Wildlife Depletion Research Articles

Regulation loopholes in China aggravate depletion of wildlife

China has committed to develop an ecological civilization and recently taken significant steps to enhance conservation measures including updating the List of National Key Protected Wild Animals and revising the Wildlife Protection Law in 20211. Conservation has improved by increasing the number of protected species. However, a notable shortcoming undermines the effectiveness of protection for as many as 87 species, as the regulation applies only to wild and not to captive individuals (Figure 1 and Table S1). Additionally, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs similarly regulates 230 CITES-listed aquatic species, most of which are non-native species to China (Notice No. 491). Given the challenges differentiating wild and captive individuals, these regulation changes allow and incentivize the laundering of wild-caught animals as captive-bred in trade. The impacts of these regulation amendments on conservation are substantial for two reasons. First, China has one of the world's largest wildlife trades, with a high volume of native and non-native animals traded and farmed2,3. Second, many of the species affected are globally threatened, including 51% of native and 63% of CITES-listed aquatic species (Figure 1). Ultimately, the regulation changes exacerbate population declines of many threatened species.

Exposing illegal hunting and wildlife depletion in the world's largest tropical country through social media data.

Globally, illegal sport hunting can threaten prey populations when unregulated. Due to its covert nature, illegal sport hunting poses challenges for data collection, hindering efforts to understand the full extent of its impacts. We gathered social media data to analyze patterns of illegal sport hunting and wildlife depletion across Brazil. We collected data for 2years (2018-2020) across 5 Facebook groups containing posts depicting pictures of illegal sport hunting events of native fauna. We described and mapped these hunting events by detailing the number of hunters involved, the number of species, the mean body mass of individuals, and the number and biomass of individuals hunted per unit area, stratified by Brazilian biome. We also examined the effects of defaunation on hunting yield and composition via regression models, rank-abundance curves, and spatial interpolation. We detected 2046 illegal sport hunting posts portraying the hunting of 4658 animals (∼29t of undressed meat) across all 27 states and 6 natural biomes of Brazil. Of 157 native species targeted by hunters, 19 are currently threatened with extinction. We estimated that 1414 hunters extracted 3251kg/millionkm2. Some areas exhibited more pronounced wildlife depletion, in particular the Atlantic Forest and Caatinga biomes. In these areas, there was a shift from large mammals and reptiles to small birds as the main targeted taxa, and biomass extracted per hunting event and mean body mass across all taxonomic groups were lower than in other areas. Our results highlight that illegal sport hunting adds to the pressures of subsistence hunting and the wild meat trade on Brazil's wildlife populations. Enhanced surveillance efforts are needed to reduce illegal sport hunting levels and to develop well-managed sustainable sport hunting programs. These can support wildlife conservation and offer incentives for local communities to oversee designated sport hunting areas.

Bio-Inclusive Urban Ecosystems and their Conservation - A Review

This article dives into the usage of nature in cities to solve today's problems. This research focuses on the systematic conservation of urban wildlife. How the cities can be interlinked with the wildlife and the current scenarios which happen in the present condition of the cities. We deal with classification of the urban ecosystem and also the new habitats for the wildlife population and the factors that affect the same. The six main areas in which urban wildlife management challenges now exist are also covered. We get the chance to study more about the new term of synurbization and the factors and conditions for the same and some examples also. Further, the research focuses on the habitat management techniques and the examples happening in different areas in the world.Another major topic which is dealt in this study is the wetlands of India. Wetlands of kerala are also studied along with their respective policies and strategies for the protection of wetlands. National strategy for wetland protection and the methods used for the monitoring and protection of wetlands are also included.Human activities and human interventions are the major factors that contribute to the depletion of wildlife and the wetlands therefore habitat conservation is also dealt with in this study. This study helps us to understand the importance of protection and prevention of wildlife in urban areas and the conservation of wildlife in different zones of our cities and urges us to understand the factors responsible for the urban development without affecting the ecosystem.

Extending the conservation impact of great ape research: Flagship species sites facilitate biodiversity assessments and land preservation.

