TANZANIAN conservationists have said that there is alarming proof that Tanzania’s wildlife populations could be wiped out in the near future as a result of overhunting for bushmeat
Apart from the widely reported elephant
and rhino poaching incidents, conservationists now warn that there is a
much bigger but under-reported crisis involving the poaching of other
wildlife animals such as impalas, wildebeest and zebras for bushmeat.
They estimate that up to 50 per cent of
Tanzania’s total wildlife population has already been decimated for
bushmeat, which apart from being consumed locally is also reportedly
exported to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), war-torn
Somalia, Burundi, Sudan and other neighbouring countries.
A recent study by co-authors Silvia
Ceppi and Martin Nielson revealed that there was regular bushmeat
consumption by a large proportion of Tanzania’s tribal populations.
The 2014 research titled “A comparative
study on bushmeat consumption patterns in ten tribes in Tanzania” warns
that some native species are at risk of becoming endangered, or even
going extinct, as a result of over-hunting due to the prevalence of
bushmeat consumption in the country.
“Many tribes in the country believe that wild meat is healthier than domestic meat, increasing the demand for bushmeat.
It has been estimated that between
40,000 and 200,000 animals are illegally harvested each year in the
Serengeti ecosystem,” said part of the study.
“Extrapolating from these estimates ...
suggests that the value of the bushmeat trade originating in Serengeti
is between 1 and 5m/- US dollars per year,” according to the study.
With growing demand from the increasing
human population in surrounding communities, these numbers are likely to
be higher today, said the study. The study showed that antelope was the
most frequently mentioned type of bushmeat consumed in Tanzania,
followed by dikdik, duikers, hare and guinea fowl.
Pratik Patel, a leading Tanzanian
conservationist who works with the Friedkin Conservation Fund, confirmed
that there was a bushmeat crisis in the country.
Maj. General Gaudence Milanzi, the
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism,
said that research conducted by his own ministry had established that
the majority of the people who hunt wild animals do so for bushmeat and
not for any other reason.
He admitted that the malpractice was
there, but not to the extent of 50 per cent of animals being killed as
claimed by conservationists.
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