Evaluating the sustainability of hunting: a comparison of harvest profiles across three Huaorani communities

Abstract

Yasuni National Park and Biosphere Reserve in Ecuador's Amazon basin is home to the Huaorani and an area of high conservation value. As a result of oil development in the early 1990s, a road was constructed in the northern region of the Park. Three Huaorani communities have since been established in proximity to the road, two of them when the road was built, ten years prior to this study, and the third in a previously uninhabited area. This allowed for a natural experiment comparing harvest compositions across communities of different ages at one point in time. Harvest profiles suggest that the spider monkey Ateles belzebuth is facing local depletion near the two old communities and the howler monkey Alouatta seniculus may also be depleted near one of the old communities. That the two oldest communities still harvested a relatively high number of other vulnerable species is attributed to their use of the road to increase forest access. The spider monkey appears to be the first species to become depleted in persistently hunted areas.