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Recent Primate Net postings about the BUSHMEAT CRISIS

Efforts to Stop Bonobo Bushmeat Hunting in DCR - posting by Tony Rose - 3/98

There may be as many styles of conservation as there are conservationists. As we have seen in the recent interchange between Karl Ammann and Willie Smits, many who work for the welfare of great apes take big risks going where they are not welcome. Whatever Karl and Willie may disagree on regarding conservation of the orangutan, they have in common the fact that they are both willing to be unpopular in some quarters in order to get their work done. As one who is more cautious about such things, I am grateful for their gutsiness. They break new ground.

The evidence on use of gorillas and chimpanzees in the bushmeat trade in west and central Africa has been verified time and again. That is what the Ape Alliance has focused on, in its recent report. But we have a less clear picture of the effects of human predation on the other great apes -- orangutans and bonobos. Ammann's observations in Borneo last summer raised legitimate questions -- the orphans showing up on doorsteps are the tip of an iceberg, of course, so who is out examining the iceberg? Fire, timber cutting, the rice bowl scheme and transmigration, farm expansion and crop protection, hunting for food and sport, and smuggling are all known factors in the destruction of the red apes -- what is being done about each?

With regard to bonobos, the old story that there are no tribal groups that eat apes in bonobo territory has been unraveling. First we heard that local tribes with a tast for chimp meat have moved near bonobo study sites. Then field scientists began to report that bonobo bushmeat was showing up on meat stands. In January Karl Ammann initiated a trip into the center of the bonobo range and invited Belgian bonobo researcher Jef Dupain and Pierre Verhaege, a veterinarian from a Kinshasa-based NGO, to help him investigate the conservation status of the bonobo.

In the million hectare SIFORCO/Danzer timber concession they uncovered seven fresh smoked bonobo carcasses in seven days searching the markets and forest camps. Ammann wrote a report and sent it to the executives of the timber company. On March 2d he met with SIFORCO management at their headquarters in Germany.

Ammann reports that they "agreed to work together to reduce the hunting pressure on bonobo and other wildlife with SIFORCO immediately instructing their field staff to take appropriate action, which will of course have to be independently monitored."

Yes, there is a lot more to be done. And others will need to join the struggle. But we can applaud this direct and forthright move to collaborate. The least know and most endangered of all the great apes, the bonobo, may just slip a few notches back from extinction because a group of concerned individuals went somewhere where they were not invited and the concerned leaders of SIFORCO invited them back.

Ammann also says "there is a wind of change in the corridors of power in Kinshasa and there seems to be a new political will to look afresh at environmental issues, which is in stark contrast with attitudes in neighbouring countries."

We felt that the PT subscribers might be interested to hear some potentially positive news from the bushmeat front, for a change.

You may want to read Ammann's report on bonobo status.

Anthony L. Rose, Ph.D.
Executive Director / The Biosynergy Institute
The Bushmeat Project / P. O. Box 488
Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 USA
Tel: (310) 379-1470 Fax: (310) 379-7042
Project E-mail:
Web Page: http://bushmeat.net/

Ape Alliance Reports on the Bushmeat Crisis - posting by Tony Rose - 2/98

Congratulations to the Ape Alliance leadership and to representatives of concerned organizations for persevering in pursuit of public awareness and political/economic action to curb the commercial bushmeat trade which threatens survival of the apes and scores of other endangered animals in west and central Africa. We know it has been a long road to travel, to come to agreement on how to make this the top priority conservation and animal welfare issue it deserves to be.

Now that the data has been gathered, the crisis confirmed, and the press and public notified, it is important to build on this momentum with serious solutions that will have immediate impact and also with innovative programs that will foster long-term change.

The Ape Alliance has proposed a first thrust directed at the logging companies -- demanding specific improvement of their governance of the vast territories in which they operate. Sending in teams of investigators to monitor compliance with bushmeat hunting and sales laws as part of a timber certification process that alerts the European public to "ecologically safe" wood is one crucial piece of the puzzle. If we "northerners" want to save the apes, we need to clean up our own involvement in the timber extraction that promotes the apes' slaughter and the destruction of their habitat.

Now there is much more to do. Bushmeat auditors need to be recruited, trained, organized, deployed and managed by the EU Forest Stewardship Council. Timber companies need to add wildlife protection & education, bushmeat control, and domestic food provisioning components to their organizations. Government Ministries need to increase their capacities to oversee and manage all aspects of a massive conversion from public reliance on bushmeat commerce to public preference for ecologically sound foods. World Bank and other financial institutions need to support these crucial developments as well as to place wildlife and indigenous people's protection, biodiversity conservation, domestic food production, and ecosystem maintenance and enhancement at the top of their list of criteria for recipients of commercial development loans in equatorial Africa.

