The African Bushmeat Crisis: A Case for Global Partnership

Across Central Africa a commercial, unsustainable, and largely illegal hunting and trade in wildlife for meat has expanded in recent years causing immediate threat to countless wildlife populations and species. Currently, multi-national agreements and government initiatives created to address the bushmeat crisis in the region are unable to halt the extensive destruction to the area’s unique biodiversity . Although many of these agreements strongly support addressing the bushmeat crisis, they lack the resources and capacity to be fully implemented. Strong U.S. engagement in a global partnership, arising from intensive, complete, and wide-ranging bipartisan commitment would greatly enhance existing international biodiversity conservation efforts that prioritize the bushmeat crisis as the leading biodiversity threat across all landscapes in the region. The bushmeat crisis is not isolated in Africa. It has the potential to affect Americans and global citizens through emergent disease transmission from a growing international trade. Addressing global health threats is further linked through the bushmeat trade by additional U.S. government goals to support global democracy and international economic development

Resource Use in the Trinational Sangha River Region of Equatorial Africa: Histories, Knowledge Forms, and Institutions

This volume is based on an international conference, “Natural Resource Use Relations in the Trinational Sangha River Region of the Northwest Congo Basin,” held at Yale University in September 1997. In recognition of the bilingual context in which conservation occurs in the three countries of the Sangha region — Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Congo — all sessions of the conference were conducted simultaneously in French and English. This publication, which is a complete rendering of the conference papers and discussion sessions, is available in its entirety in both French and English

Wild Meat Is Still on the Menu: Progress in Wild Meat Research, Policy, and Practice from 2002 to 2020

Several hundred species are hunted for wild meat in the tropics, supporting the diets, customs, and livelihoods of millions of people. However, unsustainable hunting is one of the most urgent threats to wildlife and ecosystems worldwide and has serious ramifications for people whose subsistence and income are tied to wild meat. Over the past 18 years, although research efforts have increased, scientific knowledge has largely not translated into action. One major barrier to progress has been insufficient monitoring and evaluation, meaning that the effectiveness of interventions cannot be ascertained. Emerging issues include the difficulty of designing regulatory frameworks that disentangle the different purposes of hunting, the large scale of urban consumption, and the implications of wild meat consumption for human health. To address these intractable challenges, wepropose eight new recommendations for research and action for sustainable wild meat use, which would support the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.Additional co-authors: Donald Midoko Iponga, Nguyễn Văn Minh, Thais Q. Morcatty, Robert Mwinyihali, Robert Nasi, Vincent Nijman, Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu, Freddy Pattiselanno, Carlos A. Peres, Madhu Rao, John G. Robinson, J. Marcus Rowcliffe, Ciara Stafford, Miriam Supuma, Francis Nchembi Tarla, Nathalie van Vliet, Michelle Wielan

Wild meat Is still on the menu: Progress in wild meat research, policy, and practice from 2002 to 2020

Several hundred species are hunted for wild meat in the tropics, supporting the diets, customs, and livelihoods of millions of people. However, unsustainable hunting is one of the most urgent threats to wildlife and ecosystems worldwide and has serious ramifications for people whose subsistence and income are tied to wild meat. Over the past 18 years, although research efforts have increased, scientific knowledge has largely not translated into action. One major barrier to progress has been insufficient monitoring and evaluation, meaning that the effectiveness of interventions cannot be ascertained. Emerging issues include the difficulty of designing regulatory frameworks that disentangle the different purposes of hunting, the large scale of urban consumption, and the implications of wild meat consumption for human health. To address these intractable challenges, we propose eight new recommendations for research and action for sustainable wild meat use, which would support the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 46 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates

