Role of Prices and Wealth in Consumer Demand for Bushmeat in Gabon, Central Africa

Abstract

Unsustainable hunting of wildlife for food is often a more immediate and significant threat to the conservation of biological diversity in tropical forests than deforestation. Why people eat wildlife is debated. Some may eat bushmeat because they can afford it; others may eat it because it is familiar, traditional, confers prestige, tastes good, or adds variety. We completed a survey of 1208 rural and urban households in Gabon, Africa, in 2002 to estimate the effect of wealth and prices on the consumption of wildlife and other sources of animal protein. Consumption of bushmeat, fish, chicken, and livestock increased with increasing household wealth, and as the price of these commodities rose, consumption declined. Although the prices of substitutes for bushmeat did not significantly, in statistical terms, influence bushmeat consumption, as the price of wildlife increased and its consumption fell, the consumption of fish rose, indicating that fish and bushmeat were dietary substitutes. Our results suggest that policy makers can use economic levers such as taxation or supply reduction through better law enforcement to change demand for wildlife. These measures will help to regulate unsustainable exploitation and reduce the risk of irreversible loss of large-bodied and slow-reproducing wildlife species. If policy makers focus solely on reducing the unsustainable consumption of wildlife, they may see adverse impacts on the exploitation of fish. Furthermore, policy makers must ensure that raising household wealth through development assistance does not result in undesirable impacts on the conservation status of wildlife and fish.Resumen: La cacería no sustentable de vida silvestre como alimento a menudo es una amenaza más inmediata y significativa para la conservación de la diversidad biológica en bosques tropicales que la deforestación. La razón por la que la gente come carne silvestre está debatida. Algunos pueden consumir carne silvestre porque la pueden pagar, otros la pueden comer porque es familiar, tradicional, confiere prestigio, tiene buen sabor o agrega variedad. Realizamos un muestreo en 1208 casas rurales y urbanas en Gabón en 2002Gabón en -2003 para estimar el efecto de la riqueza y los precios sobre el consumo de carne silvestre y otras fuentes de proteína animal. El consumo de carne silvestre, pescado, pollo y res incrementó a mayor riqueza de la casa, y a medida que aumentó el precio de estos productos disminuyó su consumo. Aunque los precios de sustitutos de carne silvestre no influyeron, en términos estadísticos, en el consumo de carne silvestre, a medida que aumentó el precio de vida silvestre y disminuyó su consumo, el consumo de pescado aumentó, lo que indica que le pescado y la carne silvestre eran dietas sustitutas. Nuestros resultados sugieren que los políticos pueden utilizar palan- Wilkie et al. Income, Prices, and Bushmeat Demand 269 cas económicas como impuestos o reducción del abasto mediante mejor aplicación de la ley para cambiar la demanda de carne silvestre y así regular la exp...

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“…Once people can afford modern arms, the use of bushmeat may well decline with increasing income, as in Latin America (Wilkie and Godoy 2001) and Equatorial Guinea (Albrechtsen et al 2006). However, where bushmeat conveys status or is preferred for taste or other cultural reasons, its consumption will rise steadily with income, as in Gabon (Wilkie et al 2005) and even elsewhere in Equatorial Guinea (Fa et al 2009). In the largest regional study in Africa, bushmeat consumption increases with wealth in urban areas and declines with wealth in rural areas .…”