Bushmeat harvest at the nexus of socio-economics and habitat

Abstract

Understanding environmental change and socioeconomic development have rarely been considered simultaneously when evaluating the impacts on and benets from the bushmeat resource. We analyse landscape patterns as well as socio-economic data sets in the Congo Basin and how these factors relate to recorded bushmeat trade data throughout the last 30 years. Bushmeat relevant data are derived from food balance sheets provided by the FAOSTAT database and a range of published and non-published sources. We dene proxy indicators for hunting pressure and discuss their inter-relationships with habitat variables. Despite the overall trend of decreasing forest cover in Central Africa, the analysis leads to the conclusion that overall bushmeat extraction has increased in the Congo Basin, but the gradient of bushmeat harvest per forest area has been on the decline in certain countries since the turn of the millennium. The outcome of the study also shows a trend of bushmeat consumption increasing with personal wealth expressed as GDP per head throughout the Congo Basin States.