In the short term, Bushmeat Education and Control Teams need to be organized to enter select areas where hunting of apes, elephants, and other endangered species occurs, with the goal of motivating hunters and traders to stop shooting and selling protected animals. The greatest immediate gain can come from reaching the men who pull the trigger and the women who sell the meat, helping them to find other livelihood, teaching them about the importance of wildlife and natural ecosystems, telling them that public acceptance of protected species poaching is about to end and that they risk arrest and imprisonment if they continue these illegal practices. This kind of action can have the immediate effect of closing up the most serious channels of illegal bushmeat at their source. If it is done with cultural and personal sensitivity, it can be accomplished with minimal hostility and maximal success.

We believe that to help bushmeat hunters and traders find alternative livelihoods is the key to this success. These are very poor people, most of whom are hardly able to make ends meet and who live at the bottom of a low economic ladder. First they must replace the percent of income that comes from killing endangered animals. Ultimately they need to move into other kinds of work. The most direct shift would be to convert "poachers to protectors". This has been done and documented before, but not often in the context of a bushmeat commerce that provides meat consumed by millions of people.

In fact that commerce can make it easier for hunters and traders to stay in the bushmeat business, serving the market with wildlife that is not yet on protected lists. But to control hunting so that ecosystems are maintained will require many thousands of people now reliant on unsustainable bushmeat hunting to leave the forests and return to their villages and cities with other means of self support. Programs concerned about humane treatment of wildlife and people, given the right talent and funds, can achieve this transformation and keep animal populations and species from extinction.

These kinds of efforts can reduce the *supply* of ape and other illegal meat, and save thousands of chimp, gorilla, and bonobo lives in the next few years. Providing alternative protein sources is one of the recommendations of Ape Alliance that will also work on the supply side of the equation. But at the same time efforts must be made to reduce the *demand* for the flesh of all wildlife.

We believe that public education campaigns are needed that attract the interest of people across the wide expanse of equatorial Africa. These projects also must reflect the remarkable variety of cultures and languages. Most important they must take people "where they are" and demonstrate understanding of the local communities' complex of world views before trying to suggest alternatives.

We hope to help accomplish this by working with African professionals in developing a radio series tentatively called "Bush Radio" that would include music, docu-drama, and discussions of life in the forests, villages and cities. These programs would treat themes such as wildlife and wilderness conservation, environment care and cleanup, health dangers of hunting and butchering bushmeat, preservation of "old cultures" in the face of modern pressures, and the need to revive the synergy between humanity and nature. If we can help make these and other related issues the topics of conversation and concern among leaders and common people of the region, demand for bushmeat will gradually reduce.

When a hunter returns to his thatch hut in the bush and clicks on the battery operated radio to hear about how someone like him has made a new and better life by bringing local school children and public officials into the forest to learn about protected wildlife, then we will know that the tide is turning for the great apes of Africa. That will take years of time, devotion, talent and money from concerned individuals and organizations, working in partnership with the people in those African nations where endangered animals are now on the menu.

Thanks to the Ape Alliance, we may now move forward with the courage of consensus and the united commitment of conservationists and animal welfare professionals around the world.

Anthony L. Rose, Ph.D.
Executive Director / The Biosynergy Institute
The Bushmeat Project / P. O. Box 488
Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 USA
Tel: (310) 379-1470 Fax: (310) 379-7042
Project E-mail:
Web Page: http://bushmeat.net/

PRESS RELEASE - 2-98
THE APE ALLIANCE: EUROPEAN LOGGING COMPANIES FUEL TRADE IN APE MEAT

The great apes of Africa are under renewed threat as a result of an explosion in the bushmeat trade fuelled by the logging practice of European companies, according to a report published today by the Ape Alliance, an unprecedented coalition of leading conservation and animal welfare groups. The report, 'The African Bushmeat Trade - A Recipe for Extinction', reveals the widespread nature of the rampant and largely illegal trade in bushmeat which has now developed into a major commercial activity, threatening the survival of gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees). Many other species are also threatened, including the giant pangolin, forest elephant and dwarf crocodile. The extent of this conservation crisis is exemplified in Congo where 15,000 animal carcasses, including 293 chimpanzees, were counted at bushmeat markets in Brazzaville. One estimate in the north of the country is that up to 600 lowland gorillas are killed each year to feed the trade.

