Part VIII Bushmeat: A Socioecological Problem. The Overexploitation of Wildlife for Nutritional and Traditional Purposes. World Animal Trade, Extinction Risk and Socio-economic Issues

This part examines some extremely important issues regarding wildlife exploita- tion, especially that of mammals and birds, although the phenomenon does include other animal taxa . For the purposes of this book, it, of course, focuses more specifi - cally on warm-blooded vertebrates. Bushmeat, or trade in the meat of wildlife, is extremely widespread in West and Central Africa, as well as in other areas of the world such as tropical Asia and South America, albeit to a lesser extent (Nasi et al. 2008 ). The main reason behind the trade in bushmeat is to augment the protein requirements of many agro-forest- pastoral populations with low living standards (Nasi et al. 2008 ). However, reasons also exist that are related to superstitions, local religions and traditional medicines. There are many problems related to this phenomenon, from the severe impact on many species that are at risk of extinction (Nasi et al. 2008) to the serious health problems caused by the spread of serious animal diseases and epidemics (Karesh and Noble 2009 ). Regarding the aforementioned, the fi rst part provides a complete review of the issues related to the transmission of diseases and zoonoses linked to the ‘bushmeat’ phenomenon (Kurpiers et al. 2016 ), from which important information may be gleaned. The second chapter (Sollund 2016 ) discusses the immense problem of the world wildlife trade, much of which is illegal (Rosen and Smith 2010 ). This trade, which is certainly one of the most lucrative in the world (secondary only to drug and weap- ons traffi cking), has, as one can easily imagine, an absolutely devastating impact on rare species and species in danger of extinction (Rosen and Smith 2010 ). In fact, many species have already become extremely rare or almost extinct due to this busi- ness (e.g. Yi-Ming et al. 2000). Sollund’s ( 2016) chapter is a case in point for the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) and provides the example of Norway, which is address- ing the legal and practical aspects of countering the sale of objects of animal origin, such as ivory objects sold in web auctions, which are popular all over the world and frequently attended by thousands of collectors and dealers. 506 Part VIII Bushmeat: A Socioecological Problem. The Overexploitation of Wildlife...

References

Karesh WB, Noble E (2009) The bushmeat trade: increased opportunities for transmission of zoo- notic disease. Mt Sinai J Med 76:429–434 Kurpiers LA, Schulte-Herbrüggen B, Ejotre I, Reeder DAM (2016) Bushmeat and emerging infec- tious diseases—lessons from Africa. In: Angelici FM (ed) Problematic Wildlife- A cross- disciplinary approach. Springer, New York, p 507–551 Nasi R, Brown,D, Wilkie D, Bennett E, Tutin C, van Tol G, Christophersen T (2008) Conservation and use of wildlife-based resources: the bushmeat crisis. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal, and Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor. Technical Series 33, pp 1–50 Rosen GE, Smith KF (2010) Summarizing the evidence on the international trade in illegal wild- life. Ecohealth 7:24–32 Sollund R (2016) Wildlife traffi cking in a globalized world: an example of motivations and modus operandi from a Norwegian case study. In: Angelici FM (ed) Problematic wildlife—a cross- disciplinary approach. Springer, New York, p 553–570 Yi-Ming L, Zenxiang G, Xinhai L, Sung W, Niemelä J (2000) Illegal wildlife trade in the Himalayan region of China. Biodivers Conserv 9:901–918