Why people eat bushmeat: Results from two-choice, taste tests in Gabon, Central Africa

Abstract

First paragraph: In Central Africamost of the 30 million people living in the forested regions of the Congo Basin use the meat of wild animals as a source of dietary protein. As a result over one million metric tons of bushmeat, primarily antelope, pigs, and rodents are killed and eaten each year (Wilkie and Carpenter, 1999) For many large-bodied and slow-growing species commercial hunting of bushmeat already exceeds their replacement rate and is unsustainable in many areas (Wilkie et al., 2001). With human population in the region growing at 2-3% per year (Republique-Gabonaise, 1993), demand for bushmeat will double in 25-35 years if rates of bushmeat consumption do not fall and large-bodied wildlife species could be hunted to local extinction in most of the area by the year 2020. Loss of wildlife may threaten the food security of many marginalized forest foragers, and farmer-forager communities that are isolated from markets and depend on bushmeat as their primary protein source (Eves and Ruggiero, 2001).