The Ape Alliance is an unprecedented coalition of 34 international organizations and ape specialists taking action to save the great apes, the chimpanzee, gorilla, bonobo and orang-utan. The coalition includes: Born Free Foundation, Bristol Zoo Gardens, Bushmeat Project, Cameroon Wildlife Aid Foundation, Care for the Wild, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Fauna & Flora International, Friends of Conservation, Forest Monitor, Great Ape Project, Howletts & Port Lympne Foundation, International Gorilla Conservation Programme, International Primate Protection League, Jane Goodall Institute, Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, Jonathan Kingdom, Monkey World, Orangutan Foundation, PACE, Primate Society of Great Britain, Primate TAG, Ian Redmond, RSPCA, Tusk Force, Dr Robert Hubrecht of UFAW, World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), World Wide Fund for Nature - UK & International.

For more information, including copies of the report, broadcast quality footage and colour transparencies, please contact: UK: Jonathan Owen, World Society for the Protection of Animals, Tel. 0171 793 0540 Mobile 0467 234689

Press Conference: The Ape Alliance press conference was on 26th February 1998 at The Linnean Society of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1. Speakers included: Jane Goodall, Ian Redmond and Karl Ammann.

"What We Don't Do Matters Most!" - posting by Tony Rose

Shirley McGreal's message re: her Cameroon Visit has sparked some interesting discussion, seemingly tangential but related to the topic of the message itself. The question "what do we spend our primate protection money on" is an important one. There are some who lobby "don't spend it on that, spend it on this." My desire is to "double the funds and spend it on both."

But there is another problem caused by spending money on one thing while people think you are spending it on another. We are lulled into falsely believing that something is being addressed, when it is not. Or that it is being handled thoroughly when it is not. Certainly there is a concern about any organization spending excess on "overhead." In the USA corporate executive salaries have been rising dramatically for years while other incomes have been dropping. But I don't think that applies to Shirley McGreal, who seems to operate very frugally and in fact is one of the people who has raised concerns and talked at length with me about how we "primate people" spend.

But there has been concern expressed about what Shirley and Jane and most other primate protectors and conservationists DON'T spend their hard sought donations on. I think it is a matter of being slow to change course, dealing with the inertia of donors and workers who are comfortable and feel successful supporting and working on the issues they already know and are skilled at treating.

So when we read in Shirley's account about her recent Cameroon trip that she has at last "seen the enemy, and it is the commercial bushmeat business" we should be applauding. A few months ago Shirley published bushmeat photos and information from Karl Ammann and WSPA in the IPPL newsletter -- a forward move.

IPPL has been focused on international traders and sanctuaries for orphan NHPs for a long time, and has been part of the success in dealing with these problems. CITES policy, training, and enforcement seems to be working pretty well now. But in the past 6 to 8 years the tide has turned. The biggest immediate threat to gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and many other vulnerable and endangered primates in Africa is not international smuggling, often not even habitat loss, and not any "pet trade" -- it is the commercial hunting and butchering of great apes and other wildlife for their meat, which is then sold at logging concessions, villages, and urban markets and restaurants for over twice the price of chicken or beef.

I look forward to working with Shirley on these causal problems in Cameroon and across the equatorial forests of Africa. We have talked about the Limbe situation at some length, have similar concerns not only about it becoming a solid sanctuary for apes and other orphans of all ages, but also about assuring that it expand beyond the circumscribed humanitarian issue and become a driving force for the development of humane values towards wildlife in the Western Provence of Cameroon. Now with her letter to P-T it is my hope that everyone who looks to IPPL for direction will begin to grapple with the very tough and pervasive matrix of problems that make up the commercial bushmeat crisis.

Anthony L. Rose, Ph.D.
Executive Director / The Biosynergy Institute
The Bushmeat Project / P. O. Box 488
Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 USA
Tel: (310) 379-1470 Fax: (310) 379-7042
Project E-mail:
Web Page: http://bushmeat.net/

"Put the Pet Trade Fairy Tale to Bed" - posting by Karl Ammann

I am delighted to hear that our friend Shirley McGreal had an opportunity in her trip to Cameroon to witness some of the bushmeat trade. Shirley, I am encouraged to see that you are speaking out about the fact that most of the animals at the Limbe Rescue center "are survivors of the terrible trade in wild animal bushmeat (caused by the) massive ongoing logging onslaught (that) has led to building of roads into deep forests and made possible a commercial trade in wild animals to satisfy the appetites of city-dwellers." That is the finding I presented with WSPA in 1995 to members of the European Parlaiment which produced the first political resolutions about the great ape bushmeat crisis, and it is important that we assert these facts whenever we discuss bushmeat orphans, so that the bigger underlying issue can be addressed in the future.

