TY - JOUR
T1 - The importance of wild meat in the Global South
AU - Nielsen, Martin R.
AU - Meilby, Henrik
AU - Smith-Hall, Carsten
AU - Pouliot, Mariève
AU - Treue, Thorsten
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Information on the economic importance of wild meat to rural people is mainly based on small case studies conducted in limited geographical areas with high hunting intensities, which impede generalization of results. Through a one-year quarterly income survey of 7978 households in 24 countries across Latin America, Asia, and Africa, we show that 39% of the sampled households, by extrapolation representing ~ 150 million households in the Global South, ‘harvest’ wild meat. On average, wild meat makes up 2% of households’ income of which own consumption accounts for 89%. Reliance on wild meat is highest among the poorest households and inversely related to their reliance on domestic animal income. Seasonally, reliance on wild meat is inversely related to other incomes, suggesting a gap filling function. The fact that hunting is of low economic importance but widespread and mostly for subsistence suggests that wild meat is important in rural households’ diets. Through an approximated yield-effort curve estimation, we show that hunting appears economically sustainable in 78% of the observed communities although in most cases this might represent post-depletion sustainability. Our results imply that the effectiveness of wildlife conservation efforts is likely to be enhanced if rural food security is simultaneously improved.
AB - Information on the economic importance of wild meat to rural people is mainly based on small case studies conducted in limited geographical areas with high hunting intensities, which impede generalization of results. Through a one-year quarterly income survey of 7978 households in 24 countries across Latin America, Asia, and Africa, we show that 39% of the sampled households, by extrapolation representing ~ 150 million households in the Global South, ‘harvest’ wild meat. On average, wild meat makes up 2% of households’ income of which own consumption accounts for 89%. Reliance on wild meat is highest among the poorest households and inversely related to their reliance on domestic animal income. Seasonally, reliance on wild meat is inversely related to other incomes, suggesting a gap filling function. The fact that hunting is of low economic importance but widespread and mostly for subsistence suggests that wild meat is important in rural households’ diets. Through an approximated yield-effort curve estimation, we show that hunting appears economically sustainable in 78% of the observed communities although in most cases this might represent post-depletion sustainability. Our results imply that the effectiveness of wildlife conservation efforts is likely to be enhanced if rural food security is simultaneously improved.
KW - Bushmeat
KW - Food Security
KW - Poverty Environment Network
KW - Rural Household Income
KW - Wildlife Conservation
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.12.018
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.12.018
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85038908662
SN - 0921-8009
VL - 146
SP - 696
EP - 705
JO - Ecological Economics
JF - Ecological Economics
ER -
