Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T05:23:25.973Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hunting and trading bushmeat in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania: motivations, cost-benefit ratios and meat prices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2014

MARTIN REINHARDT NIELSEN  and
HENRIK MEILBY
MARTIN REINHARDT NIELSEN*
Affiliation:
Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 25, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark Centre for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
HENRIK MEILBY
Affiliation:
Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 25, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
*
*Correspondence: Dr Martin R. Nielsen Tel: +45 222 80847 Fax: +45 353 32671 e-mail: mrni@ifro.ku.dk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Bushmeat hunting in the savannah biomes of East Africa is often considered to be subsistence oriented and undertaken as a gap-filler in the lean agricultural season. The price of bushmeat is furthermore often thought uniform regardless of species, but if hunting is commercially oriented and price premiums are paid for particular species this needs to be considered. This paper investigates these issues in the Kilombero Valley of Tanzania, based on one year of market data and interviews with 80 hunters, 169 traders and 67 retailers. Motivations were overwhelmingly commercial and the bushmeat trade constituted a year-round income generating activity. Monte Carlo simulations based on the deterrence model revealed average cost-benefit ratios of 0.15–0.43 for hunters, 0.56–0.62 for traders and 0.88 for retailers, and a 12–401 fold increase in likelihood of apprehension may be required to render the trade unprofitable. Willingness-to-pay data showed that elephant, buffalo, hippopotamus, puku, bushpig and warthog meat were preferred. Enhanced enforcement may thus drive prices for these species higher, encouraging hunters to seek ways around constraints. Community-based wildlife management and improved firearms control may be the most pragmatic ways to regulate the trade.