Since Shirley has stirred some interest in the issue on Primate-Talk, I thought I would join in with some additional information relevant to Shirley's letter and related postings about recent bushmeat news items shown for the first time in the USA.

As some of you know I have been involved for some years briefing Gary Strieker of CNN about critical conservation issues in central Africa. Gary called me about two weeks ago, the day he left for his follow up journey to Gabon where he hopes to interview President Bongo on Bush Meat, Ebola, and Logging. He pointed out that his Cameroon bushmeat piece was shown 5 times on the US domestic network including on the 6 o'clock news which he termed "a first for an African story."

I asked him why he included the comment by the new volunteer at Limbe who stated something like: "Hunters seek out mothers with babies since selling the babies is generally more profitable." Gary is as much aware as I am that this statement is far from the truth. He explained that he wanted to illustrate the naivety of some of the players in the field. For this same reason, Gary included the MINEF deleguee from Bertoua who pointed out that hunters were "aware that killing protected species was illegal" implying that they avoided doing so, only to find a butchered silverback carcass a few kilometers down the road, with the hunter being a school friend of the deleguee. I told Gary that these "naive" reports could be construed as true by "naive" TV viewers -- he seemed to agree that may be we should not underestimate the naivete of the some viewers who may not get the subtle hint.

Of course Gary knows that I have interviewed over two hundred commercial hunters. Almost all of them shoot whatever brings a profit at the meat market, and not a single one ever confirmed this false story of their "main motive being baby apes". None of them ever talked about killing several family members to get their hands on youngsters. This is a myth which, in the interest of the cause, should once and for all be put into the fairy tale category.

The hunter looks for the biggest piece of protein -- with gorillas and chimps this is generally males. If a female ends up presenting an easier target then he will shoot the female. With the gorillas the silverbacks generally charge and get killed first. Most chimps are hunted with the 00 cartridge (production of the chevrotine has now been stopped), which has 72 lead balls with a 90% percent probability that any youngster hanging on gets killed or injured as well.

If there were a demand for a baby from the "pet trade", pretty much any villager living in the rain forest region of Cameroon knows where he can find one tied to a tree somewhere in his or a nearby village. These are all bush meat babies, mere byproducts of the bush meat trade and not the reason the hunter is out there killing primates. The prices for a live orphan or a corresponding piece of adult ape meat are not very different. Of course when a Westerner comes along and asks for an orphan ape things change - the same happens if the westerner asks for a gorilla carcass, or a chimp hand. He will be quoted a different price than a local buyer. But not that different, and anyone who bargains well can get the bid down to the cost of the meat.

During the Bertoua Bush Meat conference MINEF officials estimated that there are 200 illegally held chimps in Cameroon alone. The situation in other Central African countries like Zaire, Congo, Gabon and the CAR are not very different when it comes to the level of commercialization of the bushmeat trade.

As for the sanctuaries. MMe Jamart in the Congo considers hers full and she no longer accepts confiscated chimps. The same goes for the JGI sanctuary in the Congo. The Sweetwaters sanctuary in Kenya which took in the Burundi JGI chimps is also considered full. The Siddles in Zambia, who have over 50 chimps already, are the only ones who still regularly accept new chimps. Limbe only accepts chimps which come with their own pension fund, which generally does not include the worst cases. ( They seem to have no problems taking in gorilla orphans, which I consider to be somewhat of a "collectors" approach and mentality. But perhaps it relates to the fact that gorilla babies loose the will to live faster than chimps, if not cared for properly.)

This means that today there are probably more orphaned chimps in Africa than any time before, and less sanctuary spaces than when the Siddles started taking in orphan apes in 1983.

Sanctuaries in my view are mere mopping up exercises. They are a solution for very few animals and they do not directly address the causal issues. They make us feel better, but then most of us have not been confronted by the hundreds of non-sanctuary orphans that I have encounterd on my travels. Most of them make me feel worse, and they far outnumber the apes in sanctuaries. I am all for sanctuaries on humanitarian grounds and to educate the urban middle class which are the captive audience for the bush meat traders. However that requires that specific education programs be associated with these programs as primary elements, not after-thoughts.

While this could be part of addressing the more fundamental problem of changing the people's values in the very long term, now and in the next five to ten years we must put our foremost efforts on the ground to address the increasing commercialization of the bush meat trade. I'm sorry to say this, but to do this will be a lot harder than it is for some volunteers to accept a few cute orphans and stick them in some cages. (This is essentially what happens at Limbe which at this stage is the only African sanctuary which is not geared to deal with the animals it accepts once they become adults.)

