Martin Reinhardt Nielsen

Factors Determining the Choice of Hunting and Trading Bushmeat in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania

Regulation of illegal bushmeat trade is a major conservation challenge in Africa. We investigated what factors are most likely to induce actors in the bushmeat trade to shift to an alternative occupation by conducting a choice experiment with 325 actors in the bushmeat trade in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania. Specifically, we asked respondents to choose between hunting or trading bushmeat and alternative salary-paying work, in a set of hypothetical scenarios where the attributes of these alternatives were varied and included measures of command and control, price of substitute meat, daily salary in the work option, and whether or not cows were donated to the respondent. We modeled the choice contingent on socioeconomic characteristics. The magnitude of fines and patrolling frequency had a significant but very low negative effect on the probability of choosing to engage in hunting or trading bushmeat compared with the salary of an alternative occupation. Donation of livestock and the price of substitute meats in the local market both affected the choice significantly in a negative and a positive direction, respectively. The wealthier a household was the more likely the respondent was to choose to continue hunting or trading bushmeat. On the margin, our results suggest that given current conditions in the Kilombero Valley on any given day 90% of the respondents would choose salary work at US

Relative densities of mammals in response to different levels of bushmeat hunting in the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania.

3.37/day over their activities in the bushmeat trade, all else equal.

Seeing White Elephants? The Production and Communication of Information in a Locally-based Monitoring System in Tanzania

Bushmeat hunting constitutes the most immediate threat to wildlife populations in the Udzungwa Mountains of the Eastern Afromontane biodiversity hotspot. This study assesses the impact of hunting by comparing densities of mammalian species between the little hunted West Kilombero Scarp Forest Reserve (WKSFR), the medium-hunted Udzungwa Scarp Forest Reserve (USFR) and the intensively hunted New Dabaga Ulongambi Forest Reserve (NDUFR). Of the 22 species recorded, 20 were present in WKSFR, 17 in USFR and 12 in NDUFR. Most large species (>40 kg.) were absent from hunted areas, while medium-sized species were reduced more than smaller species. Few traces of Abbotts duiker were observed in hunted areas and bush pig was reduced by more than 85% in hunted areas. Hunting appears to have little effect on relative abundance of primates, blue duiker, Harveys duiker, aardvark, eastern tree hyrax, and giant pouched rat in USFR, at least for those areas surveyed. In NDUFR relative abundance of most mammals are reduced compared to the less hunted reserves. The exception is red colobus which were no less abundant than USFR. However in NDUFR, transects were placed in the best quality habitat for these habitat-sensitive monkeys, thus emphasising the additional role of habitat degradation. The effect of hunting appears to be proportional to the size of the species and the intensity of hunting, although effects of life history strategy, forest fragment size, isolation, and previous logging cannot be excluded. Reduction of hunting levels are paramount to the survival of large bodied species in USFR and for the continued presence of most species in NDUFR. This study furthermore constitutes an important baseline for monitoring the effect of current efforts to implement joint forest management in the Udzungwa Mountains.

Improving the conservation status of the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania? The effect of joint forest management on bushmeat hunting in the Kilombero nature reserve.

The literature on locally-based monitoring in the context of conservation displays a great deal of optimism about the prospects of involving local people in the systematic gathering of information about the condition and use of natural resources and conservation areas to inform management decisions from local to national levels. This study challenges this notion based on a case study of a collaborative forest management and locally-based monitoring project that has been considered a successful showcase example in Tanzania. It does so by comparing information from locally-based monitoring of forest condition and fi nancial transactions, as presented by community management institutions to higher authorities, with forest transect surveys and an audit of fi nancial accounts. The results reveal that the information produced and communicated under the locally-based monitoring system contradicts trends in wildlife densities and human disturbance observed in the forest and under-represents actual fi nancial fl ows. Interviews and observations further indicate that communication of this information takes place under conditions of ongoing power struggles over access to benefi ts of collaborative forest management. This study serves to caution that the information produced and communicated under the locally-based monitoring system may be shaped by the incentives and power struggles surrounding the particular context within which the system is based and therefore cannot be taken at face value.

Is climate change causing the increasing narwhal (Monodon monoceros) catches in Smith Sound, Greenland?

This study examines the effect of Joint Forest Management (JFM) in a component of the Kilombero Nature Reserve recently gazetted to improve the conservation status of high biodiversity forests in the Udzungwa Mountains of the Eastern Afromontane biodiversity hotspot. The evaluation is based on a temporal comparison spanning seven years of JFM and establishment of a Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) ranger station, using bushmeat hunting as an indicator. Results reveal that the number of active hunters had declined, primarily due to TANAPAs patrolling. But hunting effort had been displaced from hunting with firearms in the grassland to hunting with traps and dogs in the forests, thus increasing the threat to endemic species. Hunters perceived few benefits from JFM, and the new opportunities were largely unused, inaccessible and communal in nature. Suspicions of embezzlement of JFM funds, and high village development contributions were important drivers of continuing hunting. Dissatisfied with JFM, most inactive hunters actually preferred that TANAPA manage the forest instead. Considerable attention to correcting these problems is required before this model of JFM should be scaled up and implemented in the remaining villages surrounding the Kilombero Nature Reserve.

