Wildlife Depletion in a West African Farm-Forest Mosaic and the Implications for Hunting Across the Landscape |
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Authors: | Björn Schulte-Herbrüggen J. Marcus Rowcliffe Katherine Homewood Laura A. Kurpiers Charlotte Whitham Guy Cowlishaw |
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Affiliation: | 1. Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park, London, NW1 4RY, UK 2. Department of Anthropology, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK 3. Division of Biology, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Manor House Buckhurst Road, Ascot, SL5 7PY, UK 4. College of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, 35 Tsinghua-East Road, Beijing, 100083, China
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Abstract: | Unsustainable hunting is a threat to conservation and rural livelihoods that depend on bushmeat for food and income. To reduce the pressure on forest-dependent vulnerable species, hunting in farmland might complement offtake from forests and provide a sustainable source of bushmeat. To explore this possibility, we investigated patterns of hunting and wildlife depletion, and integration of hunting into agricultural livelihoods, in an intensively managed farm-forest mosaic landscape. Surveys were conducted across 63 households over a year in a Ghanaian cocoa-farming community surrounded by a timber production forest. The findings indicated a high level of wildlife depletion in the landscape and the local extinction of the largest species, especially in farmland. Most hunting occurred in forests and offtake from farmland was low, yet hunting in farmland was disproportionately common relative to its coverage in the landscape. Most farmland hunting was opportunistic and integrated with agricultural activities. Our findings suggest that intensively used farmland provides little opportunity to reduce hunting pressure in forests. |
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