At present I know of only one single grass roots program which addresses the bush meat issue head on and that is the Cane Rat Breeding Program in Gabon which is sponsored by ECOFAC and Veterinaires sans Frontiers. There is a long way to go still and I would have thought the first step for any sanctuary project would be to take Tony's advice and raise and spend at least one dollar on the bushmeat issue for every dollar which is spent on the orphans. That kind of programming in my opinion will lift these sanctuary set ups to be more than just the mopping up exercises they are at the moment.

This is why I am so pleased to read Shirley's first hand report. Having had some exposure on the bush meat front, we now expect that Shirley and the other IPPL people will be joining us in developing and funding some "in-the-bush" Primate Protection efforts which should go beyond the cages and enclosures at Limbe. If we want to stop the bush meat babies from becoming an ever increasing tragedy, we need in the first instance to stop the commercial hunting and eating of apes.

Karl Ammann, P.O.Box 437, Nanyui,
c/o Mt. Kenya Game Ranch (Physical Address),
Tel. 254 176 22448, FAX. 254 176 32407
or Nairobi 254 2 750035,
E-Mail:

"Is Eating Apes 98% Cannibalism?" - posting by Tony Rose

There is an interesting review of human cannibalism with theory about it's evolutionary patterns and information on the problems with kuru and other diseases in --

Wm. H. Durham, Co-Evolution: Genes, Culture and Human Diversity, Pp. 361 to 418, Stanford University Press, 1991.

The chapter references findings in New Guinea but treats parameters and hypotheses that are likely applicable and testable anywhere.

As to current practice, it appears to be relatively small time and quite hidden, given the taboo spread. Recent news items from CAR at the death of the old President who had been purported to "eat his enemies" revived the question about its continuation in parts of those territories.

We are looking for links of the cannibal phenomenon with the increased eating of apes as part of the bushmeat trade in equatorial Africa -- wondering in which circumstances and to what degree the gorilla and chimp may be considered a "surrogate human" -- a kind of stand-in for a recently taboo ritual food. Findings of Ammann, Hennessey, and others so far suggest that most of the ape meat is eaten simply as a prefered food with only slight regard for the hominoid connection.

Kano & Asato (1994) report that over 70% of the people in Motaba River Valley, Northeastern Congo are willing to eat ape meat and roughly 35% do. Aka and Bantu are similarly OK with eating gorilla. Most Aka eat chimp, but of the 50% of Bantus who reject chimp, many say the "human features of the apes disgust them". This suggests that the cannibalism taboo generalizes to chimps in this territory. We are interested in spreading the taboo further, and to gorillas as well, by educating the people re: our hominiod family connection. This is also urgent in Zaire where Kano has found "hunting bonobos (pan paniscus) for meat prevails over the forested area south of the Zaire River." Kano & Asato (1994) suggests that the strict taboo against bonobo eating among the Ngandu is somewhat helpful to conservation efforts in their forests. But with no such strict taboo in areas like northeast Congo, the situation is more difficult.

Kano, T. and Asato, R. (1994). "Hunting pressure on chimpanzees and gorillas in the Motaba River area, Northeastern Congo", African Study Monographs, 15 (3): 143-162, November.

It is important to note that Kano & Asato's study assesses this *non-commercial* great ape poaching against ape census data and finds it *not sustainable*. Our conclusion is that the use of European technology (guns, bullets) has transformed the traditional proclivity for eating apes into a non-traditional nonsustainable practice. This suggests that gun control is a critical element in the protection of chimps and gorillas in these territories, and of course doubly important in commercial hunting situations. Obviously spreading the taboo against eating apes is another crucial element.

There has been concern expressed by African informants that asserting the cannibal-connection could backfire -- "some people may want to eat apes for this reason!" Kano and Wasato (1994) report nothing on that side of the continuum -- eating chimps "because they are human-like". Chances are it exists, but is not "spoken freely" in Congo or anywhere in recent times. In fact the practice and the topic are taboo in many quarters. We feel we cannot deal with a crisis without naming it.

So Flavio and friends, we too are collecting works on cannibalism (as related to great ape eating) and would like any relevant anecdotes or references to studies anywhere in time and place. We will be including our analysis of this material in future journal articles and a book, so you can say you "saw it first on P-T".

Anthony L. Rose, Ph.D.
Executive Director / The Biosynergy Institute / Bushmeat Project
P. O. Box 488, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
E-mail:
Webpage: http://bushmeat.net/