Keywords

bushmeat marketsdeterrence modelillegal huntingMonte Carlo simulationpoaching
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 61 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albrechtsen, L., Macdonald, D.W., Johnson, P.J., Castelo, R. & Fa, J.E. (2007) Faunal loss from bushmeat hunting: empirical evidence and policy implications in Bioko Island. Environmental Science and Policy 10: 654–667.Google Scholar
Allebone-Webb, S.M., Kümple, N.F., Rist, J., Cowlishaw, C., Rowcliffe, J.M. & Milner-Gulland, E.J. (2011) Use of market data to assess bushmeat hunting sustainability in Equatorial Guinea. Conservation biology 25: 597–606.Google Scholar
Andimile, M., Caro, T. & Borgerhoff-Mulder, M. (2012) Bushmeat consumption in western Tanzania: a comparative analysis from the same ecosystem. Tropical Conservation Science 5: 352–364.Google Scholar
Bennett, E.L. (2002) Is there a link between wild meat and food security? Conservation Biology 16: 590–592.Google Scholar
Bennett, E.L., Blencowe, E., Brandon, K., Brown, D., Burn, R.W., Cowlishaw, G., Davis, G., Dublin, H., Fa, J.E., Milner-Gulland, E.J., Robinson, J.G., Rowcliffe, J.M., Underwood, F.M. & Wilkie, D.S. (2007) Hunting for consensus: reconciling bushmeat harvest, conservation and development policy in West and Central Africa. Conservation Biology 21: 884–887.Google Scholar
Bonnington, C., Weaver, D. & Fanning, E. (2010) Livestock and large wild mammals in the Kilombero Valley, in southern Tanzania. African Journal of Ecology 44: 658–663.Google Scholar
Brashares, J.S., Golden, C.D., Weinbaum, K.Z., Barrett, C.B. & Okello, G.V. (2011) Economic and geographic drivers of wildlife consumption in rural Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 108: 13931–13936.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowen-Jones, E., Brown, D. & Robinson, E.J.Z. (2003) Economic commodity or environmental crisis? an interdisciplinary approach to analysing the bushmeat trade in Central and West Africa. Area 35: 390–402.Google Scholar
Bowen-Jones, E. & Pendry, S. (1999) The threat to primates and other mammals from the bushmeat trade in Africa, and how this threat could be diminished. Oryx 33: 233–246.Google Scholar
Burgess, N.D., Butynski, T.M., Cordeiro, N.J., Doggart, N., Fjeldså, J., Howell, K.M., Kilahama, F.B., Loader, S.P., Lovett, J.C., Mbilinyi, B., Menegon, M., Moyer, D.C., Nashanda, E., Perkin, A., Rovero, F., Stanley, W.T. & Stuart, S.N. (2007) The biological importance of the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and Kenya. Biological Conservation 134: 209–231.Google Scholar
Cavendish, W. (2002) Quantitative methods for estimating the economic value of resource use to rural households. In: Uncovering the Hidden Harvest. Valuation Methods for Woodland and Forest Resources, ed. Campbell, B. & Luckert, M., People and Plants Conservation Series, pp. 17–65. London, UK: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Chaber, A., Allebone-Webb, S., Lignereux, Y., Cunningham, A.A. & Rowcliffe, J.M. (2010) The scale of illegal meat importation from Africa to Europe via Paris. Conservation Letters 3: 317–321.Google Scholar
Cowlishaw, G., Mendelson, S. & Rowcliffe, M. (2005 a) Evidence for post depletion sustainability in a mature bushmeat market. Journal of Applied Ecology 42: 460–468.Google Scholar
Cowlishaw, G., Mendelson, S. & Rowcliffe, M. (2005 b) Structure and operation of a bushmeat commodity chain in South Western Ghana. Conservation Biology 19: 139–149.Google Scholar
Crookes, D.J., Ankudey, N. & Milner-Gulland, E.J. (2005) The value of a long-term bushmeat market dataset as an indicator of system dynamics. Environmental Conservation 32: 333–339.Google Scholar
de Merode, E. & Cowlishaw, G. (2006) Species protection, the changing informal economy, and the politics of access to the bushmeat trade in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Conservation Biology 20: 1262–1271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
East, T., Kümpel, N.F., Milner-gulland, E.J. & Rowcliffe, J.M. (2005) Determinants of urban bushmeat consumption in Rio Muni, Equatorial Guinea. Biological Conservation 126: 206–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fa, J.E, Albrechtsen, L., Johnson, P.J. & Macdonald, D.W. (2009) Linkages between household wealth, bushmeat and other animal protein consumption are not invariant: evidence from Rio Muni, Equatorial Guinea. Animal Conservation 12: 599–610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fa, J.E., Johnson, P.J., Dupain, J., Lapuente, J., Köster, P. & MacDonald, D.W. (2004) Sampling effort and dynamics of bushmeat markets. Animal Conservation 7: 409–416.Google Scholar
Fa, J.E., Juste, J.E.G. & Castelo, R. (2000) Bushmeat markets on Bioko Island as a measure of hunting pressure. Conservation Biology 14:1602–1613.Google Scholar
Fa, J.E. & Peres, C. (2001) Game vertebrate extraction in African and Neotropical forests: an intercontinental comparison. In: Conservation of Exploited Species, ed. Reynolds, J.D., Mace, G.M., Robinson, J.G. & Redford, K.H., pp. 203–241. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gill, D.J.C., Fa, J.E., Rowcliffe, J.M. & Kümple, N.F. (2012) Drivers of change in hunter offtake and hunting strategies in sendje, equatorial Guinea. Conservation Biology 26: 1052–1060.Google Scholar
Holmern, T., Røskaft, E., Mbaruka, J., Mkamba, S.Y. & Muya, J. (2002) Uneconomical game cropping in a community-based conservation project outside the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Oryx 36: 364–372.Google Scholar
Jambiya, G., Milledge, S.A.H. & Mtango, N. (2007) Night time spinach: conservation and livelihood implications of wild meat use in refugee situations in North-Western Tanzania. Report. TRAFFIC East/Southern Africa, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Google Scholar
Kuehl, H.S., Nzeingui, C., Le Duc Yeno, S., Huijbregts, B., Boesch, C. & Walsh, P.D. (2009) Discriminating between village and commercial hunting of apes. Biological Conservation 142: 1500–1506.Google Scholar