To inform regional conservation planning, we assessed mammalian and avian biodiversity in the Djéké Triangle, which is an intact forest with long-term research and tourism focused on western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). This critical region serves as a conservation conduit between the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park (NNNP) in the Republic of Congo and the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park in Central African Republic. Wildlife inventories were conducted to determine if biodiversity in the Djéké Triangle (initially part of a logging concession) was equivalent to the NNNP. Camera traps (CTs) were deployed to estimate species richness, relative abundance, naïve occupancy, and activity patterns of medium-to-large species in mixed species and monodominant Gilbertiodendron forests that comprise the majority of regional terra firma. Species inventories were collected from CTs positioned on a grid and at termite nests throughout the Djéké Triangle and compared to CTs placed in the Goualougo Triangle located within the NNNP. From 10,534 camera days at 65 locations, we identified 34 mammal and 16 bird species. Allaying concerns of wildlife depletion, metrics of species richness in the Djéké Triangle surpassed those of the Goualougo Triangle. Many species were observed to occur across habitats, while others showed habitat specificity, with termite mounds indicated as an important microhabitat feature. Our comparisons of animal activity budgets in different habitat types provide important reference information for other populations and contexts. In conclusion, this study provided empirical evidence of the high conservation value of this region that contributed to increasing the protected status of the Djéké Triangle.

The Green Depression: American Ecoliterature in the 1930s and 1940s by Matthew M. Lambert

<i>The Green Depression: American Ecoliterature in the 1930s and 1940s</i> by Matthew M. Lambert

Combining offtake and participatory data to assess the sustainability of a hunting system in northern Congo

AbstractResearch suggests that bushmeat is hunted at unsustainable rates throughout much of the Congo basin, although accurately measuring hunting sustainability is challenging. Offtake data can contribute towards sustainability assessments, and when incorporated with information on hunters' strategies, can be used to monitor changes in hunting dynamics. We used a combination of (1) a long‐term, quantitative yet low‐resolution hunting offtake data set, (2) qualitative data acquired through participatory methods, and (3) a high‐resolution offtake survey, to examine the changes in a hunting system undergoing change due to new roads and associated socio‐economic developments in northern Republic of the Congo. Our results indicated that while the conclusions drawn from the different data sets were broadly the same (indicating wildlife depletion, particularly in one hunting zone), the results of the analysis of the participatory and the high‐resolution offtake data set provided an explanation for trends in the long‐term low‐resolution offtake data set, including the degree to which long‐term trends are due to changes in hunting strategy, or in underlying wildlife populations. We discuss how participatory hunter surveys can be used to distinguish between changes in prey populations and changes in hunting strategy in long‐term low‐resolution hunting offtake data sets, therefore, improving the effectiveness of long‐term offtake data sets to assess sustainability of hunting.

The Pantheistic Hermit and the Sacred Forest Perspectives of Vedic Ecology

Chandamama, a monthly magazine published in 13 Indian languages, was tremendously popular in the country in the latter half of the 20th century. It played a very influential role in the life of Indian children of the time. Chandamama predominantly attempted to portray through its stories an Indian society in such a manner that it would inculcate “Indian traditions, values and culture” among children. This article observes how several stories in Chandamama reflected the problem of deforestation and the depletion of wildlife caused by increasing industrialisation and urbanisation in 20th century India. Moreover, the stories in Chandamama also constitute a call for the protection and conservation of wildlife, which is achieved through the representation of a Vedic society with the recurring image of the “holy,” pantheistic hermit residing in the pastoral forest, and also the representation of the creatures of the forest as sacred and as possessing special powers that they use for the welfare of humans who live in harmony with nature.

Estimating hunting prevalence and reliance on wild meat in Cambodia's Eastern Plains

AbstractHunting is a primary driver of biodiversity loss across South-east Asia. Within Cambodia, the use of wire snares to capture wildlife is a severe threat in protected areas but there have been few studies of the behaviour of hunters from local communities. Here, we combine the unmatched count technique with direct questioning to estimate the prevalence of hunting behaviours and wildlife consumption amongst 705 households living within Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, Cambodia. We assessed respondents’ knowledge of rules, and their perceptions of patrols responsible for enforcing rules. Estimates of hunting behaviour were variable: results from the unmatched count technique were inconclusive, and direct questioning revealed 9% of households hunted, and 20% set snares around farms to prevent wildlife eating crops. Hunting with domestic dogs was the method most commonly used to catch wildlife (87% of households owned dogs). Wild meat was consumed by 84% of households, and was most frequently bought or caught, but also gifted. We detected a high awareness of conservation rules, but low awareness of punishments and penalties, with wildlife depletion, rather than the risk of being caught by patrols, causing the greatest reduction in hunting. Our findings demonstrate the challenges associated with reliably estimating rule-breaking behaviour and highlight the need to incorporate careful triangulation into study design.

