Temporal evolution of bushmeat traded in High Niger National Park, Guinea, West Africa

Lucie Duonamou,Tatyana Humle,Alexandre Konate,Jiliang Xu

doi:10.1017/s0030605319001443

Abstract

AbstractThe High Niger National Park is one of the most important protected areas for biodiversity conservation in Guinea. This study examined the temporal evolution of the bushmeat trade in three rural markets in the Park and in the nearest urban centre, Faranah. We collected data in markets during August–November 2017 in three villages around the Mafou core area of the Park and in Faranah, and compared these data with equivalent published data from the same rural areas in 2001 and 2011 and from Faranah in 1994, 1995, 1996 and 2011. Across all study periods, mammals predominated in the bushmeat trade. In rural markets we noted a marked increase in the number of carcasses and biomass offered for sale from 2001 onwards, whereas in Faranah there were no differences over time other than a peak in 1996. Overall, there was an increase in the sale of smaller sized species (< 10 kg), and a marked increase in the sale of species that forage on crops, including the green monkey Chlorocebus sabaeus and warthog Phacochoerus africanus, in spite of religious taboos against the consumption of primates and Suidae. Green monkeys were not sold in markets during the 1990s but were the dominant species in Faranah in 2011 and 2017. Our findings suggest a marked shift in traded species, associated with crop protection by farmers and economic incentives to kill and trade crop-foraging species. This study highlights the value of a longitudinal perspective for investigating the dynamic relationship between local livelihoods and biodiversity conservation.

Highlights

Hunting, which was once considered a subsistence and traditional activity supplying protein resources for rural populations in West Africa, has become an important commercial activity (Bowen-Jones, )
Bushmeat hunting is pervasive across West Africa and is one of the main threats to mammal populations in the region (Fa et al, ; Lindsey et al, ; Humle & Konate, ; Ripple et al, )
Our findings reveal that mammalian species comprise the greatest proportion of wildlife traded in the study region, corroborating studies carried out elsewhere in West and Central Africa (Fa et al, )

Summary

Introduction

Hunting, which was once considered a subsistence and traditional activity supplying protein resources for rural populations in West Africa, has become an important commercial activity (Bowen-Jones, ). Bushmeat hunting is pervasive across West Africa and is one of the main threats to mammal populations in the region (Fa et al, , ; Lindsey et al, ; Humle & Konate, ; Ripple et al, ). % of wildlife species in West and Central Africa, and are directly affecting c. Depletion of wildlife is increasingly affecting people’s wellbeing and access to sources of protein and revenue, especially in rural areas (Nasi et al, ). To date most bushmeat studies have been carried out in forested areas (van Velden et al, ); few have focused on savannah-dominated ecosystems in West Africa, especially within Guinea’s dry forest systems (Lindsey et al, ). It is critical to gather knowledge from such landscapes, to better understand the impact of hunting on wildlife and wildlife depletion on ecosystem integrity, as well as on people’s livelihoods and well-being in less forested and more arid regions of sub-Saharan Africa

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Conclusion