Archive for the ‘findings’ Category
The Other Food Crisis Conservationists have long argued that the hunting of terrestrial wildlife for food - including mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians - poses a threat to the survival of many tropical forest species and ecosystems. A new study suggests we should be equally concerned that the so-called “bushmeat crisis” is also a food security crisis for many forest-dependent people. “Conservation and Use of Wildlife-Based Resources: The Bushmeat Crisis”,a technical paper published by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and CIFOR, summarizes the state of knowledge on this controversial topic. According to Nasi et al, the bushmeat trade constitutes a significant, if largely hidden, component of the economies of tropical forest countries, with estimates ranging from US$42-205 million per year for countries in West and Central Africa. However, “voluminous and varied” empirical evidence suggests that current rates of bushmeat extraction are unsustainable, and are leading to wildlife depletion in many areas. Large mammal species are particularly vulnerable, and many are already locally extinct. The “empty forest syndrome” is not just of interest to conservationists. Bushmeat is an important source of protein and fats in rural diets - up to 80 percent in Central Africa - as well as an important seasonal safety net. And in many countries, there is no clear substitute available if wild meat sources were to be depleted, or off-take reduced to sustainable levels. Bushmeat’s importance to rural livelihoods is not restricted to its direct consumption. Research suggests that the poorest households are more dependent than the sales to local and urban markets. Thus, the conventional wisdom that commercial trade can be banned without harming the subsistence needs of the poor is misguided. The report suggests that sustainable management of bushmeat resources requires different approaches for different species and circumstances. For example, species with low intrinsic population growth rates and high dependence on undisturbed habitat - such as gorillas - are particularly vulnerable to overhunting. By contrast, fast reproducing generalist species that thrive in agricultural mosaics - such as duikers or rodents - may be very resilient to hunting pressure. Blanket bans on hunting and trade that don’t discriminate between these extremes are bound to fail. The authors argue that the solution to the bushmeat crisis is a more secure rights regime: if local people are guaranteed the benefits of sustainable land use and hunting practices, they will be willing to invest in sound management and negotiate selective hunting regimes. Sustainable management of bushmeat resources requires bringing the sector out into the open, removing the stigma of illegality, and including wild meat consumption in national statistics and planning. Reframing the bushmeat problem from one of international animal welfare to one of sustainable livelihoods - and part of the global food crisis - might be a good place to start. For more details click here to go to download the report.
Another article on disease outbreak from DRC. “The disease reappeared because people here regularly eat monkeys and squirrels, which are reservoirs for the virus, and above all because smallpox vaccinations stopped”. Bushmeat is again the culprit here! Iregi Mwenja
DRC: Monkey pox kills 22 in Equateur provinceKINSHASA, 1 July 2008 (IRIN) - An outbreak of monkey pox in Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Equateur province has killed 22 of the 470 people infected since the start of 2008, according to medical officials.“The epidemic began in the Tshuapa health zone and has reached almost all parts of the province,” said August Makaya, the chief epidemiologist in Equateur. “Cases of monkey pox have been registered all over Tshuapa health zone but also in Befale and Mopono health zones and more recently in Ingende health zone, near Mbandaka [the main town in the province],” he said.
Although this presentation was done at the Sullivan Summit which I attended from day one to the end, I got this article through the web and I found it interesting since people never seem to agree on where HIV/AIDS originated from. But we all know that bushmeat is a health hazard and these are some of the possibilities. I would love to see your comments on this issue.