Monitoring tourists’ specialisation and implementing adaptive governance is necessary to avoid failure of the wildlife tourism commons

Wildlife tourism (WT) is an important economic sector globally, which can sustain national and local economies. These activities have been reconceptualised as consumptive because of their impacts on the wildlife, and the problem of managing WT as a common-pool resource issue. We use an individual-based model to simulate the dynamics of a WT destination in different development phases. We then ask if any of the governance structures commonly proposed to solve common pool resource issues are appropriate to sustainably manage a WT destination during its development. The level of specialisation of tourists visiting a destination can influence both the exploitation of the wildlife and the socio-economic success of the industry, and no single governance structure leads to sustainability in every stage of a WT destination lifecycle. Given the dynamics of WT destinations, an adaptive governance framework is crucial to avoid wildlife depletion and economic failure of the industry. • Tourists' level of specialisation is crucial in determining the sustainability of a wildlife tourism destination. • There is an interaction between the destination's development stage and the effectiveness of governance structures. • No single governance structure is effective in sustainably managing the destination throughout its development cycle. • Adaptive governance allows the destination to adapt to change and achieve sustainable outcomes.

Where the Wild Things were is Where Humans are Now: an Overview

Humanity is undergoing an unprecedented demographic transformation in that global population is rising from 2 billion in the 1920s to an expected 8 billion in the 2020s, an annual increase of roughly 80 million. The requirements of this expanding human population are strongly linked to depletion of wildlife and increasing difficulties facing both wildlife and environmental conservation efforts. I assess current and potential risks stemming from the environmental changes due to unchecked human population growth.

Participatory monitoring reveals village-centered gradients of mammalian defaunation in central Africa

Tropical areas are facing a bushmeat crisis involving the systematic over-exploitation of large-bodied mammals for both subsistence and commercial purposes. We hypothesize that because hunting generally originates from villages, it will create “halos of defaunation” where abundances of large mammals increase with distance away from villages. Whilst such patterns have been well characterized at the landscape scale, examining how defaunation halos vary between different villages has received considerably less attention. Forests immediately surrounding villages are of considerable importance to the people residing within them and the factors hypothesized to influence local defaunation halos (e.g. village size, hunting practices and access to local markets) may affect local livelihoods and the ecological integrity of nearby forests. To address this, we adopted a participatory approach to establish and monitor sixty transects across ten village-distance gradients (1-8 km) in Gabon. Trained paraecologists, recruited from local villages, walked each transect twice monthly to determine the encounter rates of medium and large mammals across the village distance gradient and monitored village-level bushmeat availability.We found that overall rates of mammal observation and estimated species richness were constant across the village-distance gradient, however the total number of individuals encountered and bushmeat biomass were lower close to villages – consistent with local depletion of wildlife. These general trends were underpinned by depleted mammal species diversity with increasing proximity to villages and a marked shift in mammal community composition: small, non-hunted species were encountered most frequently near villages, whereas large, hunted species were encountered most frequently away from villages. We found some evidence for inter-village variation in the strength and depth of defaunation halos, which may be driven in part by the village-level hunting intensity. Several of the key parameters identified in landscape-scale bushmeat studies did not detectably influence village-level defaunation (e.g. road or market distance). Despite the prevalence of bushmeat hunting in the region, the conservation value of forests immediately surrounding villages was demonstrated through the detection of large-bodied species of conservation concern (e.g. chimpanzee and gorilla) at a high proportion of survey locations.The compositional shifts in mammal communities detailed here will ultimately lead to the altered composition and diversity of forests around villages, with potential implications for human livelihoods, health and transmission of zoonotic disease. This research also demonstrates the effectiveness of engaging paraecologists to answer focused ecological questions - the first step in facilitating effective natural resource management by local communities.

Rural protein insufficiency in a wildlife-depleted West African farm-forest landscape.

IntroductionWildlife is an important source of protein for many people in developing countries. Yet wildlife depletion due to overexploitation is common throughout the humid tropics and its effect on protein security, especially for vulnerable households, is poorly understood. This is problematic for both sustainable rural development and conservation management.MethodsThis study investigates a key dimension of protein security in a cash-crop farming community living in a wildlife-depleted farm-forest landscape in SW Ghana, a region where protein–energy malnutrition persists. Specifically, we monitored protein sufficiency, defined as whether consumption met daily requirements, as benchmarked by recommended daily allowance (RDA). We focus on whether more vulnerable households were less likely to be able to meet their protein needs, where vulnerability was defined by wealth, agricultural season and gender of the household head. Our central hypothesis was: (a) vulnerable households are less likely to consume sufficient protein. In the context that most plant proteins were home-produced, so likely relatively accessible to all households, while most animal proteins were purchased, so likely less accessible to vulnerable households, we tested two further hypotheses: (b) vulnerable households depend more on plant protein to cover their protein needs; and (c) vulnerable households are less likely to earn sufficient cash income to meet their protein needs through purchased animal sources.ResultsBetween 14% and 60% of households (depending on plant protein content assumptions) consumed less than the RDA for protein, but neither protein consumption nor protein sufficiency co-varied with household vulnerability. Fish, livestock and food crops comprised 85% of total protein intake and strongly affected protein sufficiency. However, bushmeat remained an important protein source (15% of total consumption), especially during the post-harvest season when it averaged 26% of total protein consumption. Across the year, 89% of households experienced at least one occasion when they had insufficient income to cover their protein needs through animal protein purchases. The extent of this income shortage was highest during the lean season and among poorer households.ConclusionsThese findings indicate that despite wildlife depletion, bushmeat continues to make a substantial contribution to protein consumption, especially during the agricultural lean season. Income shortages among farmers limit their ability to purchase bushmeat or its substitutes, suggesting that wildlife depletion may cause malnutrition.

