Participatory Monitoring Reveals Significant Urban Bushmeat Trade in the Amazon

Editor's Notes

1. To begin with, it is a reality... The majority of studies about hunting have focused on rural contexts, it is estimated that ...are consumed in the amazon But, little research has been made about the bushmeat trade, because the context of illegality in which it is involved, due to local environmental policies This has led for urban bushmeat trade as insignificant also because... However, there have been very interesting research about this issue, such as those done in...
2. For this reason, by developing a study case we wanted to contribute to the understanding of these questions: So, our objective was to:
3. So we went to the rifrontier region between Col, Per, Bra Mainly because there is a blend of human groups, policy and economic contexts, that were quite attractive We identified important market centers
4. To answer our questions we used:
5. Our results 4’
6. We identified … in the bushmeat market chain Where hunters were mostly men and informal restaurants were mostly run by women
7. Also by analizing the estructure per location we could see that there are complete market chains, with suppliers and trders at different levels
8. Then, based on the information we build the trifrontier bushmeat market chain, and this is how it works: It starts with hunters *** They sell to their communities to intermediaries or they go to market centers to sell to market traders, whom*** Also the can go directly to food…*** Finally the meat is bought by… Now, as this is an ilegal market, surveillance affects all levels of the chain… Actors have developed strategies to cope with controls (times of the day, cellphone, buy hunting supplies in Peru)
9. That can be indigenous (Colombia & Peru) and Mestizos “Caboclos” (Brazil) We identified diversified and specialized hunters, the difference is that specialized sell 90%, have longer market networks, they have to salt or smoke the meat to conserve it because they visit mostly primary forests located at several days of distance 29%... ...they visit hunting areas by...and in they use...
10. Intermediaries can go to the community or wait hunters at the harbours and buy... Whereas market traders have... And have an average of 5 usd kg
11. That are located in... We identified to type of prices, for locals and for tourists The most preferred species were
12. These controls configure the types and lenght of the flows, as well as costs...
13. Finally, with the monitoring with hunters we registered a total of 13 tons accounting for 485 individuals where the most hunted species were ... There was an increase of bushmeat hunted from 5,24 tons in Low level waters to 7,75 tons during high level waters
14. And for the case of market places, we registered 6,7 tons where SPP were the mos traded Quantities traded were almost the same during both seasons, with 3 tons in Low level waters and 3,7 tons during high level waters
15. Based on this information, we can conclude that bushmeat in the region still contributes to...as this complete market chains accounts for $$$, which is equivalent to.... That can be used to sustain... Another conclusion is that, although.... We show that bushmeat volumes traded in the trifrontier are not different from those of studies in Brazil and Central Africa, for example if we take our monitoring results from Tabatinga were 56,21 tons were traded in a population of 52272 hab, it accounts for 1kg/capita/year That is quite similar to studies in: Then...
16. We can conclude also that, as preferred species are not under endangered categories and are resilient (adapt to different habitat types and hunting pressures), there is an opportunity to... This has to be based on innovative strategies to monitor market chains, preferences and wildlife population trends Where the participation of local institutions and users is essential. The aim would be to create...
17. …A toolkit, that can be adapted to specific contexts, as.. Finally, we showed that developing this type of research is possible even in strong contexts of illegality and surveillance, as local actors expressed their interest in this types of approaches based on… Where the use of bushmeat can be understood as an essential livelihood for food security instead of an activity to be penalized.
18. Please visit our fan page in Facebook… And the webpage of the Cifor bushmeat research initiative