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 around the world as one of the last stores of carbon.

Over 24 million people live within the forested regions of central Africa. Forty to sixty percent live in cities and towns and most rely on the meat of wild animals as a primary source of protein. Meat consumption may increase by three percent per year as human populations continue to grow and household income increases.

Rising demand, lack of alternative options for income generation, absence of protein 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 West and Central Africa.

Obviously the commercial bushmeat trade is a conservation crisis for wildlife and protected spaces, for traditional cultures (that once relied on natural resources) and for sustainable livelihoods. But for all these reasons, it is also a perfect example of the need to truly integrate family planning and healthcare with conservation activities.

Some statistics:

In Brazzaville (Congo) approximately 15,000 carcasses passed through the markets in 12 months; 293 were chimpanzees.

In Ouesso (Congo) during four months, 6,540 animals passed through the markets, 13 of which were protected species.

More than 24 million people live within the forested regions of Central Africa; 40-60% live within cities and towns, and mostly rely on meat as a primary source of animal protein.

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN

WHO NEEDS TO BE INVOLVED? AND WHAT’S HAPPENING?

ALL STAKEHOLDERS

• Support for conservation organizations by contributing to their purchase of critical habitat, their activism on endangered species, and their community conservation programs will help policymakers and business leaders take measure of the public’s concern about biodiversity loss.

GOVERNMENTS AND NGO's

• Support integrated community-based approaches that improve both natural resource conservation and access to reproductive health services.
• Commit to financing bushmeat conservation initiatives and to legitimizing and helping countries enforce existing wildlife laws.
• Make a commitment to support Congo Basin countries in their agreement to conserve biological diversity, create and manage protected areas, and develop long-term capacity to manage wildlife collaboratively throughout the region.
  

PRIVATE SECTOR/INDUSTRY

• Provide logging companies with incentives to minimize impacts on plant and animal communities within concessions, to establish long-term wildlife management plans, to set aside unlogged refuges for rare or threatened species, to halt the transportation of hunters and bushmeat on logging vehicles, to deny hunters road access to logged forests and to seek ways to provide company employees with alternative sources of protein.
• Concerned for-profit companies should commit to financing wildlife monitoring and management programs within their concessions, including bushmeat control activities.

APE SURVIVAL

The biggest threat to the survival of great apes is human activity. We must accept that war, famine, long-term political instability, poverty and expanding human population and encroachment in to the forest home of the great apes is driving many of these primates from the face of the planet. Therefore we must act swiftly, we must act now, and we must plan on acting indefinitely.

1. Increase and strengthen habitat protection
2. Logging in ape habitat should be stopped or strictly enforced.
3. More basic scientific and socioeconomic research must be carried out
4. Research, monitor and regulate the growing bushmeat trade
5. Develop and regulate ecotourism and revenue sharing co-management programs
6. Stop the ape pet trade. Assess and improve ape rehabilitation centers
7. Research impact of disease on wild apes and develop measures to prevent and control
8. Develop conflict resolution strategies where ape/human problems occur
9. Build local and national institutions and capacity.
10. Strengthen and enforce national and international legislation
11. Seek financial assistance to support ape conservation programs and habitat preservation in host countries

JGI’S STRATEGIES
In order to properly address this greatest of conservation crises, the Jane Goodall Institute has formulated the following strategy. It will be crucial to provide a unified effort and give support for one another’s programs, thereby setting aside individual agendas to truly commit to this cause.

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.
3. HOLISTIC CONSERVATION: Create conservation programs that fill the gaps in current programs; address all stakeholders; integrate population and health matters; and analyze social repercussions from altered livelihoods, roles, and activities.
4. ACTION: Activities in host countries are where REAL impacts can be made. Enough talking in North America. We need funding for action on the ground in Africa.
5. FUNDS: Sustainable financing (from governments, World Bank, IMF, etc.) and donor support are needed to permit successful completion of action items.