Bushmeat Research Programme - Projects

Bioeconomic modelling of bushmeat harvesting systems

This project aims to develop a general model of a bushmeat harvesting system that combines field data with a mathematical model to simulate bushmeat hunting patterns. The model is built on simple, proven principles that realistically describe the behaviour of hunters and the population dynamics of their prey in a multispecies community. Since the model predicts how different cost-benefit conditions for hunters can determine their hunting behaviour, and therefore the dynamics of prey populations, it can be used to explore the effects of future policy and management on long-term patterns of hunter profit, species offtake and sustainability. This approach will be further developed to integrate market forces (e.g. supply-demand dynamics) and to identify robust rapid-assessment indices of the health of bushmeat harvesting systems on the basis of market data. This work began in 2000 with core funding from the Institute of Zoology. It has been conducted by Marcus Rowcliffe, Guy Cowlishaw and Janice Long.

Research Papers:

Rowcliffe JM, Cowlishaw G & Long J (2003) A model of human hunting impacts in multi-prey communities. Journal of Applied Ecology 40: 872-889.

Rowcliffe JM, de Merode E & Cowlishaw G (2004) Do wildlife laws work? Species protection and the application of a prey choice model to poaching decisions. Proceedings: Biological Sciences 271: 2631-2636.
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Trade and sustainability along a bushmeat commodity chain (Ghana)

This project aims to describe the social and economic processes that drive the bushmeat commodity chain from harvesting to market sales. This work focuses primarily on market traders, but also encompasses detailed analyses on farmer hunters, commercial hunters, wholesalers and chop bars, and the different relationships between these actors. The commodity chain under study supplies the coastal city of Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana’s third largest city. The field work for this study has now been completed, with data on over 2,000 bushmeat transactions collected. These describe patterns of transport, purchase and sale of species between the different actors along the chain. This study began in 1999 with funding from the ESRC and NERC. It has been conducted by Samantha Mendelson, in collaboration with Guy Cowlishaw and Katherine Homewood (UCL).

Research Papers:

Cowlishaw G, Mendelson S & Rowcliffe JM (2005) Evidence for post-depletion sustainability in a mature bushmeat market. Journal of Applied Ecology 42: 460-468.

Cowlishaw G, Mendelson S & Rowcliffe JM (2005) Structure and operation of a bushmeat commodity chain in Southwestern Ghana. Conservation Biology 19: 139-149.

Mendelson S, Cowlishaw G & Rowcliffe JM (2003) Anatomy of a bushmeat commodity chain in Takoradi, Ghana. The Journal of Peasant Studies 31: 73-100.

Policy Papers:

Cowlishaw G, Mendelson S & Rowcliffe JM (2004) The bushmeat commodity chain: patterns of trade and sustainability in a mature urban market in West Africa. Overseas Development Institute Wildlife Policy Briefing series, no. 7.

Cowlishaw G, Mendelson S & Rowcliffe JM (2005) Management of the bushmeat trade in Ghana. id21 Research Highlights, no. 2, 1.

Web Links:

Id21 Communicating Development and Research: Management of the bushmeat trade in Ghana. 21 July 2005.

CIFOR Center for International Forestry Research: Have your animals and eat them too. 2 May 2006.
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Park protection, armed conflict and the bushmeat trade (Democratic Republic of Congo)

This study investigates patterns of prey availability, hunter offtake, household bushmeat consumption/sales and market dynamics, in and around Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. These data present a detailed picture of the long-term dynamics of a bushmeat harvesting system around a protected area. In addition, as the result of a marked change in protection effort around the National Park due to military conflict over the study period, it also illustrates both the relative efficacy of protected area management and the potential effects of military conflict on local bushmeat harvesting systems. The field work for this study was carried out between 1996-1997 by Emmanuel de Merode.

Research Papers:

de Merode E (2005) Protected areas and decentralisation in the Democratic Republic of Congo: a case for devolving responsibility to local institutions. In: K. Homewood (ed) Rural resources and local livelihoods in Africa, pp. 36-58. James Currey Publishers, London.

de Merode E, Homewood K & Cowlishaw G (2004) The value of bushmeat and other wild foods to rural households living in extreme poverty in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Biological Conservation 118: 573- 581.

Rowcliffe JM, de Merode E & Cowlishaw G (2004) Do wildlife laws work? Species protection and the application of a prey choice model to poaching decisions. Proceedings: Biological Sciences 271: 2631-2636.

Policy Papers:

de Merode E, Homewood K & Cowlishaw G (2003) Wild resources and livelihoods of poor households in Democratic Republic of Congo. Overseas Development Institute Wildlife Policy Briefing series, no. 1.
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The bushmeat trade around Virunga National Park (Democratic Republic of Congo)

This study seeks to clarify the sustainability of bushmeat hunting in and around the southern part of Virunga National Park in the North Kivu province of Democratic Republic of Congo, a region where prolonged social upheaval has led to a breakdown of law enforcement. Through questionnaire surveys, the extent of bushmeat consumption and the agents involved are being investigated. Densities of key prey species are estimated from aerial surveys.