Ecological Management and Indian Ethos - A Review

Environment plays a very significant role in human civilization. Human beings have close relations with the biosphere in which they live. The whole environment and ecology consisting of earth, air, water, plants and animals provide the necessary and sufficient conditions for sustaining human life. The last few centuries have been dominated by human beings, and are referred to by some scholars as ‘anthropocene’, or a period of human domination over the planet. This domination has impacted the planet, leading to the rapid depletion of wildlife and their habitat. In the last few decades, growing human populations and their consumption levels, accompanied by greater need for water, electricity, metal, food, housing and other luxury items has led to the quick erosion of other species. This loss of species has been guesstimated by various scholars at anywhere between one per hour to one per day. Although human beings are considered the most intelligent life form on earth, they are responsible for most of the damage done to planet earth. Developing countries as well as developed countries alike are all suffering from environmental pollution. Therefore, today environmental problems have been the object of discussion everywhere from village to parliament.

Catching up: the state and potential of historical catch data from Svalbard in the European Arctic

ABSTRACTSvalbard in the European Arctic has a well-documented history of natural resource exploitation. Since its discovery in 1596, the archipelago has witnessed phases of commercial whaling, sealing, fur hunting and fishing. Scientists, trophy hunters and miners have also added to the depletion of wildlife. The magnitude, scale and speed of the hunt, however, remain largely unknown. This paper collates historical catch data of five selected species of game animal from published written and archaeological sources. These species include the bowhead whale, the Atlantic walrus, the polar bear, the Arctic fox and the Svalbard reindeer. The paper thereby aims to quantify the anthropogenic pressure on Svalbard's ecosystems over more than four centuries. This quantification is only moderately successful. The incomplete record prevents the use of this catch data as a suitable indicator of human-induced ecosystem change. To advance the state of knowledge, the paper recommends a return to the primary sources across international archives, libraries and museum collections, and outlines steps with which to arrive at the much needed time-depth in Svalbard historical ecology.

Nest sites selection by sympatric cavity-nesting birds in miombo woodlands

Deforestation and habitat fragmentation have long been known as drivers of wildlife depletion but information on their specific impacts on cavity-nesting birds in the miombo woodlands has been lacking. A comparative study of disturbed and undisturbed sites was conducted in miombo woodlands of Zambia to assess impacts of environmental stressors on birds. Foot patrols were employed to locate, identify and count host trees and cavities for cavity-nesting birds on twenty 200 m × 200 m sample plots. Undisturbed forests had three times more cavities (the nesting sites for birds), while there were 24.6% fewer abandoned cavities in undisturbed forests than in disturbed forests. The rate of cavity abandonment was about twice as high in human-dominated forests compared to undisturbed forests (61.3% c.f. 31.9%). Cavity-nesting birds preferred larger (&gt; 36.0 cm diameter at breast height) and taller (&gt; 5.0 m) trees for nest placement, especially in human-dominated forests. A number of cavity-nesting birds preferred Brachystegia spiciformis (zebrawood), Julbernadia paniculata (munsa), Parinari curatellifolia (mobola-plum) and Uapaca kirkiana (mahobohobo) as host trees to 14 other miombo tree species. Arnot’s Chat (Myrmecocichla arnoti) had a wider selection of host trees for cavity-nesting than the other 40 cavity-nesting birds in the study areas. Anthropogenic activities such as uncontrolled firewood collection, wild fires, logging, and land clearing for agriculture negatively influenced wood abundance and diversity, with potential implications for persistence of cavity-nesting birds. The negative impacts of anthropogenic activities could be counteracted by conservation strategies such as implementation of sound forest policies, integrative land use practices, sustainable livelihood security and stakeholders’ awareness of the need to safeguard forest-dependent avifauna.Conservation implications: This comparative study unravels specific anthropogenic impacts on the cavity-nesting birds in the miombo woodlands, which would be relevant for designing and implementing targeted biodiversity conservation interventions against negative local environmental values and attitudes that support rural development on the expense of conservation of biodiversity such as birds.

