About the Project

Why do this research?

Tropical rainforest wildlife, such as duikers, wild boars, monkeys, and crocodiles, support rich biodiversity through processes like the food chain and seed dispersal. At the same time, these animals provide valuable protein and income to the people living in the forests and have contributed to developing unique social norms and worldviews, acting as a source of cultural diversity. And there is a livelihood connecting wildlife and people—hunting.

Through the 20th century, however, hunting pressure in tropical rainforest regions rapidly increased, leading to significant declines in wildlife populations. This issue gained international attention as the wild meat crisis, leading to top-down conservation measures, such as protected areas and strict hunting restrictions. As a result, even subsistence hunting by local communities has been restricted, causing conflicts between conservation officials and local people.

The wild meat crisis represents a typical example of a global environmental problem driven by the friction between global values (wildlife conservation) and local values (the survival of hunting culture). At the root of this issue lies a fundamental misunderstanding between scientific ecology and local knowledge. While there are many commonalities in practical applications, there are significant differences in their basic approaches and priorities. Consequently, methods and decisions based solely on one knowledge system are often not seen as fair or sustainable by the other. The true solution to the wild meat crisis requires a deeper mutual understanding between scientific and local knowledge, alongside the development of a locally based hunting management system that actively incorporates subsistence hunting.

Peters’s duiker—one of the key hunted species in the Central African rainforest.

Illustration of a wildlife monitoring method based on subsistence hunting. Illustration by Izumori Yō.

Project aims

The Fashloks project aims to develop fair and sustainable wildlife monitoring methods and hunting management systems across the three major tropical rainforest regions. To achieve this, the project adopts a co-production research approach, in which researchers and local communities collaborate as equals in the design, implementation, and evaluation of studies.

We will jointly test scientific methods proposed by ecologists and methods based on local knowledge from skilled hunters to create wildlife monitoring methods. At two core sites in Cameroon and Colombia, we will also establish platforms that allow all stakeholders to participate equally in the decision-making on hunting management. Furthermore, we will describe and compare the research processes at the five sites to assess the effectiveness of the co-production approach in addressing global environmental issues.

Camera trap set up together with a Baka hunter at the Cameroon site.

Meeting with the Indigenous association (ATICOYA) at the Colombia site. We explained the project’s objectives and heard local people’s opinions and requests.

Research Sites

Core Sites

Boumba-et-Ngoko, East Province, Cameroon
Puerto Nariño, Amazonas, Colombia

Emergent Sites

Sabah State, Malaysia
Minvoul, Woleu-Ntem, North Gabon
Tsuapa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Research progress

2024 (PR)

During the Pre-Research phase in 2024, we focused on laying the groundwork for research activities at each site. This involved conducting preliminary surveys on wildlife and local livelihoods, explaining the project to local communities and obtaining their approval, signing MoUs between local research institutions and RIHN, and expanding our team with researchers from Japan and the host countries. The groundwork for coproduction research between researchers and local communities is now in place for the Full-Research phase.

Preliminary research has revealed site-specific differences in the relationships between scientific conservation and local culture, even within tropical rainforest regions. The Cameroon and Gabon sites prioritise scientific conservation over local cultural practices; the Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo sites place greater emphasis on local cultural practices; and the Borneo site faces mutual distrust that weakens the connection between conservation efforts and local culture. By documenting and comparing research activities across these sites, we can assess the effectiveness and challenges of the coproduction approach under different conditions.

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