Evaluating behaviour change interventions delivered through mass media

Conservationists are increasingly aware of the importance of behavior change interventions to tackle threats to biodiversity. One of the most common strategies for the dissemination of demand reduction messages is the use of mass media (e.g., radio or television). The mass media are highly appealing as they can reach thousands or even millions of people simultaneously. However, there are important barriers to the effective evaluation of these behavior change interventions. One of them is self-selection bias, which stems from the fact that people actively choose to be either part of the control or treatment groups. This bias means that comparing listeners to non-listeners, as is commonly done, is likely to yield biased estimates of impact, as those that actively choose to listen to programs containing wildlife related messages are more likely to have an interest in wildlife and its conservation. We investigate this issue through the case study of an intervention to reduce demand for bushmeat in five communities, in northern Tanzania. The intervention was centered around 25 episodes of a radio drama, part of a one-hour radio show. Each episode of the serial radio drama was accompanied by a 45-minute interactive call-in show, which featured interviews with experts, local information about community resources, and provided the audience with a platform to reflect on the drama, share opinions and ask questions. We evaluated this intervention using a Before-After-Control-Impact framework based on longitudinal data from 168 respondents. To account for potential selection bias we used a matching algorithm together with ordinal regression to build a credible control for our listener group. This was done by matching respondents on their knowledge and attitudes towards bushmeat, their community of origin and baselines values for all outcomes of interest. Our analysis did not uncover any statistically significant differences between the treatment and control groups, suggesting that the intervention was not effective. Yet, given the proximity of some of the outcomes variables to statistically significant effect sizes and the lack of statistical power arising from a small sample size, we also undertook falsification tests, which test for changes in variables that would not be expected to change as a result of the intervention under consideration (e.g., variables related to ecotourism). We found that there were indeed several statistically significant changes. This indicated that other factors may have driven behavioral changes in the target audiences and thus that it was likely that those outcomes variables approaching statistically significant values were spurious results and not the result of lack of statically power. Only through more robust evaluation of behavior change interventions and the sharing of lessons learned can conservationists successfully tackle complex issues such as the demand for bushmeat.peerReviewe

Data Store for "How Fault Rocks Form and Evolve in the Shallow San Andreas Fault"

Supplemental Data for Published Pape

How Fault Rocks Form and Evolve in the Shallow San Andreas Fault

Abstract We document the mechanical and geochemical processes of fault rock development in the shallow San Andreas fault (Mojave segment), and quantify their importance in shaping the mineralogy, grain size, fabric, and frictional characteristics of gouge. Through a combination of field and laboratory analysis of an extensive suite of shallow (<150 m) drill cores, we show that fault rocks evolved from a granodiorite protolith via three main processes: distributed microfracturing/pulverization; cataclastic flow and incipient fabric development; and production of authigenic illite/smectite during fluid‐rock interaction. The interdependence of these mechanical and geochemical processes results in a diverse suite of fault rocks, and causes significant changes in frictional strength. Spatial variations in the effects of these mechanisms, as manifested in fault‐rock mineralogy and geochemistry, indicate marked variations in their relative contribution to fault‐rock evolution. These data reveal a complex San Andreas fault with multiple principal slip zones and damaged and altered rock hosting numerous interconnected secondary slip surfaces. The resulting picture of the San Andreas Fault zone suggests a substantial departure from the simple structures envisioned for near‐surface seismogenenic faults in numerical models is required, and may inform future efforts to forecast peak ground accelerations during southern California earthquakes

Laboratory-Scale Isolation of Insect Antifreeze Protein for Cryobiology

Micromolar concentrations of hyperactive antifreeze proteins (AFPs) from insects can prevent aqueous solutions from freezing down to at least &#8722;6 &#176;C. To explore cryopreservation of cells, tissues and organs at these temperatures without ice formation, we have developed a protocol to reliably produce ultrapure Tenebrio molitor AFP from cold-acclimated beetle larvae reared in the laboratory. The AFP was prepared from crude larval homogenates through five cycles of rotary ice-affinity purification, which can be completed in one day. Recovery of the AFP at each step was &gt;90% and no impurities were detected in the final product. The AFP is a mixture of isoforms that are more active in combination than any one single component. Toxicity testing of the purified AFP in cell culture showed no inhibition of cell growth. The production process can easily be scaled up to industrial levels, and the AFP used in cryobiology applications was recovered for reuse in good yield and with full activity