May 2021 Why Eat Wild Meat? Local food choices, food security and desired design features of wild meat alternative projects in Cameroon Author information Stephanie Brittain is a postdoctoral researcher in the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science (ICCS) at the University of Oxford. [email protected] About the project For more information about the Why Eat Wild Meat? project, visit www.iied.org/why-eat-wild-meat Acknowledgements With thanks to colleagues from the Why Eat Wild Meat? project for their inputs, including Mama Mouamfon (FCTV), Cédric Thibaut Kamogne Tagne (FCTV), E J Milner-Gulland (ICCS), Francesca Booker (IIED), Dilys Roe (IIED), and Neil Maddison (The Conservation Foundation). IIED is a policy and action research organisation. We promote sustainable development to improve livelihoods and protect the environments on which these livelihoods are built. We specialise in linking local priorities to global challenges. IIED is based in London and works in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and the Pacific, with some of the world’s most vulnerable people. We work with them to strengthen their voice in the decision- making arenas that affect them — from village councils to international conventions. Published by IIED, May 2021 http://pubs.iied.org/20176IIED Citation: Brittain S (2021) Why Eat Wild Meat? Local food choices, food security and desired design features of wild meat alternative projects in Cameroon. Project Report. IIED, London All graphics were created for this report. International Institute for Environment and Development 235 High Holborn, London WC1V 7LE Tel: +44 (0)20 3463 7399 Fax: +44 (0)20 3514 9055 www.iied.org @iied www.facebook.com/theIIED Download more publications at http://pubs.iied.org IIED publications may be shared and republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Under the terms of this licence, anyone can copy, distribute and display the material, providing that they credit the original source and don’t use it for commercial purposes or make derivatives. Different licences may apply to some illustrative elements, in which instance the licence will be displayed alongside. IIED is happy to discuss any aspect of further usage. Get more information via www.iied. org/Creative-Commons IIED is a charity registered in England, Charity No.800066 and in Scotland, OSCR Reg No.SC039864 and a company limited by guarantee registered in England No.2188452. PROJECT REPORT, WHY EAT WILD MEAT? MAY 2021 Summary This project report summarises research conducted in four villages around the Dja Faunal Reserve in south-eastern Cameroon. The research aimed to understand local food preferences and the importance of wild meat for food security and explore which kind of wild meat-alternative projects could result in the greatest reduction in household hunting and consumption of wild meat. Differences in the drivers and prevalence of wild meat consumption between individuals, households, and between villages, were investigated using semi-structured interviews. Several hypothetical approaches to designing future wild meat alternative projects were explored using scenario-based interviews. The report outlines our methods and results in detail. We found that younger people consumed wild meat more often than older people. Taste, ease of access and health were the key drivers of species preference, while taste, health, tradition and in some cases, appearance, were the key reasons for species avoidance. The species that people prefer to eat are generally, but not always, abundant and non-protected. In this particular area, household-level alternative projects were preferred, but initiatives may also want to target hunters and younger people, who eat and hunt wild meat more regularly in this area. Overall, alternatives should be viewed by their recipients as providing equal or greater benefits for less effort than hunting, if uptake of these alternatives is to be sustainable. PROJECT REPORT, WHY EAT WILD MEAT? MAY 2021 Contents 1. Introduction 2 2. Study site 3 3. Overview of research methods and analysis 5 3.1 Data collection 5 3.2 Data analysis 9 3.3 Ethics 11 4. Results 12 4.1 Exploring the importance of wild meat for local food security 12 4.2 Food preferences and drivers of preference 16 4.3 Understanding locally-desired design features of wild meat-alternative projects 28 5. Discussion and wider context 32 5.1 Key drivers of wild meat consumption and avoidance 32 5.2 Individual-level differences in drivers of consumption 34 5.3 Village-level differences in avoidance and consumption 35 5.4 Implications for wild meat alternatives in the Dja Faunal Reserve 35 Bibliography 37 Appendices 40 Appendix 1: The IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria 40 Appendix 2: Full list of preferred and avoided species 41 Appendix 3: The saliency of species cited as ‘avoided’ 45 www.iied.org 1 PROJECT REPORT, WHY EAT WILD MEAT? MAY 2021 1. Introduction The ‘Why Eat Wild Meat’ project was established to explore the