today, I received these photos from Mr Moses Ziro who is implementing an EAWLS/IUCN/EGP livelihood and conservation project at L. Ol Bolossat. This incident happened a forthnight ago at Lake Ol Bolossat in Nyahururu. Do not confuse the people watching this hippo for tourist! These are hungry residents who spent the whole day waiting for a chance to get their share of free meat (bushmeat).The Hippo in this photo was stuck in the mud from the wee hours of the morning after a fight with another bull. It was lucky to escape the villager’s knives after KWS rangers came in time to deter the hungry villagers. The Rangers pushed it out of the mud and the hippo confidently grazed near the hungry villagers after it realized that unlike in many other occasion, protection was at hand. After showing off to the villagers, the hippo sneaked back to the safety of deeper waters later that evening. That day villagers strolled back to their homes disappointed, having missed out on a delicacy they have now become accustomed to.

This incident is not isolated. It is being repeated every day across the country as the current food shortage drives more and more people into poaching. Unfortunately, this is the only story with a happy ending for our wildlife. Most of them are not lucky enough to get prompt attention from the KWS who have been blamed for their slow response to human wildlife conflict. Thousands of wildlife are being slaughtered for bushmeat as people turn to what they consider it a free resources that is exploited by those who can use it first.

By the time this drought ends, how many of our wildlife will have died?

At EAWLS we are implementing a protein alternative project to help communities’ access cheap protein and generate some income to keep them off the illegal trade. What are you doing?

Iregi Mwenja

Technorati : Bushmeat, Bushmeat trade, Kenya, Poaching, Rangers, food security

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Category: Bushmeat kenya | Date: Aug 09 2009 | By: bushmeateastafrica

On 20th May, 2009 bushmeat stakeholders from across the country came together for the first time ever to discuss and share information on the illegal bushmeat trade in Kenya. The bushmeat symposium was convened by East African Wildlife Society and Bushmeat-free Eastern Africa Network and brought together 18 different organisation and several individuals interested in the subject.

In the coming days I will be uploading information (in Pdf) shared at the symposium on Yuotube and in this blog. Below is an executive summary on the proceedings. The link to the full report is below this summary.

Executive Summary
This report summarizes the results of the proceeding of the first national bushmeat symposium in Kenya. The symposium main goal was to strengthen collaboration by providing a forum for information sharing and dialogue.

Illegal Bushmeat poaching was reported to be on the rise in Kenya. This is because wildlife outside protected areas is seen as a freely exploitable, uncared-for resource that benefits only those who use it first. New factors that were reported to be fuelling the problem in the recent past include drought, escalating poverty, prevailing food shortages and global financial crisis. The effect of 2008 political chaos that displaced thousands of people and devastated their sources of livelihoods was also to blame particularly in areas where IPDs have not been resettled.

In Kenya, the fight against this menace is hampered by lack of resources, lack of trained manpower, a weak wildlife policy and complacency from key stakeholders. The wildlife policy and the Draft Wildlife Bill 2009 inadequately addresses this problem and it was noted that a lot more need to be done particularly on communities’ involvement in wildlife management and benefit sharing. To this effect, it emerged that Kenya has a lot to learn from Southern Africa countries like South Africa and Namibia where communities’ have extensive wildlife user rights thereby encouraging protection of wildlife and its habitat outside protected areas.

The need to make judiciary more aware of the increasing impact that unregulated bushmeat utilization is having on wildlife populations was empasized. Fines and prison sentences should be revised upwards to enhance the effectiveness of the legal system as a deterrent to bushmeat poaching.

Whereas current efforts to constrain the supply of bushmeat and enforce laws that prohibit the commercial and subsistence trade in bushmeat will in short term curb the rapid increase in illegal bushmeat exploitation, but as long as the demand is there and substitutes do not accessible, bushmeat prices will increase providing the poachers with incentives to join the illegal trade and find ways to circumvent controls. It was recommended that there is an urgent need for the provision of alternative sources of income and protein to communities’ in areas where this illegal trade is thriving to reduce the demand for bushmeat, which is driven by poverty and lack of competitively priced alternatives.

Clink here to download the full report

Technorati : Bushmeat, Bushmeat Symposium, Bushmeat trade, Bushmeat-free Eastern Africa Network, Conservation, East African Wildlife Society, Poaching, wildlife policy

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