Recipes for Survival_English_tcm46-28192

Conclusions9.1 General conclusionsThe twin threats of deforestation and hunting are decimating tropical wildlife populationson a massive scale. Investment in possible solutions is not the sole domain ofconservation organisations which, by themselves, do not have the capacity for curbingthe crisis in the long term.The bushmeat problem encompasses more than just the loss of endangered species –it is a humanitarian issue as well. Milner-Gulland (2002) has described the bushmeatproblem as the toughest challenge yet for human-centred conservation because: it isimportant in the general economy and in traditional cultures; it is widely distributedgeographically, often in areas of poor law enforcement; it involves many people(hunters, traders, vendors, consumers); it supplies subsistence and commercialmarkets, with commodity chains reaching cities and spanning international borders;and it is important for livelihoods. These factors all militate against successfulwildlife conservation and rationalise disincentives to restrict hunting and trade (Wilkie& Eves, 2001).Rural families, with few options for making money to provide even the most basicneeds, are easily drawn into the lucrative trade and quickly come to rely on it. Thesecommunities are characterised by malnutrition and daily incomes below US$1, and soexpecting them to cease exploitation of wild species is unjustified. However, modernhuman populations cannot be sustained by wild meat in perpetuity and though theeconomic rewards of hunting are expedient to poor families in the short term, huntersmust be made aware that unsustainable use places future generations in jeopardy.Regulating the trade in bushmeat will require that alternative ways are found to securethe livelihoods of those people inadvertently causing the crisis.At current levels of demand, policies that aim to conserve wildlife are likely to imposerestrictions that will directly impact various stakeholders. The successful conservationof bushmeat-hunted species will almost certainly incur a nutritional and financial costCONCLUSIONS999© Ian Redmond