Towards Wildlife Management in Tropical Forests

Hunting is ubiquitous in tropical forests around the world, and meat from wildlife species is an important source of animal protein for rural populations. Ungulates, primates, and rodents provide most of the biomass consumed, but a wide variety of wildlife species are hunted for both subsistence and commerce. Across the tropics, tens of millions of animals and millions of metric tons of meat are hunted and consumed each year. Is this harvest sustainable? Available information and the use of simple sustainability models suggest it is not. The supply of wildlife is limited, as annual production of large mammals in tropical forests is low when compared to other ecosystems. The demand is increasing as tropical forests become more accessible to hunters, effective human population densities increase, people become more sedentary, traditional hunting practices change, the meat trade becomes more commercial, and demand increases for wild meat from urban centers. If wildlife populations are to be sustained, then management institutions, be they government or community-based, need to be strengthened.