Explore the vast range of titles available.

New evidence of commercialization and consumption of wild meat in Amazonian cities has exposed an alarming yet poorly understood threat to Neotropical biodiversity. In response to the limitations of field sampling for large-scale surveys, we sought to develop a method of rapidly assessing wildlife harvest and trade in multiple areas using expert knowledge. Using caiman as a model taxon, we surveyed experts across the Brazilian Amazon. Expert responses to a Likert-style questionnaire suggest that caiman hunting, generally considered a localized rural activity, is in fact common and geographically widespread. Contrary to previous assumptions we found evidence that urban demand is partly driving the harvest, including via interstate trafficking. We highlight the need for further field validation of wild-meat trade and urban consumption patterns in Amazonia. We conclude that expert elicitation is a simple, cost-effective technique that can be a valuable precursor to inform and direct applied conservation research, especially where there are significant knowledge gaps and at large spatial scales.

Although deforestation and forest degradation have long been considered the most significant threats to tropical biodiversity, across Southeast Asia (Northeast India, Indochina, Sundaland, Philippines) substantial areas of natural habitat have few wild animals (>1 kg), bar a few hunting-tolerant species. To document hunting impacts on vertebrate populations regionally, we conducted an extensive literature review, including papers in local journals and reports of governmental and nongovernmental agencies. Evidence from multiple sites indicated animal populations declined precipitously across the region since approximately 1980, and many species are now extirpated from substantial portions of their former ranges. Hunting is by far the greatest immediate threat to the survival of most of the region's endangered vertebrates. Causes of recent overhunting include improved access to forests and markets, improved hunting technology, and escalating demand for wild meat, wildlife-derived medicinal products, and wild animals as pets. Although hunters often take common species, such as pigs or rats, for their own consumption, they take rarer species opportunistically and sell surplus meat and commercially valuable products. There is also widespread targeted hunting of high-value species. Consequently, as currently practiced, hunting cannot be considered sustainable anywhere in the region, and in most places enforcement of protected-area and protected-species legislation is weak. The international community's focus on cross-border trade fails to address overexploitation of wildlife because hunting and the sale of wild meat is largely a local issue and most of the harvest is consumed in villages, rural towns, and nearby cities. In addition to improved enforcement, efforts to engage hunters and manage wildlife populations through sustainable hunting practices are urgently needed. Unless there is a step change in efforts to reduce wildlife exploitation to sustainable levels, the region will likely lose most of its iconic species, and many others besides, within the next few years. Aunque la deforestación y la degradación de los bosques han sido consideradas durante largo tiempo como las amenazas más significativas para la biodiversidad tropical, a lo largo del sureste asiático (noreste de India, Indochina, Sondalandia, Filipinas) hay áreas sustanciales de hábitat natural que tienen algunos animales silvestres (>1 kg), excluyendo a algunas especies tolerantes a la caza. Para documentar los impactos regionales de la caza sobre las poblaciones de vertebrados realizamos una revisión extensiva de la literatura, incluyendo artículos de revistas locales y reportes de agencias gubernamentales y no gubernamentales. La evidencia de los múltiples sitios indicó que las poblaciones animales declinaron precipitosamente en la región desde aproximadamente 1980 y que muchas especies ahora están extirpadas de porciones sustanciales de sus extensiones previas. La caza es por mucho la mayor amenaza inmediata para la supervivencia de la mayoría de los vertebrados en peligro de la región. Las causas del exceso reciente de caza incluyen el acceso mejorado a los bosques y a los mercados, tecnología mejorada de caza, productos medicinales derivados de la vida silvestre y los animales silvestres como mascotas. Aunque los cazadores generalmente toman a especies comunes, como los cerdos y las ratas, para su propio consumo, también toman especies raras de manera oportuna y venden la carne excedente y los productos de valor comercial. También existe una extensa caza enfocada en especies de alto valor. En consecuencia, como es practicada actualmente, la caza no puede considerarse sustentable en ningún lugar de la región y en la mayoría de las localidades la aplicación de la legislación de áreas y especies protegidas es débil. El enfoque de la comunidad internacional sobre el mercado transfronterizo falla en abordar la sobreexplotación de la vida silvestre porque la caza y la venta de la carne salvaje son en general un asunto local y la mayoría es consumida en las aldeas, pueblos rurales y ciudades cercanas. Además de una aplicación mejorada, los esfuerzos por involucrar a los cazadores y por manejar las poblaciones de vida silvestre por medio de prácticas de caza sustentable son una necesidad urgente. A menos que haya un cambio de paso en los esfuerzos por reducir la explotación de la vida silvestre a niveles sustentables, la región probablemente pierda la mayoría de sus especies icónicas, además de muchas otras, en el transcurso de los próximos años.

