THINKING beyond the canopy

Towards sustainable bushmeat procurement to improve food and income security in Amazonia

Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez, Pablo Puertas, Medardo Miranda-Ruiz and Ian Cummins

THINKING beyond the canopy

The study focuses on

• To understand hunting as source of food and income and its impact on game population dynamics at the household and landscape scale

• To develop spatio-temporal and scale independent approaches to understand the distribution of bushmeat in relation to people both in space and time

• To identify, record and disseminate sustainable bushmeat harvesting, management and control

• To develop a monitoring system based on household utility and the role of bushmeat in providing food and income security

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INPE 2010 3

Location of the study areas in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon

Napo Province dominated by mosaic landscape and high road density

Napo Province has the highest population density in the Ecuadorian Amazon

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x

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Gutierrez-Velez et al 2011 4

Ucayali Region has high density of roads and population

34.9%24.7%

65.1%75.3%

20071993

URBAN

RURAL

Women and children provide better information by phone (N=20 in Peru and N=42 in Ecuador)

Information reported:

• Who hunted (women, men or children)

• Where did he or she hunted (Protected or indigenous lands) or (fallows, forest patches, fields and house garden)

• How did she or he hunted (gun or trap)

• How do households and communities control access to hunting grounds and determine the number of hunting expeditions

• Species, sex and weight

• Amount sold and consumed, buyers and prices as well as if were sold fresh or smoked

• Analysis data on species offtake and hunter effort (behavior) as well as size of hunting grounds and presence of game attractor species to determine whether harvest is unsustainable or unsustainable

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Representative photographs per habitat(a) forest and fallow habitat

b) House garden and field habitat

Small streams are managed for

hunting grounds

Average hunting expeditions per month conducted by women, men and children (N=420 in Ecuador and N= 360 in Peru)

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2

4

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16

18

Women Men Children

Ecuador

Peru

In Ecuador (N= 420)

Protected areas

Mosaic landscapes

In Peru (N=360)

Protected areas

Mosaic landscapes

The majority of women build traps

near game attractors trees

Trap and gun hunting by men and women in Ecuador and Peru

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50

100

150

200

250

300

350

Ecuador Peru

gun

trap

Women prepared meat that is sold and consumed

Men tend to sell all the catch to acopiadores

Fresh bushmeat usually is more expensive than smoked

Bushmeat dishes are mainly offered by restaurants in Pucallpa

THINKING beyond the canopy

Bushmeat and smallholder’s land use system

• A large fraction of the bushmeat that is sold and consumed in Amazonia is harvested from production landscapes.

• The majority of large-bodied game species are hunted in protected areas while the majority of small-bodied games species are hunted in forest patches, fallows, house gardens and agriculture fields

• Forest hunting is mainly unsustainable while garden hunting is mainly sustainable

• Production landscapes contain equally or in some cases higher habitat heterogeneity than forests

• The chacra system includes techniques for the establishment and management of hunting grounds and game attractor species

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• The majority of urban Amazonians own lands in rural areas and have strong connection with rural people

• Most lands for oil palm cultivation are in mosaic landscape where forest and fallow fragments are reservoirs of biodiversity as well as providers of multiple socio-ecological services and goods

• Global demand for oil palm and other commodities is increasing the demand for lands in Amazonia

THINKING beyond the canopy

Recommendations• Ecosystem services: Key biodiversity that regulate bio-ecological processes

are lost that is leading to the propagation of pests such as rats and poison snakes such as fret de lance. Keeping forest and fallow fragments in the landscape should help to control rat and snake infestation in oil palm plantations

• Food security and sovereignty: Conversion of forests and fallows into oil palm plantations eliminate game species that are important source of protein and income for women and children. To protect women’s food, land where farmers could plant their crop, mange game and other products in fallow and forests should be protected. Local farmers have developed the vuelito system (small plots) to produce, manage and collect forest resources).

• Functional diversity: The lost of forest and fallow vegetation is leading to the decline in the abundance and diversity insectivore and raptors birds favoring the explosion of pests such as beetles and rats. Leaving forest belts at the edge of plantations should help to maintain insectivores and raptors for pest management in oil palm plantations.

• Habitat diversity and landscape connectivity: The removal of riparian vegetation along streams is eliminating the local populations of large rodents such as agouties and pacas. Local people consider both species as the main predators of poison snakes. Building and preserving bio-environmental corridors along streams and swamp areas should help to maintain healthy populations of agouties, pacas and other predators of snakes, rats and other pests.