Food shortages in troubled African states are fueling an unprecedented wave of wildlife slaughter for bushmeat, reports have revealed. A study released this week by wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic claims that surging demand for illegal meat in vast east African refugee camps is putting animal populations and rural communities at serious risk.

Separate independent reports coming out of Zimbabwe also paint a bleak picture of the indiscriminate killing of vast numbers of wildlife. Both sources accuse the international community of ignoring the gravity of the situation and the true reason behind the crisis.

"The scale of wild meat consumption in east African refugee camps has helped conceal the failure of the international community to meet basic refugee needs," says George Jambiya, the main author of the Traffic report. "Relief agencies are turning a blind eye to the real cause of the poaching and illegal trade: a lack of meat protein in refugees' rations."
Species under threat

The report, called Night Time Spinach, uses case studies from Tanzania, which is host to one of the largest concentrations of refugees in the world and the largest in Africa. It reveals how illegally obtained wild meat is covertly traded and cooked after dark, referred to as "night time spinach" inside many camps.

The sheer number of refugees often leads to extensive habitat degradation and dramatic loss of wildlife, including rare species such as chimpanzees. Numbers of buffalo, sable antelope and other grazing animals have also been in steep decline as refugees scour reserves in search of food. Many of sub-Saharan Africa's species are threatened, say experts, with around 20% suffering recorded population declines from the bushmeat trade.

But Traffic says camps have, in the past, ensured people are given rations such as corned beef, and that African refugees are now being unfairly criminalised. "Something has to be wrong if refugees, who have run from guns in their home country, then find themselves fleeing wildlife rangers' firearms in their search for food," says Traffic's Simon Milledge. Economic motivations are crucial. Wild meat is cheaper than local beef and culturally more desirable, giving refugees a small income.

The report calls for tighter law enforcement and a closer working relationship between humanitarian and environmental groups, as well as support for a sustainable meat trade to supply protein and create food security. "The sad reality is that those who most depend upon wild sources of food are usually the ones who pay the heaviest price for biodiversity loss," says Susan Lieberman, the WWF's international species programme director.
Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe, food shortages coupled with resettlement of "war veterans" on land unsuitable for crops in or near wildlife reserves has also sparked killing. "The declining economy in Zimbabwe has fuelled the loss of jobs, particularly on commercial farms, and created an environment that's conducive to poaching," says Raoul du Toit of WWF's southern Africa regional programme office.

Information is hard to come by, but WWF believes 80% of wildlife on reclaimed farms has been slaughtered since 2001. The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force further claims that 100% of wildlife in game reserves has been killed, as well as around half of the wild populations of national parks. It believes by 2013 there will be no wild animals left. Traffic agrees that economics is creating a surge in what is a common practice among Africa's rural poor.

"In Zimbabwe, such trade is likely to be increasing in the face of soaring inflation, poor agricultural output and the deteriorating economy," a spokesperson said. British-born Karen Paolillo and her French husband Jean, who have dedicated 17 years to protecting hippos and wildlife on the Turgwe River in the privately owned Save Valley Conservancy, southeast Lowveld, have witnessed the hunts first hand.

"They are killing everything and anything from a squirrel to an elephant," she says, "for food and for money." With settlements of hundreds of "war veterans'" families now flanking two sides of their small, self-dubbed "Hippo Haven", the couple have confronted armed poachers on numerous dangerous occasions.

Preferred targets are antelope, wildebeest and zebra, but they also kill lion, elephant, rhino, leopard, buffalo, and giraffe. Some are hacked for their most valuable parts, others are left to bleed to death, or to die of gangrene in tens of thousands of wire snares.

Many now fear Zimbabwe will follow the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has seen its hippos reduced from 229,000 to an estimated 800 in three ravaged decades. Retired Zimbabwean policeman David Lemon grew up around elephants, and has focused his energy on their current plight. He says bankrupt national parks are complicit in the burgeoning trade in dried wild meat, or biltong.

"They have realised that elephants can be just as easily used as food, they are seen as an easy target and there's lots of them," he says. "The authorities claim that they are still 110,000 elephants, but there's no way - there's a maximum of 45,000. If something isn't done very soon, then there will be none. It's tragic." But he says that he and others are frustrated by the lack of international interest.

"When they used to cull elephants there was worldwide pressure, everybody shouting and screaming for it to stop. But now, nobody is shouting – they're not even whispering, I don't understand." David is not a sentimentalist – he says that the slaughter is also rapidly killing any hope of Zimbabwe making a return as a tourist destination, as well as destroying a vital local resource.

Experts agree. Dr Jane Smart, head of the World Conservation Union (IUCN)'s global species programme says: "The depletion of wildlife is likely to cause an overall loss of income as areas become devoid of species and of less interest to visitors, which may cause economic impacts as well as resentment by local people."

(The Guardian, 24/01/2008)