Wildlife products and forest livelihoods

Wildlife products are a significant source of food, income and fuel for many people living in tropical forested regions.

These products include bushmeat (meat from wild animals), freshwater fish and wild plants. Harvests are often unmonitored, but there is evidence to suggest that many tropical forest species are being overexploited, particularly mammals.

As human populations increase, the demand for wildlife products is likely to grow. If access to wildlife becomes more restricted, because of over-exploitation or planned changes in forest management, it is important to understand who will be most affected.

Benefits from wildlife products
Harvesting wildlife products is one of the few livelihood activities open to poorer households. It often has negligible start-up costs and does not require constant labour, so can be fitted around seasonal activities such as agriculture. Wildlife products can also be a vital food source during ‘hungry’ seasons and times of hardship.

While these products support many poor rural people, extremely poor people do not always benefit. Bush-meat hunting, for example, is usually done by the men but many of the poorest households do not have any.

Harvesting wildlife products is one of the few livelihood activities open to many poorer households, and can be a vital food source
during ‘hungry’ seasons and at times of hardship

Equatorial Guinea
Studies by the Institute of Zoology and Imperial College London in the UK, investigated the importance of wildlife and forest products in Equatorial Guinea. The following findings expand on previous research in central Africa.

• During the agricultural lean season, the consumption of forest plants increases significantly, especially among the poorest households. 
• For most people, harvesting wildlife products is not a preferred livelihood strategy but is a last resort when no other work is available. 
• Bushmeat is more important for income than food and hunters often sell their catch to buy cheaper alternative foods.
• Some people earn high incomes from selling bushmeat, particularly successful gun-hunters.
• Poor and middle-income rural households are more likely than wealthier households to hunt: the small income this provides can make up a higher proportion of their total income.
• The income from bushmeat becomes more important when agricultural incomes decrease.

The research suggests several guidelines for future policies:

• The sale of wildlife products is commonly outside the formal economy: acknowledging the importance of these products is the first step to successful management. 
• Strategies to decrease bushmeat hunting are unlikely to succeed without also developing alternative livelihood options. 
• Increased marketing of sustainably harvested forest plants may increase women’s capacity to generate income. 
• Harvesting forest products is unlikely to help people out of poverty, but restricting access to forests without compensation may have a negative impact on rural food security and livelihoods, particularly for the poorest households. 
• Policies that allow some access to sustainably harvested products, and where collectors recognise the importance of harvesting controls, will be most successful. However, these will be difficult to develop without a greater understanding of the sustainability of these harvests.

Sophie Allebone-Webb, Guy Cowlishaw, J Marcus Rowcliffe
Bushmeat Research Programme, Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4RY, UK allenbonewebb@yahoo.co.uk

E.J. Milner-Gulland
Imperial College London, Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire SL5