Bushmeat
Biometrics


Bushmeat

Commercial trade in wild animals threatens species and deprives poor communities of food.

Bushmeat - a resource at risk

The next time you go to a restaurant in Africa and bushmeat is on the menu, think before you eat. The chances are that the animal on your plate is the victim of commercial hunters, whose activities are robbing African communities of important natural resources and the world of irreplaceable biodiversity. "Along with habitat loss, the commercial bushmeat trade is probably the biggest threat to wildlife in Africa," says Douglas Williamson, an FAO wildlife expert. Bushmeat is the meat of animals who live in forests, from gorillas to rodents.

The devastating impact of the bushmeat trade is global, but Africa's paradox is that the continent contains both the world's highest levels of food insecurity and some of its richest and most vulnerable biodiversity. In the continent's marginal environments, what threatens wildlife also threatens the food security of people. Commercial hunting deprives local populations of crucial food.

Emotive images of dead gorillas have highlighted the situation in West Africa, where forests already depleted by logging contain fewer species of larger mammals than do savannah regions. But wildlife across the continent is under threat. "The death of what conservationists call 'charismatic'animals attracts publicity," says Mr Williamson. "But increasing demand for bushmeat and declining wildlife populations mean that smaller species are targeted as well." Natural fauna have important ecological roles in forest ecosystems - some tree seeds, for example, will not germinate unless they pass through the digestive tract of elephants. Therefore, the extinction of indigenous species can change ecosystems in unpredictable ways. "Rural communities depend on bushmeat because domestic meat is too expensive," says Mr Williamson. "But the growing commercial market in the cities is driving the trade - and this urban fashion for bushmeat feeds off rural poverty. Basically, a rich man hands out guns and a few pennies to the locals, and then goes back to the city with a fortune in meat." Other forest products and activities that generate revenue are also threatened by the booming and illegal bushmeat trade. These include animal parts used for medicinal and ritual purposes, photographic safaris and trophy hunting -the backbone of eastern and southern Africa's multimillion dollar tourism industry.

Statistics on the bushmeat trade are hard to come by because it is usually illegal, and reports are informal or misleading. But an FAO report written in 1997 cites figures of more than 1.2 million tonnes of bushmeat (excluding elephants) harvested in just one month in Nigeria. And a 2001 survey of eastern and southern Africa by TRAFFIC, an organization that monitors the wildlife trade, reveals a widespread unregulated slaughter by commercial hunters.

Increasing demand and declining wildlife have given rise to unsustainable hunting. "Peak hunting periods coincide with the dry season when vegetation is less dense, which makes the hunting easier," explains Mr Williamson. "In one incident in Mozambique, commercial hunters shot more in one night than the whole village ate in a year. But the commercial hunters don't care - they don't live there." And that, he says, is the root cause of the rise in the bushmeat trade. "Traditional community wildlife management mechanisms have been replaced by state responsibility," he explains, "so nobody feels they own the forest, and wildlife is considered 'fair game'to the person who gets there first or can pay the biggest bribe."

Hunting sustainability

Bushmeat is a huge industry, but many developing countries lack the capacity to collect taxes or enforce hunting regulations, and bribery of poorly paid local and national officials is a problem. Moreover, wildlife protection has generally consisted of punitive and selective laws aimed at protecting a few charismatic animal species while ignoring the needs of surrounding human populations.

Attitudes have changed in the last two decades, and FAO is helping to promote dialogue among organizations working in environmental conservation, commercial use of forest resources and rural development. FAO cohosted a bushmeat workshop last September in Cameroon and is working with other United Nations agencies and conservation organizations to implement a major project in West Africa that designates forests as World Heritage sites - areas of irreplaceable value needing international protection -and encourages community management of wildlife. And this, according to Mr Williamson, is the key to the bushmeat crisis. "Without community management of forest resources, the threat to wildlife will grow. If communities are the main beneficiaries of the resources, they will have an incentive to manage them well." (Source:  www.fao.org/news/2002/020203-e.htm )

For more information, please contact:

Mr Douglas Williamson,
Forestry Officer (Wildlife and Protected Areas),
FORC,
Forestry Department,
FAO,
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla,
00100 Rome, Italy.
Fax: +39 0657055137;
e-mail: [email protected]  

The sustainable use of wild species for meat

The countries with the richest and most diverse levels of biodiversity also have the highest levels of human poverty and food insecurity. The utilization of wild meat is part of this overall dilemma and solutions to overexploitation of biodiversity will require finding ways of addressing human needs and promoting a more equitable and ethical sharing of global resources. In recognition of the need to bring together the conservation and development communities as partners in preparing and implementing the actions needed to address the issue effectively, and in response to the World Conservation Congress Resolution 2.64, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), FAO and Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC) organized a workshop from 17 to 20 September 2001 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The workshop was attended by 47 participants representing 18 organizations.

