Concept and Implementation of R/B Monitoring

Introduction

Bushmeat crisis

In the forests of southeast Cameroon, as in much of the Congo Basin Forests, the meat of wild animals, or bushmeat (wild meat), has been the most significant protein source due to the limited availability of livestock.

In recent decades, however, hunting and the bushmeat trade have attracted global concern as they lead to the depletion of wildlife and the deterioration of people's food security (Wilkie & Carpenter 1999; Brown & Davies 2007; Nasi et al. 2008, 2011; Ichikawa et al. 2016; van Vliet 2018; Fa et al. 2022, Willis et al. 2022).

In southeast Cameroon, the expansion of the logging road network since the 1990s has caused a bushmeat crisis (Figure 1), which made it easier for poachers and traders to enter the interior of the forests (Ichikawa et al. 2017). Then, local people became involved in the bushmeat trade (Figure 2).

Why cooperative wildlife management?

The Cameroonian government has promoted anti-poaching measures, including creating four protected areas (Lobéké, Boumba-Bek, Nki National Parks, and Ngoyla Faunal Reserve) in southeast Cameroon since 2001. Subsequently, the conservation actors reinforced control of bushmeat hunting and trading. 

It is, however, inherently complicated to promote biodiversity conservation projects while contemplating local people’s livelihoods. In other words, conservation effort always faces conflicts, which is also true in Cameroon. For the Congo Basin countries, there is an NGO’s report arguing that the protected areas are failing both people and biodiversity: Local communities generally support conservation but not the prevalent model imposed on them; Participation and consultation with local communities are extremely weak; Protected areas undermine customary land rights and diminish local livelihoods; While local communities face severe restrictions on their livelihoods, extractive industries and large scale habitat destruction are encouraged; As a result, conflicts and human rights abuses around protected areas are widespread (Pyhälä et al. 2016).

Most forests of southeast Cameroon were open-access land until the Law of 1994, which established permanent forest estates (protected areas and forest management units) where local people’s activities are restricted. However, the current laws are inconsistent with local realities and cause conflicts with local people’s customary resource use; therefore, conservation actors have been unable to gain the cooperation of local people. As a result, eco-guards are under a heavy burden to crack down on poaching, which allows poachers and buyers from outside to cooperate with local people.

Due to a lack of trust toward each other, conflicts remain between local people and conservation actors. To effectively promote biodiversity conservation and wildlife management, it is essential to change this relationship from conflict to cooperation (Figure 3), by embedding human rights in conservation efforts (WWF 2020). If it is successful, it will help promote more effective conservation efforts in other parts of the Congo Basin.

We believe the most significant step toward this end is to legitimate local people’s subsistence hunting without severe restrictions. We must recognize that subsistence hunting is not only an economic practice but also a cultural practice that constitutes the basis of their way of life. This is not to say that local people are “born ecologists” with a true nature of sustainable hunting. Historically, in this area, it is probable that people hunted animals sustainably. However, this was mainly due to low human density. When the logging road expansion stimulated the bushmeat trade, hunting intensity increased rapidly and uncontrollably (Yasuoka 2006). “Hunting by local people” is no more convincing evidence of sustainable use.  

We, therefore, recognize that it is inevitable for conservation actors to demand accountability from local people for the sustainability of hunting before legitimating subsistence hunting of local people. However, local people, especially the Baka, generally base their practices on tacit knowledge and are unfamiliar with explaining their way of resource use. Therefore, it is difficult (though not impossible) for them to communicate with conservation actors and hold them accountable for their hunting practices in a manner acceptable to the conservation actors.

Against this background, we have carried out the Projet Coméca in southeast Cameroon since 2018 and developed the R/B Monitoring, a harvest-based monitoring method that local people themselves can operate. Based on the R/B Monitoring, local people can be accountable for sustainable subsistence hunting consistent with biodiversity conservation. This method will facilitate communication and partnerships between the conservation actors and local people and serve as a core component of cooperative wildlife management between them.