Modelling behaviour change of actors in the urban bushmeat trade in Central Africa to predict positive outcomes for conservation

The urban bushmeat trade is an income generating activity that can be seen as an insurance policy for thousands of people living on the fringe of society in Central Africa. While wildlife laws in Central African countries do not prohibit the sale of certain wildlife species as a source of income, the activity is carried out mostly illegally within the informal sector and has been estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The overarching question here is why actors of this activity prefer to operate illegally when the law makes provisions for a legal trade?

In a previous study, we predicted ways in which future interventions could influence the behaviour of bushmeat trade actors in urban markets in two bushmeat trading cities in Central Africa, and found that three interventions – a successful demand-reduction campaign, toughening sanctions, and providing livelihood training – would serve as deterrence for traders to stop selling protected species or leave the trade altogether. We also found that an exogenous factor – the increased cost of domestic meat – could make bushmeat more competitively priced and encourage more consumption. We recommended tougher sanctions and providing enterprise training to encourage traders to leave the trade, as well as supporting local producers of alternative proteins to increase the supply of viable alternatives at a competitive price. Following this study, the wildlife law in Cameroon was recently revised, and the new law included some recommendations made such as toughening sanctions for selling protected species (i.e., from 5 years and/or $2000 USD to 20 years and/or $20 000 USD). However, this seems not to have had any effect on the trade as the same illegal market sales and volumes can still be observed to take place. In addition, the recent socio-political situation in Cameroon has caused significant increases in domestic meat options and displaced millions of persons internally to settle in areas known to be biodiversity hotspots but also hotspots of illegal wildlife trade. Understanding the behaviours of actors in the trade on either side (demand and supply) is vital to inform effective policies.

In this research, we delve into ways of making this illegal trade sustainable and will strive to answer the following questions:

• Why do tougher sanctions not serve as deterrence to actors in the illegal trade?
• How profitable and sustainable would be a legal bushmeat trade compared to the illegal trade?
• Do exogenous factors such as increased cost of domestic meat really encourage more bushmeat consumption?
• What impact do internally displaced persons have on the illegal bushmeat trade?



Involved researchers: Eric D. Nana, Matthias Waltert