Cameroon demands bushmeat action

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The rate at which Africa is devouring its wildlife is entirely unsustainable,

Cameroon's Environment Minister says.

 

 

 

By Alex Kirby

BBC News o & shy;nline environment correspondent

 

 

He is demanding international action to control the trade, which produces as

much as five million tonnes of bushmeat from the Congo basin alone every year.

The trade threatens the survival of several already endangered species,

including elephants and great apes.

The minister, Chief Clarkson Oben Tanyi-Mbianyor, is visiting London to address

a Bushmeat Campaign conference.

The campaign says Mr Tanyi's call for international cooperation is the first

time any African leader has made such a proposal.

Time to stop

The aim of the conference is to secure agreement o & shy;n how to tackle the

unsustainable bushmeat trade, in which London plays a prominent part.

Forest elephants are targets

 

Other speakers include Ghana's Minister for Lands and Forests, Dominic Fobih,

the Okyenhene (tribal king) of Akyem Abuakwa in eastern Ghana, the UK's

International Development Minister, Gareth Thomas MP, and representatives of the

timber trade.

Mr Tanyi told BBC News o & shy;nline: " I am calling o & shy;n our partners to try to

help our efforts in fighting the bushmeat trade.

" What we are saying is that we cannot go o & shy;n selling bushmeat, because

people believe in looking after the environment.

" It's not local consumption that's the problem, but the wider trade, taking the

meat into the towns and out of the country.

" So we're calling o & shy;n our partners to fight the trade by helping us to

recruit and train eco-guards, and by providing local people with alternative

ways of earning a living that will keep them out of the forest.

" Some of these forest concessions can be up to 70,000 hectares in size, so the

guards will need to be able to communicate with each other. We're hoping other

countries will help us to equip them.

" This is in the context of Cameroon itself, of course. But I am also speaking in

a wider context, about the need to fight the bushmeat trade across west and

central Africa.

Looking for action

" And I'll be asking Mr Thomas for his help in stamping it out in the UK. But the

best way to tackle it is to fight it at source, and keep the animals in the

forest. "

Adam Matthews, the Bushmeat Campaign's director, is hoping Mr Thomas will spell

out how the UK Department for International Development plans to implement the

conclusions of a recent study it carried out o & shy;n the links between wildlife

and poverty.

He said: " Now that African governments have recognised that bushmeat is a

priority the international community must act, act now, and act quickly to make

funding available to address the bushmeat crisis. "

Killed to be eaten

 

Mr Matthews told BBC News o & shy;nline: " That study said 150 million people -

o & shy;ne in eight of the world's poor - depend o & shy;n wildlife for both protein

and income.

" The report's recommendations were excellent, but we have yet to see any move

towards carrying them out. I hope the UK will incorporate wildlife into its

poverty strategies. "

Some zoologists believe the bushmeat trade is so important to people's survival

that it would be better to try to control it than to stamp it out.

They say it may be possible to tell when large species like apes are reaching a

dangerous point by seeing when smaller animals like cane rats enter the market.

The smaller species tend to do so just before the flagship animals reach crisis

point, and this could serve as a warning mechanism.

 

BBC News article, 15 December 2003

 

 

 

 

 

 

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