Long-term spatio-temporal changes in a West African bushmeat trade system.

J Mcnamara,G Cowlishaw,E J Milner-Gulland,A Brenyah,J M Rowcliffe,J M Kusimi

doi:10.1111/cobi.12545

Abstract

Landscapes in many developing countries consist of a heterogeneous matrix of mixed agriculture and forest. Many of the generalist species in this matrix are increasingly traded in the bushmeat markets of West and Central Africa. However, to date there has been little quantification of how the spatial configuration of the landscape influences the urban bushmeat trade over time. As anthropogenic landscapes become the face of rural West Africa, understanding the dynamics of these systems has important implications for conservation and landscape management. The bushmeat production of an area is likely to be defined by landscape characteristics such as habitat disturbance, hunting pressure, level of protection, and distance to market. We explored (SSG, tense) the role of these four characteristics in the spatio‐temporal dynamics of the commercial bushmeat trade around the city of Kumasi, Ghana, over 27 years (1978 to 2004). We used geographic information system methods to generate maps delineating the spatial characteristics of the landscapes. These data were combined with spatially explicit market data collected in the main fresh bushmeat market in Kumasi to explore the relationship between trade volume (measured in terms of number of carcasses) and landscape characteristics. Over time, rodents, specifically cane rats (Thryonomys swinderianus), became more abundant in the trade relative to ungulates and the catchment area of the bushmeat market expanded. Areas of intermediate disturbance supplied more bushmeat, but protected areas had no effect. Heavily hunted areas showed significant declines in bushmeat supply over time. Our results highlight the role that low intensity, heterogeneous agricultural landscapes can play in providing ecosystem services, such as bushmeat, and therefore the importance of incorporating bushmeat into ecosystem service mapping exercises. Our results also indicate that even where high bushmeat production is possible, current harvest levels may cause wildlife depletion.

Highlights

Anthropogenic landscapes, and the ecosystem services and benefits they provide, are dynamic in both time and space and driven by factors such as human demography, urbanization, climate, and land-use. Understanding these dynamics is important for designing effective conservation and land management strategies that take account of the variety of benefits humans derive from such landscapes and the trade-offs associated with different management strategies (Anderson et al 2009; Armsworth et al 2012)
We explored how the spatio-temporal dynamics of an anthropogenic tropical forest landscape in Ghana have influenced the commercial bushmeat trade in the region
We chose 7 km based on interviews with 53 hunters in 2011 in 2 communities near Kumasi, where the average distance traveled to the Harvest rates and biological production are expected to vary with changes in human-induced disturbance in the landscape

Summary

Introduction

Anthropogenic landscapes, and the ecosystem services and benefits they provide, are dynamic in both time and space and driven by factors such as human demography, urbanization, climate, and land-use. Understanding these dynamics is important for designing effective conservation and land management strategies that take account of the variety of benefits humans derive from such landscapes and the trade-offs associated with different management strategies (Anderson et al 2009; Armsworth et al 2012). Bushmeat is rarely incorporated into ecosystem services evaluations or land management strategies (Holbech 2001) Assessing such dynamics is key if the true benefits derived by people from the land are to be incorporated into landscape-level conservation planning exercises

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Discussion

Conclusion