BUSHMEAT HUNTING: a threat to wildlife

While popular in many African countries, bushmeat hunting and consumption is a major threat to many large species of wildlife in protected areas, write Julia van Velden et al. However, there is a solution to this problem, which requires partnership between government and communities.

- Julia van Velden

Bushmeat hunting and consumption, where wild animals are harvested for food, is a danger to wildlife around the world. Harvesting for human consumption is the largest threat to 98% of large species threatened with extinction. It’s rated by conservation professionals as the top threat to wildlife in protected areas across Africa.

People hunt bushmeat for many reasons. It’s a way of providing protein for the household, to earn income, for cultural or traditional reasons, or because it is perceived as a right.

People consume bushmeat for a range of different reasons too. It can be a cheaper form of protein than livestock meat, to add diversity to diets, because they prefer the taste, or simply because there are no other options. Given these myriad reasons for hunting and eating bushmeat, it can be difficult for conservationists to design and implement interventions to stop the practice. Simplistic understandings of the issue are common in conservation. This means that interventions are often unable to fully account for the complex realities of the communities who depend on bushmeat for their livelihoods.

Enforcement at protected areas is a key way to prevent bushmeat poaching. But it’s also important to recognise the contribution bushmeat makes to livelihoods, incomes and food security.

It’s therefore important to design interventions that can help people shift away from hunting and consuming bushmeat without negatively affecting livelihoods.

THE PROBLEM IN MALAWI