The growing body of literature concerning the hunted wild game meat (HWGM) supply chain is mainly focused on the final consumer, while little is known about upstream production processes. Even though the hunter plays a central role here, it is not well understood how hunters themselves perceive their role in the various phases of the production process. The present study explores Italian hunters’ perception of the HWGM supply chain and compares it to their perception towards the conventional farmed meat supply chain. We distinguish several phases of this production process and find that the final phase related to on-site game dressing is considered problematic, perhaps because hunters perceive themselves as less skilled than professional butchers. The results, in fact, show that hunters prefer hunted products over farmed meat, but that they consider hunted wild boar meat less safe compared to farmed pork. Findings from this study provide a rare glimpse from the inside of the supply chain and reveals the needs for a broad risk assessment analysis on the Italian game meat supply chain. Considering the development of the Italian emerging market of the HWGM, our results also highlight the relevance of training activities on hunters in order to increase the safety and quality of the final product.

Many factors drive wildlife hunting and consumption, including source of income, taste preference, culture, lack of alternative meat, meat price, and wealth, and the relative importance of these factors may vary from place to place. We describe three aspects of wild meat consumption and trade in the town of Tapauá, central Amazon, Brazil: (1) factors associated with consumption of wild and domesticated meats; (2) consumers' knowledge of and attitude toward wildlife, preference for meat, and perceptions about changes in wild and domesticated meat consumption; and (3) patterns of wildlife trade. We found that preference, price, wealth, and occupation were associated with meat consumption. Social links played an important role in local trade. Decreasing price and diversifying domesticated meat alternatives may lead to a decrease in wild meat consumption, if alternatives function as substitutes. Outreach could improve understanding of wildlife ecology and conservation and encourage reduction in wild meat consumption while retaining local culture. Fostering alternative livelihoods for hunters could help reduce hunting pressure.

Primate populations worldwide are experiencing rapid declines due to habitat loss, degradation, and overexploitation. These pressures are particularly severe across sub-Saharan Africa and the Gulf of Guinea biodiversity hotspot, which supports several threatened and endemic species. The Ebo-Makombe-Ndokbou forests in southwestern Cameroon contain critical habitat for several of these species, including the Critically Endangered Preuss’s red colobus ( Piliocolobus preussi ), found only in southeastern Nigeria and western Cameroon. Hunting and habitat loss and degradation from logging and agriculture are the main threats to primates in this region. In 2018 and 2019, we conducted 571.51 km of reconnaissance surveys and recorded 12,347 h of audio data from passive acoustic sensors to assess primate relative abundance and detect acoustic evidence of gun hunting and logging activities in Makombe and Ndokbou forests. Overall primate sighting frequency was low compared with West African forests containing similar primate communities, with Cercopithecus species the most widespread and frequently encountered. We recorded no verified encounters with Preuss’s red colobus, but we detected a putative vocalization near the remote Mt. Sinai region of Ndokbou forest. Acoustic sensors recorded gunshot activity throughout the study area, with intensity highest near villages and logging roads. These patterns suggest that logging infrastructure may facilitate hunting access, contributing to reduced primate abundance and a community skewed toward smaller-bodied, more ecologically flexible species. The detection of a possible Preuss’s red colobus call indicates that a small, remnant population may persist in Ndokbou. However, the absence of visual confirmations despite extensive survey effort suggests the species is nearing local extirpation. We recommend additional surveys in the Mt. Sinai area to assess the presence of Preuss’s red colobus in Ndokbou forest. The potential extirpation of Preuss’s red colobus foreshadows the decline of the forest’s other threatened primate species. Protecting the Ebo-Makombe-Ndokbou forests is integral to primate conservation efforts in the Gulf of Guinea.

The rise of zoonotic disease-related public health crises has sparked calls for policy action, including calls to close wildlife markets. Yet, these calls often reflect limited understanding of where, precisely, exposure to risk occurs along wildlife and wild meat trade chains. They also threaten to negatively impact food security and livelihoods. From a public health perspective, it is important to understand the practices that shape food safety all along the trade chain, resulting in meat that is either safe to eat or managed as a potential vector of pathogens. This article uses ethnographic methods to examine the steps that lead a wild animal from the forest to the plate of an urban consumer in Yangambi and Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Focusing on hunters, village-level consumers, transporters, market traders and urban consumers, we highlight specific practices that expose different actors involved in the trade chain to wild meat related health risks, including exposure to food borne illnesses from contaminated meat and zoonotic pathogens through direct contact with wild animals, and the local practices in place to reduce the same. We discuss interventions that could help prevent and mitigate zoonotic and food borne disease risks associated with wild meat trade chains.

