Publication Date:
2004-11-13
Description:
The multibillion-dollar trade in bushmeat is among the most immediate threats to the persistence of tropical vertebrates, but our understanding of its underlying drivers and effects on human welfare is limited by a lack of empirical data. We used 30 years of data from Ghana to link mammal declines to the bushmeat trade and to spatial and temporal changes in the availability of fish. We show that years of poor fish supply coincided with increased hunting in nature reserves and sharp declines in biomass of 41 wildlife species. Local market data provide evidence of a direct link between fish supply and subsequent bushmeat demand in villages and show bushmeat's role as a dietary staple in the region. Our results emphasize the urgent need to develop cheap protein alternatives to bushmeat and to improve fisheries management by foreign and domestic fleets to avert extinctions of tropical wildlife.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Brashares, Justin S -- Arcese, Peter -- Sam, Moses K -- Coppolillo, Peter B -- Sinclair, A R E -- Balmford, Andrew -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2004 Nov 12;306(5699):1180-3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Conservation Biology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. brashares@nature.berkeley.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15539602" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Agriculture
;
Animals
;
*Animals, Wild
;
Biodiversity
;
Biomass
;
Commerce
;
Conservation of Natural Resources
;
Fisheries
;
*Fishes
;
*Food Supply
;
Ghana
;
Humans
;
*Mammals
;
*Meat
;
Population Density
;
Population Dynamics
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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