5 research outputs found
Dynamics and underlying causes of illegal bushmeat trade in Zimbabwe
The prevalence and impacts of the illegal trade in
bushmeat are under appreciated in Southern Africa, despite
indications that it constitutes a serious conservation
threat in parts of the region. Bushmeat trade has emerged
as a severe threat to wildlife conservation and the viability
of wildlife-based land uses in Zimbabwe during a period of
political instability and severe economic decline. We
conducted a study around Save´ Valley Conservancy in
the South-East Lowveld of Zimbabwe to investigate the
dynamics and underlying causes of the bushmeat trade,
with the objective of developing solutions. We found that
bushmeat hunting is conducted mainly by unemployed
young men to generate cash income, used mostly to
purchase food. Bushmeat is mainly sold to people with
cash incomes in adjacent communal lands and population
centres and is popular by virtue of its affordability and
availability. Key drivers of the bushmeat trade in the
South-East Lowveld include: poverty, unemployment and
food shortages, settlement of wildlife areas by impoverished
communities that provided open access to wildlife
resources, failure to provide stakes for communities in
wildlife-based land uses, absence of affordable protein
sources other than illegally sourced bushmeat, inadequate
investment in anti-poaching in areas remaining under
wildlife management, and weak penal systems that do
not provide sufficient deterrents to illegal bushmeat hunters.
Each of these underlying causes needs to be addressed
for the bushmeat trade to be tackled effectively. However,
in the absence of political and economic stability, controlling
illegal bushmeat hunting will remain extremely difficult
and the future of wildlife-based land uses will remain
bleak.TRAFFIC East/Southern Africa, the
European Union, the German Federal Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development, Wilderness Trust,
Chicago Board of Trade, and the supporters of the African
Wildlife Conservation Fund.http://journals.cambridge.orgab201
Ecological and financial impacts of illegal bushmeat trade in Zimbabwe
Under conditions of political instability and
economic decline illegal bushmeat hunting has emerged
as a serious conservation threat in Zimbabwe. Following
settlement of game ranches by subsistence farming communities,
wildlife populations have been eradicated over
large areas. In several areas still being managed as game
ranches illegal hunting is causing further declines of
wildlife populations (including threatened species such as
the wild dog Lycaon pictus and black rhinoceros Diceros
bicornis), threatening the viability of wildlife-based land
uses. From August 2001 to July 2009 in Save´ Valley
Conservancy 10,520 illegal hunting incidents were recorded,
84,396 wire snares removed, 4,148 hunters caught,
2,126 hunting dogs eliminated and at least 6,454 wild
animals killed. Estimated future financial losses from illegal
hunting in the Conservancy exceed USD 1.1 million year-1.
Illegal hunters’ earnings account for 0.31–0.52% of the
financial losses that they impose and the bushmeat trade is
an inefficient use of wildlife resources. Illegal hunting
peaks during the late dry season and is more frequent
close to the boundary, near areas resettled during land
reform and close to water. Illegal hunting with dogs peaks
during moonlight periods. Our study highlights several
management and land-use planning steps required to
maximize the efficacy of anti-poaching and to reduce the
likelihood of high impacts of illegal hunting. Anti-poaching
efforts should be aligned with the regular temporal and
spatial patterns of illegal hunting. Leases for hunting and
tourism concessions should ensure minimum adequate
investment by operators in anti-poaching. Reserve designers
should minimize the surface area to volume ratio of parks.
Fences should not be constructed using wire that can be
made into snares. Land reform involving game ranches
should integrate communities in wildlife-based land uses and ensure spatial separation between land for wildlife and
human settlement. Means are required to create stakeholdings
for communities in wildlife and disincentives for
illegal hunting.TRAFFIC Southern and East Africa, the
European Union, Wilderness Trust, Chicago Board of
Trade and the supporters of the African Wildlife Conservation
Fund.http://journals.cambridge.orgab201
Benefits of wildlife-based land uses on private lands in Namibia and limitations affecting their development
Legislative changes during the 1960s–1970s
granted user rights over wildlife to landowners in southern
Africa, resulting in a shift from livestock farming to wildlifebased
land uses. Few comprehensive assessments of such
land uses on private land in southern Africa have been
conducted and the associated benefits are not always
acknowledged by politicians. Nonetheless, wildlife-based
land uses are growing in prevalence on private land. In
Namibia wildlife-based land use occurs over c. 287,000 km2.
Employment is positively related to income from ecotourism
and negatively related to income from livestock. While
87% of meat from livestock is exported $95% of venison
from wildlife-based land uses remains within the country,
contributing to food security. Wildlife populations are
increasing with expansion of wildlife-based land uses, and
private farms contain 21–33 times more wildlife than in
protected areas. Because of the popularity of wildlife-based
land uses among younger farmers, increasing tourist arrivals
and projected impacts of climate change on livestock
production, the economic output of wildlife-based land
uses will probably soon exceed that of livestock. However, existing policies favour livestock production and are
prejudiced against wildlife-based land uses by prohibiting
reintroductions of buffalo Syncerus caffer, a key species for
tourism and safari hunting, and through subsidies that
artificially inflate the profitability of livestock production.
Returns from wildlife-based land uses are also limited by the
failure to reintroduce other charismatic species, failure to develop fully-integrated conservancies and to integrate
black farmers sufficiently.TRAFFIC East/Southern Africa and Tom
Milliken for instigating this project and the German
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development
and African Wildlife Conservation Fund.http://journals.cambridge.orgam201
Conservation implications of prey responses to wild dogs Lycaon pictus during the denning season on wildlife ranches
The spread of game ranching in southern Africa provides opportunities for the reestablishment of populations of endangered wild dogs extirpated by livestock ranchers. However, this potential has not been realized, partly because of negative rancher perceptions. Some ranchers believe that wild dogs impart costs by killing wildlife that could be utilized consumptively. Others complain that wild dogs make ungulates 'skittish' and cause local reductions in prey densities while denning. We compared the skittishness and density of prey species inside and outside the denning home ranges of nine wild dog packs in Zimbabwe. Wild dogs had no impact on prey skittishness, but prey species did occur at lower densities inside denning home ranges. In some scenarios, and particularly on fenced game ranches, wild dogs could cause prey population declines during denning. On small game ranches, the use of fences as a tool by wild dogs during hunting can increase the proportion of large prey species in their diet by up to 11 times, and thus increase the minimum area required to support that diet. In addition, game fencing is typically permeable to wild dogs but not their prey, preventing the recovery of prey populations through the natural influx of prey animals into the denning area following departure of the dogs. Wild dogs could thus impose significant financial costs to game ranchers hosting denning packs. Our findings emphasize the importance of promoting the formation of conservancies, where neighbouring landowners remove boundary fences to create larger contiguous wildlife areas