complex drivers of wild meat preference and consumption, and the barriers to effective and sustained engagement of wild-meat consumers in alternative projects (Box 1). Funded by the Darwin Initiative, the project is a collaboration between the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science (ICCS) at the University of Oxford, The Conservation Foundation (formerly the Living Earth Foundation) and the Fondation Camerounaise de la Terre Vivante (FCTV). In making recommendations to project implementers and policy makers, the project aims to improve the design - and hence effectiveness - of wild meat-alternative interventions, thus reducing current levels of exploitation that are threatening both species populations and long-term local food security and nutrition. The primary objectives of the initial project research were to: 1) Identify local people’s food choices and drivers to consume wild meat, (2) Explore the importance of wild meat for local food security, and (3) Understand locally-desired design features of wild meat-alternative projects Box 1: Definition of protein alternatives used in this study We focus on alternatives for wild meat consumption in rural settings, such as wild meat from sustainable sources (sustainable hunting or domestication of wild animals) or the provision of other sources of protein that are considered substitutes by wild meat consumers (CIFOR/CBD 2011). While we do not focus on livelihood alternatives, which seek to provide other sources of income that reduce wildlife trade and reduce pressure on natural resources, we do explore if producing enough alternatives wild meat, so as to be able to sell for additional income, affects household hunting and consumption rates. www.iied.org 2 PROJECT REPORT, WHY EAT WILD MEAT? MAY 2021 2. Study site The Dja Faunal Reserve (DFR) is a World Heritage Site lowland rainforest in south-eastern Cameroon. Encompassing 5260km2 and surrounded on three sides by the Dja River, the DFR is noted for its rich biodiversity (Betti, 2004). The DFR is home to 107 mammal species, five of which are threatened (UNESCO, 2015), including the endangered forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), the critically endangered western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and endangered central African chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes troglodytes). See Appendix 1 for an overview of the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. Research was conducted in four small to medium sized villages situated around the periphery of the DFR (Figure 1). Village names and locations are not recorded to ensure anonymity at the community level (St John et al., 2016): • Village 1 is the most remote village, located 5km from the periphery of the DFR and only accessible by logging road since 2015. No past or present wild meat alternative projects have taken place within this village, although previous research in the village by the field team showed that residents wish to harness the potential of the new logging road for sustainable development. • Village 2 is the largest of the villages and the most accessible, situated along the length of a road which provides access to market towns of Abong-Mbang, Mindourou and Lomie. It is comprised of three smaller settlements which here we treat as one. In 2019, a community hunting zone was established. However, administrative delays with the development of a management plan mean that people in the neighbouring communities cannot yet benefit from this CHZ. • Villages 3 and 4 are situated on the northern periphery of DFR, approximately 70-80km and 50- 60km from Somalomo, where the Ministry of Forests and Fauna (MINFOF) who are responsible for the management for the DFR, are based. Their presence is well-known by people living along the northern periphery. Residents of both villages are currently actively involved in wild meat and livelihood alternative projects. www.iied.org 3 PROJECT REPORT, WHY EAT WILD MEAT? MAY 2021 Figure 1: Map showing the location of the DFR in Cameroon, and the approximate location of the 4 villages in relation to the reserve. Village 1= no past or present interventions, village 2= Developing community hunting zone (CHZ), villages 3 and 4= currently involved in wild meat alternative projects. www.iied.org 4 PROJECT REPORT, WHY EAT WILD MEAT? MAY 2021 3. Overview of research methods and analysis In a recent review of the current literature on the drivers and barriers to wild meat consumption, Booker (2019) identified a limited number of studies that take an in-depth look at a wide variety of factors determining wild meat preferences, and inter-village and inter-personal differences. As such, we explored wild meat preferences, drivers of current preference, and responses to hypothetical wild meat alternative project scenarios, employing a comparative case study survey design to explore inter-village and inter-personal differences. Differences in the drivers and prevalence of wild meat consumption between individuals (e.g.