|
|
|
The Economist on the bush meat trade in Africa
The bushmeat trade
Killing off the ark
May 15th 2003
From The Economist print edition
IF EATING people is wrong, then what about apes? They are, after all, man's closest siblings in the wild, and they share as much as 99% of the human genetic code. Such considerations have been insufficient to stop the trade in bushmeat from becoming a huge commercial enterprise in western and central Africa, where ourclosest living relatives�the last gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos�are rapidly being gobbled up.
The forest people of middle Africa have always lived off game meat. But only in recent years, with the arrival of significant quantities of automatic weapons and the opening up of hitherto inaccessible forests by European and Asian companies, has the African bushmeat trade become unsustainable. At its root is a growing hunger not so much for meat but for timber. The logging companies, often working on projects that are financed for the most laudable of reasons by the European Union and the World Bank, build forest roads and send in their trucks. The hunters follow easily, with the result that meat is coming out as never before.
Reaching any sensible conclusion on the numbers of animals being killed is not easy. The anecdotal evidence, however, is there for all to see: even tiny village markets in central Africa often sell smoked ape meat, particularly in Congo and the former Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it is regarded as a delicacy.
Dale Peterson, the author of this disturbing expos�, is a veteran writer on primates. Karl Ammann's stark photographs of severed gorilla heads and orphaned infant apes, taken over the past few years, are a terrible indictment of what he calls "feel-good conservation" and its failure to curb the trade and stop the collapse of the world primate population. The slaughter of apes for food is a personal nightmare for both men. The killing of a chimpanzee�a species that can make tools and is capable of laughter�is, they insist, an act of murder. And yet the western media have largely ignored the issue. "This book touches subjects that people may prefer not to talk or think or read about...It's about hard choices and serious ethical and cultural conflicts."
The cheek of it
Apes are not the only species in Africa to be threatened with extinction by an upsurge in the demand for meat. Most of Africa's wildlife trade is legal but a significant part is not, and keeping tabs on this is becoming ever more of a challenge. The United Nation's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species�CITES�is the regulatory body in charge. While most people would agree that conservation is impossible without regulation, "The Trade in Wildlife" argues that CITES is having little success in stopping certain species from becoming extinct. Moreover, animal conservationists disagree about what needs to be done. This book, with its critical assessment of the wildlife trade, comes not a moment too soon and carries an important message. In the end, regulations will work only when they are accepted by those most affected by them�the people who deem primates to be more valuable as dead meat than live animals
Source: The Economist
CONTENT COPYRIGHT The Economist. THIS CONTENT IS INTENDED SOLELY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES.
mongabay.com users agree to the following as a condition for use of this material:
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental issues. This constitutes 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
If you are the copyright owner and would like this content removed from mongabay.com, please contact me.
|
