(logging, mining, and oil-drilling, primarily) because in the course of their activities, companies directly 

 destroy critical habitat, disturb movement patterns and alter behaviour of local wildlife; as well as 

 indirectly facilitate hunting by building roads and/or providing hunters with transportation. The 

 establishment of camps with better living standards than surrounding villages creates an immigration 

 flux and increases demand for protein, while as industrial activities stimulate the local economy, 

 increased income allows hunters to take advantage of new technologies which allow for a more efficient 

 harvest (e.g. cartridges, guns, snare wires, outboard motors and headlamps). Research has shown that 

 per capita harvest rates in local communities adjacent to logging infrastructures are three to six times 

 higher than in communities remote from such areas. 



The need to consider wildlife in forest management in Africa 



For timber concessions, we must incorporate wildlife concerns into forest management plans that until 

 now have only focused on timber. Such integrated timber and wildlife management plans should 

 include: wildlife regulations in company policy; conservation education for logging company 

 employees and local communities; an agreed system of law enforcement to be carried out by locally 

 recruited staff; development of alternative protein supplies (e.g. fish farms); and an intensive program of 

 socio-economic and ecological monitoring. The private sector will benefit from a decrease in theft of 

 company property due to the increased law enforcement, an enhanced corporate image, and improved 

 opportunities for timber certification. The local communities will benefit because the management 

 programme supports their traditional land tenure system and provides a range of employment 

 opportunities. Wildlife conservation will benefit from a reduction in threats, from some of the protection 

 costs being borne by the private sector, and from this protection extending beyond the boundaries of 

 "protected areas". 



Wildlife can also be the main reason or objective to manage a forest area as illustrated for hunting in 

 Burkina Faso (zones d'intérêt cynégétique villageoises), Central African Republic (zones cynégétiques 

 villageoises) or for both hunting and tourism in Zimbabwe (Campfire program). These approaches 

 (community based management of trophy hunting, selling game meat harvesting wildlife products, 

 sightseeing tourism...) aim at managing natural resources so that plants, animals and people benefit. 

 They provide legal ways for communities to raise money by using local, wildlife resources in a 

 sustainable way and conserving the forests. 



Rather than restricting the rights of forest dwellers to engage in a market economy involving wildlife, the 

 answer lies in fostering these rights, in accepting the premise that decisions to consume or conserve 

 wildlife should ultimately rest with people directly dependent on this wildlife. Only if local people are 

 granted the right to make resource-related decisions, will they embrace the responsibility to sustain these 

 resources. 



Bennett, E.L. and Robinson, J.G. 2000. Hunting of Wildlife in Tropical Forests. Implications for 

 Biodiversity and Forest Peoples. Biodiversity Series, Impact Studies, Paper no 76, The World Bank 

 Environment Department, Washington D.C. 



Brown, D., Williams, A. 2003. The case for bushmeat as a component of development policy: issues and 

 challenges. International Forestry Review 5(2): 148-1 55. 



Nasi, R. 2007. Bushmeat: The Price of a Wild Trade. Viewpoint, Spore 130, August 2007, online 

 http://spore.cta.int/sporel 30/pdf/sporel 30_en_viewpoint.pdf (also available in French and Spanish) 



Nasi, R., Brown, D., Wilkie, D., Bennett, E., Tutin, C, van Toi, G., and Christophersen, T. (2008). 

 Conservation and use of wildlife-based resources: the bushmeat crisis. Secretariat of the Convention on 



Nature & Faune Vol. 23, Issue 1 iv 



