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Cameroon: Cifor Warns Against Uncontrolled Bush Meat Hunt
The Centre for International Forestry Research, CIFOR, has warned against the uncontrolled hunting of bush meat, which it says is affecting the poor.

According to a CIFOR press release, some Central African wildlife species will become extinct within 50 years unless "bush meat" hunting is controlled and local land use rights recognised.

The upsurge in hunting bush meat including mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians in tropical forests, according to CIFOR, is unsustainable and poses serious threats to food security for poor inhabitants of forests in Africa, who rely largely on bush meat for protein.

Going by the report, bush meat provides up to 80 percent of the protein and fat needed in rural diets in Central Africa.

"If current levels of hunting persist in Central Africa, bush meat protein supplies will fall dramatically, and a significant number of forest mammals will become extinct in less than 50 years," states Robert Nasi, the author of the report.

The report sums up the latest state of knowledge on the controversial issue and makes a strong case for developing a regulated and legalised bush meat industry, to ensure that the poorest forest dwellers can continue to access this vital source of protein and livelihoods, in a more sustainable way.

The report notes that it is important to make a clear distinction between commercial entrepreneurs, who engage in what they know to be an illicit activity and poor rural people for whom bush meat represents both animal protein and a cash-earning commodity.

"If local people are guaranteed the benefits of sustainable land use and hunting practices, they will be willing to invest in sound management and negotiate selective hunting regimes," says CIFOR Director General, Frances Seymour.

"Sustainable management of bush meat resources requires bringing the sector out into the open, removing the stigma of illegality and including wild meat consumption in national statistics and planning. Reframing the bush meat problem from one of international animal welfare to one of sustainable livelihoods - and part of the global food crisis - might be a good place to start," she added.

The industrial extractive sector; logging, mining and oil drilling, according to the report, are some of the activities that directly facilitate hunting, thus adversely affecting wildlife.

Salaries, employees and their extended families that live in company camps or near the timber concessions are a major source of local demand for and supply of bush meat, The Post learnt.

The report recommends that rather than focusing just on timber and other forms of natural resource extraction, management plans should include conservation education, an agreed system of law enforcement, development of alternative protein supplies and an intensive monitoring programme.

If designed and applied appropriately, the report states, this will not only serve to enhance wildlife conservation, but will ultimately benefit the private sector and local communities as well.

According to the authors, the so-called bush meat crisis is the focus of many conservation organisations, whose advocacy for a "crackdown" on the trade has fostered confusion and misunderstanding about the links between hunting, wildlife trade, livelihoods and ecosystems.

The report further suggests that banning all commercial sales of bush meat would deliver a win-win solution for both conservation and the poor.It emphasises that it is of critical importance to craft a specific, tailored approach for different cases and species, while also recommending that policymakers look to other renewable resource sectors, such as fishing and logging, for clues on how to develop a sustainable management strategy for bush meat.

http://www.postnewsline.com/
 

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