Participants agreed that activities should focus on three areas: a holistic approach including improved intersectoral cooperation; improved management of wild meat resources; and effective incentives for sustainable use of natural resources. Under each of these themes, specific activities were defined and, where possible, implementation plans were developed. The Cameroon workshop communiqué is available from the IUCN Web site (www.iucn.org/info_and_news/press/wild meat3.html ). (Source: Species, No. 36.)

The Bushmeat Crisis Task Force (BCTF),

The Bushmeat Crisis Task Force (BCTF), founded in 1999, is a consortium of conservation organizations and scientists dedicated to the conservation of wildlife populations threatened by the commercial hunting of wildlife for sale as meat. BCTF's primary goals are to: a) work with the general members of BCTF to focus attention on the bushmeat crisis in Africa; b) establish a database and mechanisms for sharing information regarding the bushmeat issue; c) facilitate the engagement of African partners and stakeholders in addressing the bushmeat issue; and d) promote collaborative decision-making, fund-raising and actions among the members and associates of BCTF. According to BCTF, bushmeat has become the most immediate threat to the future of wildlife populations in Africa. Animals commonly used as bushmeat include elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees and other primates, forest antelopes or duikers, crocodiles, porcupines, bush pigs, cane rats, pangolins, monitor lizards and guinea fowl. Many animal species are being hunted at a rate that outpaces their ability to reproduce and replenish their populations. The primary goals identified by BCTF are the general education of key international decision-makers about the problems of wildlife poaching.

The group also supports its members'efforts in the areas of public education, proposal development, catalysing local action, disseminating information and archiving. In its new plan, the group details specific long- and short-term actions to take place in both the United States and Africa. Short-term actions include forming hunter and market seller trade associations; building the physical and technical capacity to control trade routes; brokering linkages among non-government organizations, governments and private industry; public outreach and raising awareness; and developing economic and protein alternatives to wildlife hunting. Long-term actions include new wildlife management policy development, sustainable financing for conservation activities, public education, and protected area management and monitoring. Specific steps included in the plan are assisting in the development of national wildlife policies, addressing issues related to food security and poverty reduction, and strengthening existing wildlife protection measures. Dr Michael Hutchins, chair of the BCTF Steering Committee, stated that this unmanaged and unsustainable hunting has the potential to result in a human tragedy of immense proportions. "Some 60 percent of the protein needs of rural Africans are currently met by bushmeat and, if the forests are emptied of their wildlife, then what will become of the people?"

For more information, please contact:

Heather E. Eves, Director,
Bushmeat Crisis Task Force,
8403 Colesville Road,
Suite 710,
Silver Spring,
MD 20910-3314, USA.
Fax: +1 301 5620888;
e-mail: [email protected];
www.bushmeat.org;
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/may2001/2001L-05-22-06.html

 

 


Related links: documents and news articles

Defining the way forward for more community-based management of forests
www.fao.org/waicent/ois/press_ne/english/2002/2680-en.html

FAO warns of "bushmeat crisis" caused by excessive hunting of wild animals for food
www.fao.org/waicent/ois/press_ne/presseng/2001/pren0114.htm

International experts discuss options for combating illegal forest practices
www.fao.org/waicent/ois/press_ne/english/2002/2240-en.html

Wildlife and food security in Africa (FAO Conservation Guide No. 33)
www.fao.org/docrep/w7540e/w7540e00.htm

Wildlife management for rural development in sub-Saharan Africa
www.fao.org/docrep/t8850E/t8850e03.htm#TopOfPage

Conserving World Heritage Forests in Africa
www.unfoundation.org/grants/9_14_conserving_world_heritage_forests_in_africa.asp

Conservation, food security and the use of wild species for meat
www.iucn.org/info_and_news/press/wildmeat.html

Creating a revolving fund for wildlife in Zambia
http://biodiversityeconomics.org/incentives/topics-303-41.htm

Food for thought - the utilization and trade of wild meat in eastern and southern Africa
www.traffic.org/bushmeat/

Hunting of wildlife in tropical forests

Hunting for wild meat in tropical forests, especially with increasing commercialization, is both extirpating many species of mammals and birds and destroying a critical resource base for forest-dwelling people. This report describes the extent of the crisis, and summarizes its implications for biodiversity conservation and the well-being of tropical forest peoples. Recommendations are made on institutional ways to control the trade and economic mechanisms to reduce demand.
http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/ESSD/essdext.nsf/48ByDocName/Biodiversity

National Geographic story: "Bush meat" crisis needs urgent action
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/05/0522_bushmeat.html

