Factors Determining the Choice of Hunting and Trading Bushmeat in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania

• Published in: Conservation biology 2014-04, Vol.28 (2), p.382-391
• Main Authors: NIELSEN, MARTIN REINHARDT, JACOBSEN, JETTE BREDAHL, THORSEN, BO JELLESMARK
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural land; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Applied ecology; Biodiversity conservation; Biological and medical sciences; Caza furtiva; Choice Behavior; choice experiment; Conservation biology; Conservation of Natural Resources - economics; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Contributed Papers; cows; Domestic prices; Domesticated animals; experimento de elección; Exploitation and management of natural biological resources (hunting, fishing and exploited populations survey, etc.); Forest conservation; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Humans; Hunting; Mammals; manejo de vida silvestre; markets; Meat; Meat - economics; meat substitutes; Meats; Models, Theoretical; Parks, reserves, wildlife conservation. Endangered species: population survey and restocking; poaching; probability; Protected areas; Salary; Socioeconomic Factors; Surveys and Questionnaires; Tanzania; trade; Wildlife conservation; Wildlife management
• ISSN: 0888-8892; 1523-1739
• DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12197

Regulation of illegal bushmeat trade is a major conservation challenge in Africa. We investigated what factors are most likely to induce actors in the bushmeat trade to shift to an alternative occupation by conducting a choice experiment with 325 actors in the bushmeat trade in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania. Specifically, we asked respondents to choose between hunting or trading bushmeat and alternative salary‐paying work, in a set of hypothetical scenarios where the attributes of these alternatives were varied and included measures of command and control, price of substitute meat, daily salary in the work option, and whether or not cows were donated to the respondent. We modeled the choice contingent on socioeconomic characteristics. The magnitude of fines and patrolling frequency had a significant but very low negative effect on the probability of choosing to engage in hunting or trading bushmeat compared with the salary of an alternative occupation. Donation of livestock and the price of substitute meats in the local market both affected the choice significantly in a negative and a positive direction, respectively. The wealthier a household was the more likely the respondent was to choose to continue hunting or trading bushmeat. On the margin, our results suggest that given current conditions in the Kilombero Valley on any given day 90% of the respondents would choose salary work at US$3.37/day over their activities in the bushmeat trade, all else equal. Factores que Determinan la Elección de Cazar y Vender Carne de Caza en el Valle Kilombero, Tanzania