“Do we really care that within 15 years there may be no chimpanzees or gorillas or elephants or any other amazing beings, roaming the forests of the Congo Basin and other parts of Central and West Africa? Does it matter? That is something everyone must ask in his or her own heart. We are not asking for charity to help save the wildlife – and ultimately the people- of African forests. We are asking for a collective investment in the future, and in a legacy that we can be proud of. We do not have much time left. We must act now”.
Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE

African forests teemed with wildlife at the turn of the last century. The forests rang out with the songs of birds and insects and the gentle movement of vines and branches. Compare that with the African forests of today. Recent figures indicate that fewer than 150,000 chimpanzees - our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom - remain in the African wilderness, where one to two million lived in the year 1900. While in remote areas the wildlife chorus may still ring out, in more places than ever before the sound of hammer and chain saw and truck and drill bit predominate.

The most recent crisis to have evolved is one that threatens not only chimpanzees, but also other great apes and species of flora and fauna in the forests of Africa. As logging roads are cut into previously unreachable areas, the hunting of wildlife for bushmeat - once a practice supporting forest peoples - has become commercial, catering to the cultural preference of many urban dwellers for the meat of wild animals and also supplies the logging camps with food. How serious is the problem? The commercial hunting of bushmeat could well lead to the loss of several species, including chimpanzees, gorillas and elephants.

The bushmeat crisis is a complex, multifaceted international conservation issue that requires the coordination of efforts between all stakeholders, which may include: local communities and populations in host countries, governments, international/national NGOs, and the private sector. It has become a conservation crisis due to the rapid commercialization and escalation of industry, such as forestry and mining operations, economics crisis in Central and West Africa, and lack of politic capacity and will. It may cause the extinction of several large mammal species in the very near future. Chimpanzees and gorillas may become so severely depleted in the next ten years that populations cannot regenerate.

Our programs reflect three very important aspects of wildlife conservation: education, field conservation and public awareness, and advocacy. We believe that priority actions should focus efforts on host countries in Africa to target the root or source of the crisis. In addition to government law enforcement, and policy creation, progress toward reduction in illegal commercial hunting may be made via community outreach and education, as well as incorporating wildlife conservation measures into sustainable forestry operations and sustainable livelihoods of local populations.

Why Central Africa?

Central Africa is home to one of the world’s largest contiguous blocks of tropical rainforest, second only to the Amazon basin in South America. These rainforests perform valuable ecosystem services, support globally important biodiversity, and are essential to regional economies. The ecosystem services provided by tropical forests include watershed protection, maintenance of water quality and supply, regulations of local climate patterns, carbon sequestration, and timber and wood fuel production. International conservation interest has also highlighted the globally important biological diversity, as the rainforests of Central Africa are significant both for the total number of species found there and for endemic species. However, outside a few well-studied areas, central Africa’s rainforests remain largely unknown and their species undocumented.

In addition to the aforementioned benefits, forests have considerable direct economic importance across the region: wood fuel accounts for the majority of national energy consumption and timber production and export are major contributions to the region’s economies. For example, a recent report by the World Resources Institute indicates that in both Cameroon and Gabon, forest products are the second largest export, generating around 20% of Cameroon’s export revenue and 13 percent of Gabon’s foreign exchange earnings.

Cited as the most intact forest ecosystems in Central Africa, these regions have been “protected” through the creation of reserves and National Parks. Since the beginning of the 20th Century, protected areas have been considered an effective way of preserving resources. The major problem with protected areas is the fact that they exclude (or have even forcibly removed) people from the management of resources. A recent publication by the World Resources Institute indicates that 1km is the average penetration of large vehicles into the forest, and 10km is a conservative estimate of the distance that hunters are willing to travel into the forest, on foot from the nearest road. These figures highlight the scenario for conservation within protected areas: protected areas are not free from disturbance and destruction, varying from intense to moderate subsistence.

JGI's Unique Approach

JGI established bushmeat initiatives in August 2000, as a response to a crisis – the imminent threat to the survival of great apes in Africa—and the resultant threat to biodiversity and cultural sustainability by the commercial hunting of wildlife in Central Africa.
JGI presents a unique approach to addressing the commercial bushmeat trade in Central Africa. By focusing on community involvement, addressing the true stakeholders in the trade— hunters and especially women buyers and sellers— we react to the root social and economic influences that drive participation. Coupling this focus with direct involvement with governments, industry, and local capacity, our holistic activities present the opportunity to establish long-term effective field conservation and development programs.

Our Guiding Principles

Our bushmeat activities are founded on the following guiding principles:

• Humans have a responsibility to address the conservation threats imposed by global politics, industrial exploitation, population growth, economic greed, and bad governance.
• The best way to preserve our natural heritage is to invest in meeting the needs of people. Clearly the environmental challenges humanity faces in the 21st century and beyond would be less difficult in a world with slower population growth.
• Sustainable livelihoods, development, and conservation are possible and effective measures to conserve biodiversity and human diversity.
• Respect for local communities, culture, and heritage guide field activities.
• A transparent and flexible manner is used in creating and implementing joint activities.
• Partnerships will achieve greater results than acting independently.
• Every individual matters, and every individual can make a difference.

Through our programs we strive to eliminate the illegal commercial bushmeat trade in endangered species, and to regulate the legal trade—as part of an integrated approach toward sustainable forest resource management. We encourage participation from industry, regional NGOs, governments, and local communities. Our objectives address the various stakeholders, especially the role of women, with the ambition to affect long-term sustainable change by increasing the opportunity and ability to live sustainably.