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

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.

Private land: conservation’s new frontier in America

Conservation in North America has proceeded through three discernible stages in the last 125 years. Moving from a response to unregulated commercial harvest and wildlife depletion, it matured into a science based institution that was largely driven by government policy and supported by organized conservation groups. Protecting significant regions by setting them aside as National Parks or otherwise protected landscapes was a significant aspect of conservation throughout its first and second phases. A new and effective paradigm of private lands conservation initiatives has now arisen to face modern conservation challenges in North America.

Correlates of bushmeat in markets and depletion of wildlife.

We used data on number of carcasses of wildlife species sold in 79 bushmeat markets in a region of Nigeria and Cameroon to assess whether species composition of a market could be explained by anthropogenic pressures and environmental variables around each market. More than 45 mammal species from 9 orders were traded across all markets; mostly ungulates and rodents. For each market, we determined median body mass, species diversity (game diversity), and taxa that were principal contributors to the total number of carcasses for sale (game dominance). Human population density in surrounding areas was significantly and negatively related to the percentage ungulates and primates sold in markets and significantly and positively related to the proportion of rodents. The proportion of carnivores sold was higher in markets with high human population densities. Proportion of small-bodied mammals (<1 kg) sold in markets increased as human population density increased, but proportion of large-bodied mammals (>10 kg) decreased as human population density increased. We calculated an index of game depletion (GDI) for each market from the sum of the total number of carcasses traded per annum and species, weighted by the intrinsic rate of natural increase (rmax ) of each species, divided by individuals traded in a market. The GDI of a market increased as the proportion of fast-reproducing species (highest rmax ) increased and as the representation of species with lowest rmax (slow-reproducing) decreased. The best explanatory factor for a market's GDI was anthropogenic pressure-road density, human settlements with >3000 inhabitants, and nonforest vegetation. High and low GDI were significantly differentiated by human density and human settlements with >3000 inhabitants. Our results provided empirical evidence that human activity is correlated with more depleted bushmeat faunas and can be used as a proxy to determine areas in need of conservation action.

Education and access to fish but not economic development predict chimpanzee and mammal occurrence in West Africa

We are in the midst of an unprecedented environmental crisis. Landscapes have become complex social-ecological systems in which anthropogenic activities and biophysical factors interact across multiple scales. The integration of socio-economic development processes into conservation strategies as a means of sustainable resource management requires a deep understanding of the interactions between human activities and natural processes. Attempts to combine socio-economic and biological datasets for analyses, however, have frequently been hampered by spatial, temporal and methodological incompatibilities. In this study, we investigate the effects of human well-being on their environment in Liberia, West Africa. More specifically, we tested whether regions with improved community and household wealth, better education and access to market towns and fish protein, had higher levels of large mammal species richness and densities of the flagship species of West African forests, the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus). Controlling for human pressure, forest cover and cultural diversity, we found that high literacy rates and affordable fish protein correlated with high chimpanzee density. On the other hand, areas with better economic and infrastructure development coincided with reduced large mammal species richness compared to less developed areas. This indicates that wildlife depletion rates can only be understood by including economic and social constraints. These results are important for informing effective future conservation management strategies in Liberia and elsewhere in tropical Africa.

A Comparative Study on Bushmeat Consumption Patterns in ten Tribes in Tanzania

Bushmeat hunting is an important driver of wildlife depletion in Tanzania, but national-wide estimates of its consumption are lacking. We compare bushmeat consumption frequencies and determinants in ten tribes in different ecoregions in Tanzania, four of these within biodiversity hotspots of global conservation importance. Bushmeat consumption is examined in terms of ethnicity, selected indicators of wealth, and distance to and protection level of nearest protected area. Forty six percent of the respondents (n=300) belonging to nine of the ten tribes reported consuming bushmeat during the past 12 months, and 14% admitted that at least one household member hunted illegally. Significant differences in bushmeat consumption frequencies and species consumed were observed among ethnic groups. Regression revealed that the presence of a hunter in the household increased significantly the prevalence of bushmeat consumption, while distance to and protection level of nearest protected area had the most significant negative effect. Anti-poaching patrols are an effective deterrent to illegal bushmeat consumption, whilst access to domestic animal protein and other selected indicators of wealth do not reduce bushmeat consumption. The results emphasise the importance of strengthening anti-poaching services and the integration of cultural differences in preference for bushmeat into policies aimed at reducing bushmeat consumption and conserving wildlife.