The Bushmeat Trade - Threat of Primate & Wildlife Extinction

The unsustainable commercial and illegal bushmeat trade is threatening extinction of apes, chimpanzees, gorillas, and other primates and wildlife. Not only are the primates killed for food and body parts, orphaned primates are being sold on the exotic pet market, and they are also losing their habitat through logging and commercial development.

As human greed continues to expand, so does the plight of our precious animals. The combined effect of urban encroachment on habitat and the illegal bushmeat trade is having a devastating impact on the survival of many species.

The Illegal bushmeat Trade, in particular, poses a significant threat to the population of primates and other wildlife, who have already suffered widespread local extinctions in Asia and West Africa, with many more species under threat of extinction within the next 15-20 years. See World's Top 25 Endangered Primates which lists the primates considered critically endangered around the world.

What Is Bushmeat?

Bushmeat is the term commonly used for meat of terrestrial wild animals, hunted and killed for subsistence (food) or for commercial purposes, of which illegal bushmeat forms a small proportion.

The Bushmeat Crisis - Main Issues

Unsustainable and illegal hunting of wildlife in Asia, West & Central Africa, as well as rainforests has caused a crisis which threatens not only the survival of animals facing extinction, but also the environment and disease transmission.

Threat of Extinction to Primates & Other Wildlife...

Although primates have always been part of the staple diet for forest dwelling peoples, as populations have increased so has the demand for bushmeat, which has now created a situation that has pushed many of the primate species to the edge of extinction.

Forest workers hunt to provide meat for their own needs as well as commercial hunters, often illegally, provide a supply for the demand in cities usually for large profits.

The bushmeat trade also affects the survival of many other protected species including forest elephants, dwarf crocodiles and crowned monkeys. Mammals that are currently under significant threat include:

Primates: Chimpanzee Bonobo (pygmy chimpanzee) Gorilla Red colobus spp. Black colobus Geoffrey's pied colobus Drill Mandrill Preuss' Monkey Sun tailed guenon Owl faced monkey Sceater's monkey Diana monkey Red eared monkey White throated monkey

Other Mammals: Giant pangolin Forest elephant Water chevrotain Zebra duiker Ogilby's duiker Black Duiker Jentink's Duiker Yellow back Duiker White bellied Duiker Leopard Golden cat

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Environmental Impact - Habitat Loss & Degradation...

The trade has been further facilitated by the ever-growing number of European and Asian owned timber companies. Forestry infrastructure including roads, vehicles and camps has increased the accessibility for hunters that were previously inaccessible.

Bushmeat & Disease Transmission...

The bush-meat trade and risk of transmission of novel pathogens
Source – New Scientist Mon 9 Aug 2004 (edited)

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has jumped from primates to people on at least 7 separate occasions in recent history, not twice as is commonly thought. Now people in Cameroon are showing up with symptoms of HIV infection, but, are testing negative for both the virus and its primate equivalent, SIV, the virus from which HIV is thought to have evolved. That suggests that new strains of an HIV-like virus are circulating in wild animals and infecting people who eat them, sparking fears that such strains could fuel an already disastrous global HIV pandemic. Outbreaks of Ebola is another concern from the bush meat trade.

The warnings come from experts who gathered this week [1st week August 2004] for the annual meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology at Columbia University, New York. They say that deforestation, and the trade in bush meat, are creating ideal conditions for new diseases to emerge, as people have ever closer contact with exotic animals that harbor novel pathogens.

The conference reports follow the discovery, earlier in 2004, that simian foamy virus, another disease that infects monkeys, has been found in bush-meat hunters, and, 3 different species of primates. As yet, it has not caused ill-effects. "Basically, this is a virus looking for a disease," says William Karesh, director of the World Conservation Society's field veterinary program.

Despite those concerns, we still do not have a clear idea of how many wild animals are killed and eaten, David Wilkie, co-chair of the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force (BCTF), told the conference. He has carried out the 1st-ever survey of daily bush-meat consumption by rural communities in Gabon. Over 2 years, he documented a flourishing, but previously unrecognised, informal trade in bush meat, in which rural communities hunted, and ate, small game, having already caught most available primates. He thinks official studies of bush meat sold in markets account for only 40 percent of the total bush meat eaten in the country. "In the Congo basin alone, between one and 5 million metric tons of bush meat was consumed in 2003," says Heather Eves, head of the BCTF, a non-governmental organization that monitors the trade. And, the dangers of eating such animals are real. The BCTF points out that SIV infection has now been reported in 26 different species of African non-human primates, many of which are
hunted and sold as food.

How You Can Help

Below are links to organisations that provide further information on the Bushmeat Trade and ways you can support.

• The Bushmeat Crisis Taskforce is a consortium of conservation organizations and scientists dedicated to the conservation of wildlife populations threatened by commercial hunting of wildlife for sale as meat. They offer up to date information, news and ways you can assist.
  
  
• Human Health Fact Sheet 
  An information sheet outlining the causes, the impact and the solutions of the potential health issues related to the bushmeat crisis.
  (pdf 31k)
  
  
• The Bushmeat Project supports partnerships to help the people of equatorial Africa protect the region’s vital ecosystems and vibrant societies. It provides economic and social incentive and enables the expansion of capacity in the conservation arena. They offer up to date information, news and ways you can assist.

A To waste, to destroy our natural resources,
to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness,
will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity
which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.
~Theodore Roosevelt - 7th Annual Message, 3 December 1907~
Save The Primates is dedicated to supporting quality of life for chimps, apes, gorillas and other primates.
We are currently supporting The Chimfunshi Wildlife Sanctuary Project
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All photos except the top one are courtesty of Karl Ammann, photographer