For people in West and Central Africa, eating just one kind of bush meat might be compared to dining on roast turkey night after night in the United

As I explained in a post here on Tuesday afternoon, recent studies of bush meat consumption in Africa offer insights into potential ways of protecting threatened and endangered species.

Dr. Fa, the chief conservation officer for Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust on the Channel Island of Jersey, suggests that taste preferences could be critical to devising those strategies. In Africa, the rarity of a species does not necessarily confer gourmet or prestige status on its meat; it’s the taste and the affordability that matter most. So even though Africans like bush meat, providing tasty alternatives like frozen fish or chicken could easily alleviate pressure on threatened animals, Dr. Fa said.

“People like bush meat simply because they have been consuming that sort of meat for millennia now,” he said. “However, if given the choice of cheaper meats, they’ll go for the cheaper stuff.”

Bush meat markets and trade stations appear in practically every town and village in many parts of Africa. Preferred or rare products may fetch higher prices. For a study published in Conservation Biology, Dr. Fa and his colleagues surveyed 87 market and trading sites over a two-year period near the border between Cameroon and Nigeria.

Despite high rates of deforestation in the area, divided by the Cross and Sangha Rivers, expanses of tropical primary forest remain intact, and the jungles shelter populations of chimpanzees, forest elephants and lowland gorillas. Pressure on wildlife tends to be heavier on the Nigerian side of the border because of demand from more populous urban centers, although hunters will readily cross over to either side while pursuing their prey.

The researchers observed 61,267 transactions involving whole carcasses of animals ranging from birds to bats, monkeys to manatees. “Bush meat refers to anything from land snails to elephants,” Dr. Fa said. “Anything that moves in the forest and can be eaten is bush meat, but within bush meat there are differences in taste and preference,” he said.

To test whether people prefer purchasing certain types of meat to others, the researchers recorded the price, size, species and condition of all of the bush meat they encountered. Nearly all animals were already dead when sold. Even in humid, tropical conditions, smoking carcasses can ensure that an animal product will keep for months and not rot on its way to market.

Mammals made up about 90 percent of the animals found at urban and rural markets in both counties. Rodents like cane rats and ungulates like forest antelope accounted for about half the mammal catch, though there were some differences between the rural and urban markets. More carnivores were sold in rural markets, and more primates were found in urban ones.

Prices at urban markets were higher in both countries. As a whole, an animal’s size rather than its rarity or type determined its price. For example, when size is taken into account, the cost of most primate meat is comparable to that of rodents.

There were a few exceptions. Pouched rats were consistently cheaper than the researchers expected based on their body mass, whereas chimpanzees were more expensive. At around $5 per pound, the servaline genet, a type of small carnivore, was the most expensive species for sale at both urban and rural markets.

Endangered and protected gorillas, chimpanzees and elephants occasionally turned up at markets. The critically endangered red colobus monkey, a species that mostly exists only in isolated populations in national parks, also made an appearance on the trading table.

The spillover between hunting in Nigeria and Cameroon and the similar market results underline the importance of taking a broad approach to addressing conservation problems rather them tackling them country by country.

“We keep on looking at the whole bush meat situation as if it were something outside the domains of governments within these regions,” Dr. Fa said. Even as conservationists urge governments to play a larger role in protecting endangered species, looking out for their citizens’ needs makes a big difference. Bush meat is an important source of protein.

Large protected areas line the river border between Nigeria and Cameroon, but poachers regularly penetrate those understaffed preserves. Legislation aimed at minimizing hunting of endangered species could be somewhat effective, Dr. Fa said. For example, levying a small fine for possessing primates’ parts could be enough to dissuade people from hunting them, he said.

The researchers found that the amount of bush meat traded per person was lowest in urban centers, an indication that people are opting for cheaper alternatives like frozen fish and chicken when they are available. Promoting protein alternatives in Nigeria and Cameroon could improve the situation for rare species.

Solutions developed in one country could be applied to others. As more and more scientific studies on bush meat are published, Dr. Fa said, resources should be pooled with the goal of addressing the big picture.

“We’re a bit like Nero, playing the fiddle while Rome burns,” he said. “We’re perhaps playing too much the academic fiddle, but we need to make sure to change things on the ground.”

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t hunt anything,” he added. “I’m saying that some species are incredibly valuable and the commercial trade is going to finish them, and we must do something about it.”

States. People may enjoy eating it on Thanksgiving and Christmas, notes the conservationist John Fa, “but it’s not something I want to eat every single day of my life.”

(Source: www.nytimes.com )