Beating the Bushmeat Business

Swapping Guns for Schools, Sightseers

by Lynne R. Baker

Aduet, a male Mona rescued from riding on a truck with his owner

Titus, a young red-eared guenon

It's no secret that unsustainable hunting and habitat destruction have had a formidable impact on the flora and fauna of the world.

Consider what's happening to the earth's jungles: one acre of tropical rainforest is destroyed in the world every second. And in the case of nonhuman primates, wild populations are in danger in all of the 92 countries in which these animals occur, according to Conservation International.

Thanks to aircraft surveys and satellite images, the effects of habitat destruction can be more easily measured and seen. But on a more fundamental level, how does one assess the number of animals killed by hunters and poachers every day?

In West Africa, actual numbers are almost impossible to come by, but what is obvious is that the bushmeat trade is big business.

Primate populations have suffered greatly due to habitat loss from logging, farming and the live-capture-for-export trade, but it is the bushmeat trade that is generally considered to be the No. 1 killer of primates in West Africa.

Today hunting for bushmeat in most of West Africa is no longer for sustenance, but instead for commercial trade. Rural communities supply bushmeat to urban traders, with growing assistance from logging trucks that keep moving deeper and deeper into the forest.

"This type of hunting is highly unsustainable and is having a devastating impact on primate populations across West Africa," says Zena Tooze, director of CERCOPAN, a rehabilitation and conservation center for orphaned monkeys in southern Nigeria.

The West African country of Cameroon, for example, can't seem to escape its headline marriage to the logging industry. In fact, some city folk in Cameroon now look forward to and expect fresh bushmeat for supper thanks to the logging industry's vehicles and new passageways into previously intact forests.

Origin of Orphans

Nearly all of CERCOPAN's 50-plus primates were orphaned by this ever-increasing bushmeat trade. And there is no way of knowing how many nursing infants whose mothers were shot for bushmeat died during the ordeal, or how many continue to hang on in horrible conditions in villages.

"Probably thousands more than we could stand to hear about," says Tooze.

Because CERCOPAN does not buy or sell any animals - to discourage further hunting - its orphans arrive mainly as donations to the project, either from Nigerians or expatriate owners, and usually after lots of convincing. Some are confiscated by Cross River State National Park or Forestry officials, while CERCOPAN staff and management occasionally seek out species in more critical danger, such as Sclater's monkeys Cercopithecus sclateri. See "One Monkey's Worth,".

Ironically, there is a law protecting many of Nigeria's animals. Enacted in 1985, Decree 11 fully protects species such as the threatened red-capped mangabey Cercocebus torquatus and the endangered Sclater's and red-eared Cercopithecus erythrotis guenons under Schedule 1. This means these animals cannot be hunted, traded or kept as pets.

Under Schedule 2, a special permit is required to hunt or trade more common species, such as mona monkeys Cercopithecus mona. However, this law is rarely enforced, and there is very little awareness of the law throughout Nigeria.

Experiencing firsthand the overwhelming task of rehabilitating orphan primates, CERCOPAN strongly supports and promotes in situ conservation, a policy that works to protect already existing wild animals populations and natural habitats.

Primates taken from their forest home usually die. There are a few who survive. But once these intelligent animals come into contact with humans, their learned and instinctual survival skills diminish significantly. CERCOPAN hopes to send a few of them back. But "The process is costly, lengthy and rigorous, and their fate is highly uncertain," notes Tooze.

Nonetheless, CERCOPAN is going to give its captive population a decent shot. Tooze is working to establish a protected area in a rainforest in Nigeria that will serve as a reintroduction site for the project's monkeys. It will also serve to protect the numerous other wild animals living there and their forest environment.

Roadblocks to Freedom

Obstacles abound, however, with one of the major ones being the everyday details of primate rescue projects. Rehabilitating and releasing orphaned primates means socializing traumatized animals, training a local staff, performing numerous medical tests on the animals, constructing enclosures, fund-raising extensively and teaching conservation in a Third World environment, to name a few.

Another obstacle is intense population pressure. Nigeria has an overabundance of people - some 111 million -- and 45 percent of its population is under 14 years of age.

According to the United Nations Population Fund, the country will be home to nearly 129 million people by the year 2000.

In southern Nigeria -- which touts a variety of forest environments (such as coastal mangrove forests, tropical swamp forests and moist tropical rainforests) and several endangered species (such as Sclater's and red-eared guenons) -- human population densities reach up to 1,000 people per square kilometer. The subsequent widespread and extensive farming further contributes to the destruction of the country's remaining forest habitat.

The result of such activity hasn't gone unnoticed. Less than 10 percent of Nigeria's original rainforest remains in the country, and of what does remain, roughly 90 percent is located in Cross River State in southern Nigeria.

Cross River State is where CERCOPAN is headquartered and where the project will build its release site. The site will serve several purposes: it will act as an education center to teach Nigerians and other visitors about conservation; it will give local communities an alternative to hunting and farming; it will serve as a tourist attraction for visitors who want to see monkeys in the wild; it will be a research center where local and international students can conduct scientific research; and it will give CERCOPAN's six primate species a chance to live again in their natural forest home.

The center, which will run on solar power, will help local communities mainly by sponsoring community-development projects, such as building schools and protecting water supplies. And some community members will be employed as park rangers; animal keepers; tour guides; and facility employees, such as cooks and cleaning attendants. Once a relationship has been developed with the local communities, CERCOPAN will begin building the site and preparing to relocate the animals.

Back to the Bush

Tooze is taking a unique approach to the monkeys' reintroduction. Because CERCOPAN is home to six species of monkey, she will initially release the most common and resilient -- the mona and putty-nose Cercopithecus nictitans guenons. If these animals do not fare well in their new forest home, releasing endangered species, such as the red-eared monkey, into the same area will be re-evaluated. This way, reintroduction success of the most endangered animals can be more closely controlled.

Release programs are not entirely new to Nigeria. Nearly 10 years ago, Drill Ranch, operated by Pandrillus, was founded in Calabar, Cross River State. Pandrillus has since established a drill monkey Mandrillus leucophaeus release site in Boki, Cross River State. Nearly 40 drills were transferred by helicopter to their new forest home in November 1996.

In their new spacious, natural, open-topped enclosure, these endangered animals are learning to survive on their own. Drill Ranch is home to the largest population of captive drills in the world, and with its incredible breeding success  -- more than 20 successful births since 1994 -- appears to be setting certain standards for primate rehabilitation.

The biggest obstacle Tooze now faces in getting CERCOPAN's release site up and running is money. She has narrowed down the list of potential locations; the architectural design of the buildings is complete; and most of CERCOPAN's monkeys are more than ready to move. But as with most non-profit projects, funding is the most difficult component to come by.

Still, Tooze is confident: "I know there are many organizations out there that are interested in and willing to support primate reintroduction projects. It may take longer than I hoped, but we'll get there. We've got 60 monkeys counting on it."