Iregi Mwenja USFWS MENTOR Fellow
Central Africa: Expert Blames Aids, Ebola to Bush Meat The Citizen(Dar es Salaam) 6th June 2008 By; Zephania Ubwani Consumption of bushmeat may have fueled the emergence of viral diseases including HIV/Aids and Ebola, among people in the Congo basin, a scientist warned yesterday. Dr John B. Flynn, director of Usaid-supported Central Africa regional programme for the environment said there is evidence that HIV has been transmitted to humans by wild chimpanzees, one of the most hunted animals in the Congo basin. He told the last session of the 8th Sullivan Summit that medical researchers were concerned that bushmeat trade could not only eliminate primate populations in the area, but could also spread HIV/Aids, Ebola, monkey fox and related hemorrhagic fevers. He said although some populations of wild chimpanzees tolerated closely-related SIV virus with few harmful effects, medical researchers were concerned that bush meat trade would eliminate the endangered chimpanzees and other primates. Should that happen, the potentially invaluable information that could have been provided by the on-going trials on the cure of Aids using primates would also disappear, the scientist further warned. According to him, the pool of viruses resident in wildlife populations, especially the primates, has created substantial threat of zonotic diseases transmissions from animals to humans through active hunting and consumption of wildlife. “The bushmeat issue is thus an issue of global concern. It is one of the most severe threats to many large and medium sized mammals in Central African forests,” he said, adding that bush meat has also found its way on the dining tables in town markets in the region. He said the dramatic reduction in mammal populations and the massive felling of trees could lead to ecological disruption of the complex ecosystem in the second largest tropical forest belt after the Amazon in South America. The World Resources Institute, a Washington-based global organisation dealing with natural resources, estimates that about 50 per cent of Central Africa’s forests, under which the Congo basin falls, are under logging leases. “This means the commercial logging sector must be involved and cooperate in order to bring about forest conservation and sustainable use of the natural resources there,” he pointed out. The Congo basin contains about 20 per cent of the world’s moist tropical forests. Although deforestation there is relatively low compared with other tropical zones, scientists say the forest loss there is substantial, corresponding to 21,668 square kilometers for a 10 year period. The basin is believed to be the source of Africa’s existing biological diversity. Of the estimated 8,000 plant species found there, about 80 per cent are endemic to the region, according to the expert. “It is also the riches area for fauna in terms of numbers and level of endemism, with 655 species of birds and 58 species of mammals, about half of them endemic to the area,” Dr Flynn explained, adding that of these, 16 bird species and 23 mammal species are considered threatened. The region supports the world’s largest population of lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees) and forest elephants. The Congo basin forest partnership was launched in 2002 in Johannesburg during the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) by the United States and South Africa along with 27 public and private partners to promote conservation of natural resources in Central African forests.
Well-managed wildlife trade can benefit poor communities-TRAFFIC, WWF According to findings of a new report by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, and WWF, a well-managed wildlife trade has the potential to deliver significant development benefits for the world’s poor. The report shows that wildlife trade offers opportunities to the poor and benefits to local communities, but these are threatened when illegal or unsustainable trade is allowed to flourish. This is an interesting finding for Kenya where trade in wildlife and wildlife products was banned in 1977. Kenya has since maintained a restrictive non-consumptive utilisation policy and has interestingly lost over 60 % of its wildlife within this time and illegal and unsustainable exploitation of wildlife for bushmeat has reached alarming rates. The legal, international trade in wild plants and animals and the products derived from them was estimated as worth close to USD300 billion in 2005, based on declared import values-and the value is rising, according to this report. The report finds that well-managed, legal and sustainable trade can also have a significant impact on all eight of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the globally agreed road map for development, which lay out targets on poverty and hunger reduction (MDG1) access to education (MDG2), health care (MDGs4, 5 and 6), environmental sustainability (MDG7) and good governance (MDG8). For Kenya, such a trade will help our country achieve the Vision 2020 goals by economically empowering the poor and giving land owners additional sources of income from their land. Wildlife products traded include medicines, food, clothing, ornaments, furnishings, pets, ornamental plants, zoological and botanical display, research, manufacturing and construction materials. As well as contributing to the incomes of the poor, many also contribute directly to their housing, health and other needs. According to Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF International’s Species Programme: “Trade in wildlife products can have a significant positive economic impact on people’s livelihoods, childhood education, and the role of women in developing countries, provided it is legal, well-managed and sustainable.” The report recommends governments explore semi-intensive production methods, experiment with management regimes that support sustainable off-take levels for species in trade, develop ‘pro-poor’ approaches to standards and certification schemes, and explore co-ordinated approaches to different components of wildlife trade, such as balancing commercial and subsistence interests. Unlike in Kenya where wildlife utilisation have mostly favoured the rich and those with access to capital resulting in resentment against wildlife and revenge killings of endangered species by poor communities to prick where it hurt most. Iregi Mwenja USFWS MENTOR Fellow
No words can say it better than these photos
Iregi Mwenja Powered by Zoundry
Last week was my last weekend here in Kenya before I travel back to Mweka in Tanzania. As usual, my daughter had a list of places where I was supposed to take them. Among them was the Sheldrick orphanage where I took them a fortnight ago and they can’t stop demanding for more. But a curious one came from my son who I don’t know how he came to know about it. It is the Giraffe Centre in Nairobi. My family loves wildlife and I was surprised we have never thought of going there. The children sometimes know more than you do!
As we learnt at the Giraffe Centre, there are very many was to feed a giraffe and at the same time get a photo of a lifetime. On this list is the giraffe kiss where you give a giraffe a pellet using you lips! I tried it and it was really nice. You have to try it to understand what I mean. The keepers told us not to worry because they were all females! For the ladies,I am sure there are male giraffe as well!!! The giraffe saliva is sterile and there are no dangers of zoonosis.
Please visit the Giraffe centre and try this kiss of a lifetime as you support conservation of wildlife in Kenya. Bring your kids as well so that they can learn to love and care for wildlife at an early age. If we kissed them at an early age, we won’t be killing them for meat at the rate we doing today.
Iregi Mwenja Powered by Zoundry |
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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