The project, which is funded by the Darwin Initiative and United States Fisheries and Wildlife Service, is carried out by Urbain Ngobobo-as-Ibungu, Guy Cowlishaw, Marcus Rowcliffe, Emmanuel de Merode, and Jakob Bro-Jorgensen. A separate ZSL project, funded by the EU, aims at rebuilding infrastructure and build local management capacity in the park. This project is directed by Josiane Falla.
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Incentives for the sustainable hunting of bushmeat (Equatorial Guinea)

Hunters are the crucial link between bushmeat supply and demand. This study follows an entire bushmeat supply chain in Equatorial Guinea, from forest to market, with a focus on hunter incentives. It considers the causes (consumer demand) and effects (changes in prey populations) of hunting, and how this affects hunter behaviour and decision-making, both in terms of livelihood options and prey choice. Fieldwork was undertaken over a total period of 18 months, in the forest in and around Monte Alén National Park (mammal surveys and hunter and trapper follows), the village of Sendje (recording of offtake and household, hunter and trader interviews), and the city of Bata (market, restaurant and consumer surveys).

The study began in 2001 with funding from the ESRC, NERC and Conservation International. It is being carried out by Nöelle Kümpel, in collaboration with Marcus Rowcliffe, Guy Cowlishaw, E.J. Milner-Gulland (Imperial College) and John Fa (DWCT).

Research Papers:

East, T, Kümpel, NF, Milner-Gulland, EJ, & Rowcliffe, JM (2005) Determinants of urban bushmeat consumption in Río Muni, Equatorial Guinea. Biological Conservation 126: 206-215.
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Poverty, sustainable livelihoods, and the bushmeat trade (Equatorial Guinea)

Information to come
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Simple indices of hunter effort and sustainability (Equatorial Guinea)

This project looks at hunter decision making and the impacts of hunting on prey populations, in particular investigating the spatial dynamics of bushmeat hunting and the development of simple tools that might allow these impacts to be assessed indirectly without the need for difficult and expensive population monitoring. Fieldwork for this project is currently being conducted in Rio Muni, Equatorial Guinea by Janna Rist, in collaboration with researchers Sophie Allebone-Webb and Noelle Kumpel. This project is currently funded by Conservation International and forms part of their project “Monte Alen-Mont de Cristal Inselbergs Forest Landscape” and is a contribution to USAID’s CARPE programme.

As well as research, the project also includes capacity-building with conservationists, scientists and natural resource managers within Equatorial Guinea. Our main partners for this are INDEFOR (Instituto Nacional de Desarrollo Forestal) and UNGE (Universidad Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial). This research is supervised by E.J. Milner-Gulland (Imperial College), Marcus Rowcliffe and Guy Cowlishaw.
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Solutions to bushmeat exploitation in the Sanaga-Cross region (Cameroon-Nigeria)

This project adopts a spatially-explicit approach to study bushmeat supply and demand in the Sanaga-Cross region of Nigeria and Cameroon. By incorporating species biology and landscape ecology with household nutrition and market surveys, this work will develop a comprehensive understanding of the large-scale patterns and processes involved in the bushmeat trade. This study is based at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (Oxford University), and funded by the Darwin Initiative (2001-2003), under the supervision of John Fa and David Macdonald. Rajan Amin, at the Institute of Zoology, is conducting the spatial analyses of the field data and investigating its application for predictive modelling, in collaboration with Marcus Rowcliffe and Guy Cowlishaw.

Research Papers:

Fa JE, Seymour S, Dupain J, Amin R, Albrechtsen L & Macdonald D (2006) Getting to grips with the magnitude of exploitation: bushmeat in the Cross-Sanaga rivers region, Nigeria and Cameroon. Biological Conservation 129: 497-510.
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Habitat quality and bushmeat surveys (Sierra Leone)

This research builds on detailed ecological studies in the Gola Forest Reserves, where the population densities of antelopes and primates were examined in unlogged and logged forests, cacao plantations and farmbush fallows, in which hunting pressure differed. A complementary set of data were gathered through hunter surveys on the edge of the forest reserve, and with market surveys in the nearest large town: Kenema.

By combining these three sets of data, it has been possible to look at pattens of bushmeat trade and mammal depletion. These results in turn, can be compared with reports from the 1950s, to look at social and economic drivers for the bushmeat trade.

This work has been carried out by Glyn Davies, in collaboration with Paul Richards (UCL), with funding from ESCOR (Department for International Development, UK).
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Species vulnerability to bushmeat hunting

Susceptability to hunting pressure can vary dramatically between different species. This study explores these patterns of variation, and the mechanisms that might underpin such variation, in primates. It also investigates how the same taxa respond to other anthropogenic threats, namely selective logging and shifting cultivation.

The study uses previously published data and cross-species comparative methods to answer these questions. This research is carried out by Guy Cowlishaw and Nick Isaac, with funding from NERC.

Research Papers:

Isaac NJB & Cowlishaw G (2004) How species respond to multiple extinction threats. Proceedings: Biological Sciences 271: 1135-1141.