Research and Conservation

Our research and conservation programs are based on:

• Regional studies to document the illegal trade as bushmeat and identify stakeholders in urban and rural markets, villages, industrial camps, concessions, and cross border international trading
• Identification of focus areas for the largest conservation impacts

Communities

• National awareness of wildlife hunting and trading laws increased
• Access to conservation educational materials increased
• Increased access to family planning and healthcare services
• Community-based action plans established to address regional environment and development issues, focusing on sustainable livelihoods
• Bushmeat stakeholder support groups and associations formed
• Increased capacity and responsibility for natural resource management of community forests by communities
• Increased attention and value on the role of women as key stakeholders in environmental preservation.

National Governments:

• Greater incorporation of ape conservation measures into national environmental programs and policy frameworks for all countries with wild ape populations
• Increased structures to allow law enforcement of national wildlife laws, CITES, and hunting /trading of wild animals as meat or pets
• Increased government capacity to develop and enforce sustainable management plans with communities and the private sector
• Increased government resources toward the welfare of captive apes in each respective country
• Development of educational programs in conjunction with sanctuaries containing apes.
• Incorporation of environmental management and ape conservation into school curricula

Private Sector

• Monetary commitment toward conservation and sustainable natural resource management
• Enforcement of hunting and trading of wildlife laws in concessions, camps, and work areas
• Incorporation of conservation measures into business management plans, and policy frameworks
• Halt in hunting or trade of chimpanzees and gorillas within or from industry areas
• Increased awareness of ecology and wildlife and increased access to educational materials

North America / Europe / Asia

• Create a global media campaign to raise awareness of the threats to wild apes in Africa
• Increase global commitment from governments toward wild and captive ape conservation
• Document regional bushmeat trading in JGI- global countries

Human Impact

Human activities have altered one third of the earth’s surface and threatened the existence of many plant and animal species. The world loses one or more entire species of plant or animal life every 20 minutes, to total 27,000 species each year. Over the past half-century, the population numbers of our four closest relatives – bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans – have declined by at least half.

More humans are born each day (approximately 350,000) than the total number of great apes currently alive on the planet. It is not only numbers, but lifestyles, political systems, and social structures that define the relationship between humans and the environment. Rising demand for protein, lack of alternative options for income generation, absence of substitutes, opening of old growth forest, lack of capacity to enforce or legitimize existing laws, and the unrestricted ability for anyone to enter the commercial bushmeat trade are the driving factors threatening wildlife and biodiversity conservation across Central Africa.

While the commercial bushmeat trade is occurring in all corners of the globe today, JGI's bushmeat efforts are focused on Central Africa, considered a priority region for biodiversity conservation and a current focus for forestry, industry, and hunting. Comprising one quarter of the world’s remaining rainforests, and 70 percent of Africa’s remaining rainforest, The Congo Basin is of vital importance to biodiversity conservation; half of Africa’s wildlife species are found there. The protection of these forests is also crucial to the future of millions of people. As such, the commercial bushmeat trade is a conservation crisis for wildlife and protected spaces, for traditional cultures (who once relied on natural resources) and sustainable livelihoods.

JGI’s community-centered conservation (CCC) approach includes programs which are aimed at reducing the illegal commercial bushmeat trade in Central Africa. We present a unique perspective on this issue, focusing on community involvement, addressing the true stakeholders in the trade, hunters, and especially women market buyers and sellers. We couple this focus with addressing governments, industry and local NGO capacity in order to establish effective long-term field conservation and development programs.

Priority Strategic Actions

In order to properly address the greatest of conservation crises, JGI has identified the following priority strategic actions:

1. Partnerships:
   True partnerships must be formed between governments, financers, industry, NGOs and local communities to address this conservation crisis in a respectful and meaningful manner.
   
2. Master Plan:
   Create a master plan for action, and identify key players in each area. This would allow for sufficient coverage of all aspects of this conservation issue and increase commitment to the conservation crisis.
   
3. Holistic Conservation:
   Endorse and support a holistic view of conservation and the commercial bushmeat trade. Create conservation programs that fill the gaps in current programs, address all stakeholders, and integrate population and health matters, analyze social repercussions from altered livelihoods, roles and activities.
   
4. Action:
   Focus on action; field priorities and programs need funding! Activities in host countries are where real impacts can be made, additionally, local governments may increase their capacity to address conservation in a long-term sustainable manner, and local communities may be given the opportunity and ability to live sustainably.
   
5. Funds:
   Sustainable financing and donor support are needed to permit successful completion of action items. Flexibility is needed to expand the vision of what constitutes conservation and development in order to allow groups to address the real problems in Africa.

Without a unified effort, support for one another’s’ programs and permission for healthy debate of issues and ideas, progress in conserving apes, elephants and other endangered wildlife and birds will not be made. This is asking conservation groups and funding agencies to set aside their own agendas and truly commit to the cause; and to realize that there are many perspectives on conservation and many priorities. Fortunately or unfortunately, the bushmeat trade is so incredibly complex that there is room for all interested parties to truly make a difference and contribute to addressing this impending loss of wildlife, forests and cultural diversity.

Project Links:
Tchimpounga Sanctuary
Tchimpounga Reserve
Gombe Stream Research Center
TACARE