European Lawmakers Support Ban Bushmeat Petition

STRASBOURG, France, January 16, 2004 (ENS) - A petition signed by 1.9 million people asking the European Parliament to conserve the great apes and other endangered species by discouraging the trade in bushmeat has met with a positive response. On Wednesday, parliament resolved to write an EU bushmeat strategy aimed at conserving biodiversity and protecting species threatened by the trade in wild animal foods.

The petition is part of a campaign by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) in association with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). They warn that the slaughter of wild animals for sale in urban areas threatens the existence of whole species, weakens food security for forest peoples, and poses a threat to human health from animal derived diseases.

Parliament heeded the warning, saying that legal deterrents and penalties should be envisioned to put an end to this illegal trade for reasons of public health, public safety and protection of endangered species.

The petition draws attention to the trade in bushmeat which is carried on mainly in Africa but is also on the increase in Asia and Latin America, affecting more and more animal species on a vast scale - 23,500 metric tons of bushmeat a year in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, up to 67,000 tons in Amazonia, and up to five million tons in the Congo basin.

Highly endangered species, such as gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees, make up only a small fraction of the trade, but they are slow breeders and cannot withstand even very low levels of hunting, say the petitioning organizations.

Chimpanzees have recently been shown to share 99.4 percent of their genes with humans, but regardless, chimpanzee numbers are down from maybe two million a century ago to just 150,000 today, IFAW says. There may be as few as 50,000 bonobos pygmy chimpanzees left.

Villagers selling bushmeat at the roadside, Croos River State, Cameroon. (Photo © WWF-Canon/Sandra Mbanefo Obiago)

Irish MEP, Proinsias De Rossa, who drafted the Petitions Committee Report and Resolution said that "this report has been drawn up in response to a petition which was signed by 1.9 million citizens of the European Union - a major demonstration of participative democracy."

"The level of hunting of bushmeat, primarily in Africa, is seriously endangering the livelihoods of many communities who rely of wild animal meat as a key element of their diet," he said.

The recent explosion in unsustainable hunting for the commercial bushmeat trade, fueled by the activities of the logging industry, is threatening the very existence of whole populations of endangered animals including the great apes and forest elephants, says IFAW.

The explosion in logging, which is mainly conducted by European and Southeast Asian companies, IFAW says, has facilitated the growth of the bushmeat trade by opening up previously remote areas of forest, introducing thousands of hungry workers to game-rich areas, and providing transport for hunters on logging trucks to lucrative city markets.

This trade threatens the food security of up to 150 million of the world's poorest people living in forest communities who depend on wild meat for food.

Parliament's resolution seeks a ban on the European import of products of companies which allow their workers to hunt for bushmeat or use their transport facilities to transport poached bushmeat.

It calls for particular emphasis on strengthening the capabilities of wildlife and nature conservation bodies, including restrictions on high powered rifles and the ammunition for such weapons.

The illegal trade in bushmeat poses a real threat to human health, both in Africa and in Europe where large quantities of bushmeat are estimated to be illegally imported. Contact with wild meat results in an increased risk of diseases, such as HIV, monkey pox, and ebola that derive from animals.

British MEP, John Corrie, who drafted the opinion for the EP Development Committee, emphasizes "the potential worldwide disaster from infectious diseases, such as ebola and new strains of HIV, by the illegal export of bushmeat."

In 2002, French scientists reported that more than one-fifth of the monkey meat sold in the markets of Cameroon is infected with HIV's ancestor, simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). The researchers found 21 types of SIV, four of them new to science.

Wildlife trader in Maputo, Mozambique displays meat of a small antelope native to Africa known as a dik dik. (Photo by Simon Milledge courtesy TRAFFIC)

Parliament's resolution stresses the need to involve all concerned in creating solutions, starting with local populations but also including governments and the private sector.

Forestry management should enable endangered species to survive as part of action plans such as the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Proposal and take account of agreements such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and recommendations made by the nongovernmental organization Forests and the European Union Resource Network, the Parliament said.

Good intentions must be backed by funding, the petition organizers say. Dr. Bryan Carroll, chairman of the EAZA Bushmeat Steering Committee, declared, "The Parliament has responded to the 1.9 million European voters who called for action to address the bushmeat crisis, but it is now for the European Commission to implement the will of the Parliament. We call upon the Parliament and the member states to ensure that funding is available to support actions called for under this resolution."

In its resolution Parliament does respond to the need for funding, saying that 10 percent of funding available under the European Development Fund and the regulation on financial aid for Latin America and Asia should be used to curb the bushmeat trade.

Parliament would direct additional funding to two programs - the Conservation and Rational Utilisation of Forest Ecosystems in Central Africa and the Alternatives to Poaching in Central Africa.

MEPs call for financing mechanisms introduced by member states and the European Community to cause the least possible distortion of competition, the highest possible efficiency in the use of funds, and high contribution to long-term investment, as well as social and territorial cohesion.

"It is essential to give absolute priority to the bushmeat issue and allocate considerably more financial support for biodiversity conservation, protected areas and national parks in the EU budget and in the European Development Fund," said Hemmo Muntingh, IFAW's senior policy adviser. "At this very moment in Africa, regionally, locally and nationally, species and populations of species are becoming extinct."