Is bushmeat just another conservation bandwagon?

There is currently great interest in the sustainability of bushmeat hunting (bushmeat being any wild animal by hunted for human consumption). All the big conservation ‘players’ have contributed to the debate, issued statements or funded research. IUCN's World Conservation Congress in October 2000 and the CITES Bushmeat Conference of the Parties in April 2000 both discussed bushmeat. Both organisations have since sponsored initiatives in West and Central Africa aimed at obtaining action on the issue. Major conservation organisations are funding research, including the Wildlife Conservation Society (which has a long track-record in this field) and Conservation International. The World Bank has commissioned a major report on the issue (Bennett & Robinson, 2000). Fauna & Flora International (FFI) is a partner in a UK government-commissioned project identifying priority research areas. Conservation organisations have formed the US-based Bushmeat Crisis Task Force (see http://www.bushmeat.org), of which FFI is a member, and the UK-based Bushmeat Working Group of the Tropical Forest Forum (see http://www.forestforum.org.uk), where academic conservationists and government policy makers can exchange experience and ideas.

International. New signatories to CITES. The Republic of Moldova, Qatar, Sao Tome and Principe, Lithuania, and Ireland have acceded to CITES, bringing to 157 the number of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. These accessions entered into force on 27 June, 6 August, 7 November, and 9 March 2001, and 8 April 2002, respectively.

Source: TRAFFIC Bulletin (2001), 19(1), 3 (also at http://www.traffic.org, and http://www.cites.org).

The vicuña Vicugna vicugna is a wild South American camelid. Following over-exploitation, which brought the species to the brink of extinction in Chile in the 1960s, the population was protected. Since 1975 the population has been censused annually, generating one of the most extensive long-term census databases for any South American mammal. In this paper we use these data, and measures of environmental parameters, to describe the population growth trend of the species and to estimate carrying capacity. Our results indicate that the vicuña has been protected successfully in northern Chile. The census data reveal that, following protection, the population displayed logistic growth between 1975 and 1992. Population growth rate declined linearly with population size, which indicates a degree of density dependence. Density independent factors, such as rainfall, may also have been important. The principal density dependent effect observed was that birth rate declined in those family groups with the most breeding females. The carrying capacity of the study area was estimated from the census data and from models based on precipitation and local primary productivity. Using the census data, an estimation of carrying capacity as the asymptote of the fitted logistic curve suggested that the vicuña population should reach approximately 26,000 vicuñas, whereas estimation when the population growth rate was equated to zero gave a carrying capacity of c. 22,000. Coe's method based on local precipitation predicted 31,000 vicuña, whereas Lavenroth's method based on local primary productivity predicted 26,000 vicuña. In reality, the census data showed that the population peaked at 22,463 vicuñas in 1990. The results are discussed in relation to the need for better census techniques and the implications of density dependent effects for the management of the vicuña in Chile.

Most species of marine turtle breed every two or more years and it is the norm for females to lay more than one clutch of eggs within a nesting season. Knowing the interval between breeding seasons and the clutch frequency (number of clutches laid by an individual in a breeding season) of females allows us to assess the status of a nesting population. At Alagadi Beach, Northern Cyprus, over a period of 6 years (1995–2000), we attributed 96% of green Chelonia mydas and 80% of loggerhead Caretta caretta turtle clutches to known individual females. This intensive level of monitoring enabled us to estimate the clutch frequency for both species. Using four different methods we estimated clutch frequency to be 2.9–3.1 clutches per female for green turtles and 1.8–2.2 clutches per female for loggerhead turtles. The median interval between nesting seasons for green turtles was 3 years, and for loggerhead turtles it was 2 years. Utilizing these parameters and available data from other beaches that are monitored regularly, we estimate that there are 2,280–2,787 logger-head and 339–360 green turtles nesting annually at these sites in the Mediterranean. This highlights the Critically Endangered status of this population of green turtles. Furthermore, as conventional beach patrols underestimate clutch frequency, these population estimates are likely to be optimistic.

There are 1,001 species of bats, almost a quarter of which are globally threatened. The Chiroptera Specialist Group of IUCN's Species Survival Commission has produced two Action Plans examining conservation issues for all species and detailing recommendations for action to conserve the most threatened species and habitats. These Plans are aimed principally at key decision makers as well as organisations and individuals who are promoting bat conservation issues. The underlying threat to bats is pressure on resources from increasing human populations that leads to the loss or modification of foraging habitats and roosts. Bats frequently have a negative public image that influences the response to the problems of rabies and vampire bats in Latin America and conflicts between bats and commercial fruit growers in other areas of the world. In some areas bats are persecuted because people are ignorant of the life history of bats and their role in ecosystems, while in other areas bats are overexploited for food. There is also a general lack of information about the distribution, status, biology and ecology of many species. This review examines some of the more general issues relating to bat conservation. It provides information on bat faunas of all countries worldwide, and on the most threatened species. It highlights the priority areas where action is needed immediately at a global, regional or national level. It highlights in particular the global importance of islands and caves for bats.

Poor soils and high rainfall mean that the high productivity of the forests, an assumption that drives the development of the forest zone, is an illusion. The potential of the forests to produce meat, from wild or domestic herbivores, is limited. Growing human populations and shrinking forests accelerate pressures on forest resources faster than national statistics indicate. A simulation model demonstrates the effects of growing hunting pressure on one monkey and two duiker species. A version of this model that includes random variation shows that large harvests can be obtained for many years, but that a population collapse can happen suddenly; there is no period of gradually declining harvests. The accelerating hunting pressure in a zone of low productivity, shrinking habitat for monkeys and antelopes, the dynamics of non-linear systems, and natural environmental variation that affects reproduction and survival will lead to a collapse of hunted populations across the forest zone. We are now seeing the bushmeat boom and soon we will see the bushmeat bust.

We studied movements of white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari, Artiodactyla, Tayassuidae) throughout the Osa Peninsula and their use by local people during 1997–2000, using interview techniques. We draw five main conclusions: 1) White-lipped peccaries living on the Osa Peninsula range within Corcovado National Park for most of the year. 2) Peccaries travel beyond the Park boundaries to the north and south-east of the Peninsula at the end of the wet season when a fruit shortage occurs in Corcovado. 3) The local people hunt peccaries as the herds move through the Peninsula. 4) Current small herd sizes observed by locals in the Peninsula and by researchers in the Park may indicate a decline of the peccary population. 5) Peccaries constitute neither an important source of food nor a source of cash income for local people. We suggest that sustainable use of peccaries in this region is neither realistic nor necessary. Instead of trying to legalize and regulate hunting, effective systems to control illegal hunting should be implemented, especially outside the Park boundary from October to January when the animals are on the move.