Determinants of Compliance with Hunting Regulations Under Joint Forest Management in Tanzania

This paper evaluates recent changes in narwhal (Monodon monoceros) catches in Siorapaluk, the northernmost community in Greenland, in consideration of the effects of changing climate and uncertainty of stock delineation. The catch statistics show a significant increase in narwhal catches by hunters in Siorapaluk after 2002, which does not appear to be a result of increased effort. Hunters attribute the increase to changed sea-ice conditions providing access by boat to Smith Sound as early as June and July. This indicates that climate change is likely to have a considerable impact on narwhal hunting in northern Greenland. Traditional ecological knowledge and scientific surveys suggest that narwhal in Smith Sound constitute an independent stock. The absence of scientific recommendations for this stock has been seen as an opportunity to increase quotas in West Greenland. Scientific management recommendations are urgently needed to allow the authorities to assign sustainable quotas for this stock. The development of collaborative management agreements and locally based monitoring are recommended to ensure local acceptance of regulations, and to allow rapid responses to climate change.

Using camera trap data to assess the impact of bushmeat hunting on forest mammals in Tanzania

We evaluated the effect of Joint Forest Management (JFM) on the number of bushmeat hunters in a forest reserve in the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania and tested whether their response to regulations was best characterized by instrumental or normative explanations. A multinomial model based on instrumental proxies revealed that hunters were characterized by significantly lower household asset value, agricultural area cultivated and education level compared to non-hunters. Stronger explanation was revealed by a model based on normative proxies with hunters being characterized by dissatisfaction with, and perceiving low benefits from JFM, less participation in village meetings and JFM activities and by distrusting the financial management of JFM funds. No model was able to differentiate clearly between individuals that stopped or continued hunting. Focus group discussions with hunters, however, supported the quantitative results and provided the missing clues to differentiate between these groups.In combination the results suggest that continued hunting is motivated primarily by normative reasoning whereas compliance is explained by instrumental considerations. This suggests that a number of fundamental changes are required of JFM in order to ensure hunters’ compliance and thereby conserve the unique biodiversity of this component of the Eastern Afromontane biodiversity hotspot.

A Comparative Study on Bushmeat Consumption Patterns in ten Tribes in Tanzania

Bushmeat hunting is a pantropical threat to rainforest mammals. Understanding its effects on species richness, community composition and population abundance is of critical conservation relevance. As data on the pre-hunting state of mammal populations in Africa are not generally available, we evaluated the impacts of illegal bushmeat hunting on the mammal community of two ecologically similar forests in the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania. The forests differ only in their protection status: one is a National Park and the other a Forest Reserve. We deployed systematic camera trap surveys in these forests, amounting to 850 and 917 camera days in the Forest Reserve and the National Park, respectively, and investigated differences between the two areas in estimated species-specific occupancies, detectabilities and species richness. We show that the mammal community in the Forest Reserve is degraded in all aspects relative to the National Park. Species richness was almost 40% lower in the Forest Reserve (median 18 vs 29 species, highest posterior density intervals 15–30 and 23–47, respectively). Occupancy of most species was also reduced significantly and the functional community appeared significantly altered, with an increase in rodents, and loss of large carnivores and omnivores. Overall, our results show how ineffective reserve management, with almost absent law enforcement, leads to uncontrolled illegal hunting, which in turn has a significant impact on the mammal fauna of globally important sites for conservation.

Hunting and trading bushmeat in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania: motivations, cost-benefit ratios and meat prices

Bushmeat hunting is an important driver of wildlife depletion in Tanzania, but national-wide estimates of its consumption are lacking. We compare bushmeat consumption frequencies and determinants in ten tribes in different ecoregions in Tanzania, four of these within biodiversity hotspots of global conservation importance. Bushmeat consumption is examined in terms of ethnicity, selected indicators of wealth, and distance to and protection level of nearest protected area. Forty six percent of the respondents (n=300) belonging to nine of the ten tribes reported consuming bushmeat during the past 12 months, and 14% admitted that at least one household member hunted illegally. Significant differences in bushmeat consumption frequencies and species consumed were observed among ethnic groups. Regression revealed that the presence of a hunter in the household increased significantly the prevalence of bushmeat consumption, while distance to and protection level of nearest protected area had the most significant negative effect. Anti-poaching patrols are an effective deterrent to illegal bushmeat consumption, whilst access to domestic animal protein and other selected indicators of wealth do not reduce bushmeat consumption. The results emphasise the importance of strengthening anti-poaching services and the integration of cultural differences in preference for bushmeat into policies aimed at reducing bushmeat consumption and conserving wildlife.

Household determinants of bushmeat and eru (Gnetum africanum) harvesting for cash in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Bushmeat hunting in the savannah biomes of East Africa is often considered to be subsistence oriented and undertaken as a gap-filler in the lean agricultural season. The price of bushmeat is furthermore often thought uniform regardless of species, but if hunting is commercially oriented and price premiums are paid for particular species this needs to be considered. This paper investigates these issues in the Kilombero Valley of Tanzania, based on one year of market data and interviews with 80 hunters, 169 traders and 67 retailers. Motivations were overwhelmingly commercial and the bushmeat trade constituted a year-round income generating activity. Monte Carlo simulations based on the deterrence model revealed average cost-benefit ratios of 0.15–0.43 for hunters, 0.56–0.62 for traders and 0.88 for retailers, and a 12–401 fold increase in likelihood of apprehension may be required to render the trade unprofitable. Willingness-to-pay data showed that elephant, buffalo, hippopotamus, puku, bushpig and warthog meat were preferred. Enhanced enforcement may thus drive prices for these species higher, encouraging hunters to seek ways around constraints. Community-based wildlife management and improved firearms control may be the most pragmatic ways to regulate the trade.