Wild resources and livelihoods of poor households in Democratic Republic of Congo

Wild foods including bushmeat have long been recognised as important famine foods underpinning coping strategies for poor people. Yet there is mounting pressure from conservation agencies to limit the extraction of wild resources, particularly bushmeat. This ODI policy brief outlines research on the links between poverty and wild food use in a poor community of Congolese farming households with an average income of less than one dollar per person per day.

Policy Conclusions

• Bushmeat and other wild foods play a vital part in the diets, livelihoods and food security of poor rural households. There are marked seasonal changes in wild food use, with major increases in the hungry season. These facts need to be taken into account in planning conservation strategies.
• Wild foods form a moderately important component of household diets but a very important component of household sales, particularly for the poor. Bushmeat and fish figure as superior goods (in the sense that their consumption increases proportionately with increases in household income). Wild plant foods figure as inferior goods.
• Within a community that is universally poor by regional and international standards, clear differences in access to and use of wild foods are associated with degrees of poverty. The very poorest households are disadvantaged in absolute terms, and are the least likely to benefit from hunting or its proceeds.
• The case study contradicts the view that banning market sales of bushmeat, and restricting consumption to subsistence use, offers a ‘win-win’ strategy to the benefit of both conservation and the poor. All but the very poorest are likely to rely on sales. Selling bushmeat benefits the poor relatively more than the rich (though the very poorest may not even benefit from subsistence use).