Bush Meat in Kenya

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