Kümple, N.F., Milner-Gulland, E.J., Cowlishaw, G. & Rowcliffe, J.M. (2010) Incentives for hunting: the role of bushmeat in the household economy in rural Equatorial Guinea. Human Ecology 38: 252–264.Google Scholar
Kuperan, K. & Sutinen, J.G. (1998) Blue water crime: deterrence, legitimacy and compliance in fisheries. Law and Society Review 32: 3009–3038.Google Scholar
Laurence, W.F., Useche, D.C., Rendeiro, J., Kalka, M., Bradshaw, J.A., Sloan, S.P., Laurence, S.G., Campbel, M., Abernethy, K., Alvarez, P., et al. 2012. Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas. Nature 489: 290–294.Google Scholar
Lindsey, P., Balme, G., Becker, M., Begg, C. & Bento, C. (2013) The bushmeat trade in savanna Africa: impacts, drivers and possible solutions. Biological Conservation 160: 80–96.Google Scholar
Loibooki, M., Hofer, H., Campbell, K.L.I. & East, M. (2002) Bushmeat hunting by communities adjacent to the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania: the importance of livestock ownership and alternative sources of protein and income. Environmental Conservation 29: 391–398.Google Scholar
Macdonald, D.W., Johnson, P.J., Albrechtsen, L., Dutton, A., Seymour, S., Dupain, J., Hall, A. & Fa, J.E. (2011) Association of body mass with price of bushmeat in Nigeria and Cameroon. Conservation Biology 25: 1220–1228.Google Scholar
Maisels, F., Strindberg, S., Blake, S., Whittemeyer, G., Hart, J., Williamson, E.A., Aba’a, R., Abitsi, G., et al. (2013) Devastating decline of forest elephants in Central Africa. PLoS ONE 8: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0059469.Google Scholar
Mfunda, I.M. & Røskaft, E. (2010) Bushmeat hunting in Serengeti, Tanzania: an important economic activity to local people. International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation 2: 263–272.Google Scholar
Milner-Gulland, E.J. & Clayton, L. (2002) The trade in babirusas and wild pigs in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Ecological Economics 42: 165–183.Google Scholar
Ndimbalemba, V.G. & Songorwa, A. (2007) Illegal meat hunting in Serengeti: dynamics in consumption and preference. African Journal of Ecology 46: 311–319.Google Scholar
Nielsen, M.R. (2011) Improving the conservation status of the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania? Effect of joint forest management on bushmeat hunting in the Kilombero Nature Reserve. Conservation and Society 9: 106–118.Google Scholar
Nielsen, M.R. & Treue, T. (2012) Hunting for the benefits of joint forest management in the Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Hotspot: effects on bushmeat hunters and wildlife in the Udzungwa Mountains. World Development 40: 1224–1239.Google Scholar
Nielsen, M.R., Jacobsen, J.B. & Thorsen, B.J. (2014 a) Factors affecting the choice of hunting and trading bushmeat in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania. Conservation Biology 28: 382–391.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nielsen, M.R., Meilby, H. & Smith-Hall, C. (2014 b) Regulating the bushmeat trade in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania: insights from the rural value chain, Oryx (in press).Google Scholar
Patton, M. (1990) Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods. Newbury Park, CA, USA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Robinson, J.G. & Bennett, E.L., eds (2000) Hunting for Sustainability in Tropical Forests. New York, NY, USA: Colombia University Press.Google Scholar
Rovero, F., Mtui, A.S., Kitigile, A.S. & Nielsen, M.R. (2012) Hunting or habitat degradation? Decline of primate populations in Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania: an analysis of threats. Biological Conservation 146: 89–96.Google Scholar
Sayer, J.A., Endamana, D., Ruiz-Perez, M., Boedhihartono, A.K., Nzooh, Z., Eyebe, A., Awono, A. & Usongo, L. (2012) Global financial crisis impacts forest conservation in Cameroon. International Forestry Review 14: 90–98.Google Scholar
Schenck, M., Nsame, E., Starkey, M., Wilkie, D., Abernethy, K., Telfer, M., Godoy, R. & Treves, A. (2006) Why people eat bushmeat: results from two-choice, taste in Gabon, Central Africa. Human Ecology 34: 433–445.Google Scholar
Schipper, J., Chanson, J.S., Chiozza, F., Cox, N.A., Hoffmann, M., Katariya, V., Lamourex, J., Rodrigues, A.S.L., Stuart, S.N., Temple, H.J., et al. (2008) The status of the world's land and marine mammals: diversity threat and knowledge. Science 332: 225–230.Google Scholar
Sutherland, W.J., Pullin, A.S., Dolman, P.M. & Knight, T.M. (2004). The need for evidence-based conservation. TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution 19: 395–308.Google Scholar
TAWIRI (2009) Kilombero Ramsar site project, KVRSP: wet season 2009 aerial census in the Kilombero Valley floodplains Ramsar site. Report. Conservation Information and Monitoring Unit in collaboration with Tanzanía National Parks and Wildlife Division, Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, Arusha, Tanzania.Google Scholar
van Vliet, N., Nebesse, C., Gambalemoke, S., Akaibe, D. & Nasi, R. (2012) The bushmeat market in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo: Implications for conservation and food security. Oryx 46: 196–203.Google Scholar
Waite, T.A. (2007) Revisiting the evidence for sustainability of bushmeat hunting in West Africa. Environmental Management 40: 476–480.Google Scholar
Wilkie, D.S. & Godoy, R.A. (2001) Income and price elasticities of bushmeat demand in lowland Amerindian societies. Conservation Biology 15: 761–769.Google Scholar
Wilkie, D. S., Starkey, M., Abernethy, K., Effa, E.N., Telfer, P. & Godoy, R. (2005). Role of prices and wealth in consumer demand for bushmeat in Gabon, central Africa. Conservation Biology 19: 268–274.Google Scholar
Wittemyer, G. (2011) Effects of economic downturns on mortality of wild African elephants. Conservation Biology 25: 1002–1009.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Nielsen and Meilby Supplementary Material

Appendix

Download Nielsen and Meilby Supplementary Material(File)
File 121.7 KB