Wild animals play an integral and complex role in the economies and ecologies of many countries across the globe, including those of West and Central Africa, the focus of this policy perspective. The trade in wild meat, and its role in diets, have been brought into focus as a consequence of discussions over the origins of COVID-19. As a result, there have been calls for the closure of China’s “wet markets”; greater scrutiny of the wildlife trade in general; and a spotlight has been placed on the potential risks posed by growing human populations and shrinking natural habitats for animal to human transmission of zoonotic diseases. However, to date there has been little attention given to what the consequences of the COVID-19 economic shock may be for the wildlife trade; the people who rely on it for their livelihoods; and the wildlife that is exploited. In this policy perspective, we argue that the links between the COVID-19 pandemic, rural livelihoods and wildlife are likely to be more complex, more nuanced, and more far-reaching, than is represented in the literature to date. We develop a causal model that tracks the likely implications for the wild meat trade of the systemic crisis triggered by COVID-19. We focus on the resulting economic shockwave, as manifested in the collapse in global demand for commodities such as oil, and international tourism services, and what this may mean for local African economies and livelihoods. We trace the shockwave through to the consequences for the use of, and demand for, wild meats as households respond to these changes. We suggest that understanding and predicting the complex dynamics of wild meat use requires increased collaboration between environmental and resource economics and the ecological and conservation sciences.

We studied the impact of hunting on monkey species in the Taï National Park and adjacent forests in Côte d'Ivoire. The average wild meat consumption per capita per year was assessed from market surveys and interviews. We determined that the amount of primate wild meat being extracted in the Taï National Park and surrounding forests was 249 t in 1999. Hunting pressure was the highest on the larger primate species such as red colobus, Procolobus badius, black and white colobus, Colobus polykomos, and the sooty mangabey, Cercocebus torquatus atys. Estimates of population densities were based on line transect surveys. The maximum annual production of each species was calculated using the Robinson and Redford model (1991) and assuming unhunted conditions. Comparing current harvest levels with the maximum sustainable yield suggests that harvest of red colobus monkeys (Procolobus badius) is sustainable, whereas current off-take of the black and white colobus (Colobus polykomos), the sooty mangabey (Cercocebus atys), diana monkeys (Cercopithecus diana), and Campbell's monkeys (Cercopithecus campbellt) exceeds sustainability by up to three times. /// Nous avons étudié l'impact de la chasse sur les espèces de singes dans le Parc National de Taï et ses principales forêts périphériques en Côte d'Ivoire. La consommation moyenne de viande de brousse par capita et par an a été estimée à partir d'études de marchés et d'interviews. Nous avons estimé la quantité de viande de gibier d'origine simienne extraite du Parc National de Taï en 1999 à 249 t. La pression de la chasse était plus forte sur les espèces de singes de plus grande taille telles que le colobe bai, Procolobus badius, le colobe noir et blanc, Colobus polykomos, et le cercocèbe enfumé, Cercocebus torquatus atys. Les estimations de densité de populations ont été faites par la méthode des transects. La production annuelle maximale de chaque espèce a été calculée en utilisant le modèle de Robinson et Redford (1991) en supposant des conditions sans chasse. La comparaison des prélèvements avec la production maximale soutenable suggère que le prélèvement en cours des colobes bais (Procolobus badius) est soutenable alors que celui de colobes noirs et blancs (Colobus polykomos), des cercocèbes enfumés (Cercocebus torqatus atys), des cercopithèques dianes (Cercopithecus diana) et des mones de Campbell (Cercopithecus camp belli) excède le seuil de durabilité de jusqu'à trois fois.

Overexploitation is one of the main pressures driving wildlife closer to extinction, yet broad‐scale data to evaluate species’ declines are limited. Using African pangolins (Family: Pholidota) as a case study, we demonstrate that collating local‐scale data can provide crucial information on regional trends in exploitation of threatened species to inform conservation actions and policy. We estimate that 0.4‐2.7 million pangolins are hunted annually in Central African forests. The number of pangolins hunted has increased by ∼150% and the proportion of pangolins of all vertebrates hunted increased from 0.04% to 1.83% over the past four decades. However, there were no trends in pangolins observed at markets, suggesting use of alternative supply chains. The price of giant (Smutsia gigantea) and arboreal (Phataginus sp.) pangolins in urban markets has increased 5.8 and 2.3 times respectively, mirroring trends in Asian pangolins. Efforts and resources are needed to increase law enforcement and population monitoring, and investigate linkages between subsistence hunting and illegal wildlife trade.

As the world's most endangered mammals, lemurs are key to understanding how humans and wildlife can sustainably coexist. We present the first national assessment of the urban lemur meat trade. We interviewed 2600 participants across 17 cities to determine its scale, target species, distribution, and drivers. We reveal a considerable trade, with thousands of threatened lemurs sold annually. This trade is largely hidden, with 95% of sales occurring directly between suppliers and a trusted clientele, and targets some of the nation's most endangered species, often during critical breeding seasons. While entrepreneurial peri‐urban suppliers are lured by a dependable economic opportunity, affluent urban consumers desire lemur meat as a luxury food perceived as providing wild‐sourced flavor and vitality. We begin to discuss barriers and key interventions required for a multifaceted strategy to address this growing trade. Without a comprehensive data‐driven approach, the world's most endangered mammals may soon be eaten into extinction.