 

Hunting in the Taï region, Côte d'Ivoire

Game is an important food resource in West Africa, but in Côte d'Ivoire hunting is forbidden. Hans Ulrich Caspary and his colleagues argue that only the regulated reopening of hunting will reduce poaching in protected areas. Sustainable wildlife management is urgently needed. Poaching is a typical phenomenon throughout Côte d'Ivoire and the Taï region, at the border with Liberia, is no exception. The influx of migrants has increased the pressure on land and the marginalized farmers need access to game resources for their animal proteins and to supplement their income. The illegality of hunting means, however, that the marketing of bushmeat does not generate any income for the state, while the local population has no say in wildlife management. These problems could be solved under a new sustainable game management strategy. To support such a strategy, a study was carried out under the Tropenbos Côte d'Ivoire Programme in 1998-1999 to shed light on different forms of hunting and the various links in the bushmeat supply chain in the Taï region.

The results showed that in the Taï region there are about 73 000 subsistence hunters, 2 200 semi-professional and 220 professional hunters. In the periphery of the park there are about 20 000 subsistence hunters, 600 semi-professional and 60 professional hunters. The yearly game takeoff by the subsistence hunters, who operate principally in the peripheral zones of the park, is estimated to be between 1 500 and 3 000 tonnes and is valued at US$1.5 to $3 million. The hunters' catch, mainly rodents and other small game, reflects the impoverished range of wildlife. The professional hunters' takeoff, working in the park itself, is estimated at between 56 and 720 tonnes (valued at US$43 000 to $920 000). Monkeys and Bovidae dominate the hunting catch.

Hunting in the Taï region is highly destructive. In order to preserve the unique biodiversity of this and other regions, sustainable wildlife management models need to be developed. These models should combine protection and utilization and be applied in close collaboration with all parties concerned. (Source: H.-U. Caspary, I. Koné, C. Prouot and M. de Pauw. 2001. La chasse et la filière viande de brousse dans l'espace Taï, Côte d'Ivoire. Tropenbos Côte d'Ivoire Series 2. Tropenbos International, Wageningen, the Netherlands. ISBN 90-5113-148-1. Price: €20.)

For more information, please contact:

The Tropenbos Foundation,
PO Box 232, 6700 AE Wageningen,
the Netherlands.
Fax: +31 317 495520;
e-mail: [email protected];
www.tropenbos.nl

 


Related links: Web sites

FAO News & Highlights archive
www.fao.org/News/new02-e.htm

FAO Forestry home page
www.fao.org/forestry/  

CAMPFIRE
Since 1975, Zimbabwe has allowed private property holders to claim ownership of wildlife on their land and to benefit from its use. Under CAMPFIRE, people living on Zimbabwe's impoverished communal lands, which represent 42 percent of the country's land area, claim the same rights of proprietorship. Conceptually, CAMPFIRE includes all natural resources, but its focus has been on wildlife management in communal areas, particularly those adjacent to national parks, where people and animals compete for scarce resources. Since its official inception in 1989, CAMPFIRE has engaged more than a quarter of a million people in the practice of managing wildlife and reaping the benefits of using wild lands.
www.campfire-zimbabwe.org/

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
www.cites.org

IUCN - World Conservation Union
www.iucn.org  

IUCN Species Survival Commission
www.iucn.org/themes/ssc  

The Bushmeat project
http://bushmeat.net/

TRAFFIC
The wildlife trade arm of the World Wide Fund for Nature and the World Conservation Union
www.traffic.org

World Conservation Monitoring Centre
www.wcmc.org.uk  

 

 

The Jane Goodall Institute

African forests teemed with wildlife at the turn of the nineteenth century. Compare that with the African forests of today. Recent figures indicate that fewer than 150 000 chimpanzees - our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom - remain in the African wilderness, where one to two million lived in the year 1900.

The most recent crisis to have evolved is one that threatens not only chimpanzees, but also other great apes and species of flora and fauna in the African forests. As logging roads are cut into previously unreachable areas, the hunting of wildlife for bushmeat - once a practice supporting forest peoples - has become commercial, catering to the cultural preference of many urban dwellers for the meat of wild animals and also supplies the logging camps with food. How serious is the problem? The commercial hunting of bushmeat could well lead to the loss of several species, including chimpanzees, gorillas and elephants.

Along with an array of other groups and individuals around the world, the Jane Goodall Institute - and Dr Goodall herself - is addressing this crisis. Dr Goodall continues to educate the public in North America, Europe, Africa and the Far East about the horrors of the commercial bushmeat trade and its potential consequences. Through continuing efforts, the institute has begun a Congo Basin Project to explore ways in which we can make a difference on the ground, promoting alternative patterns of economic development that would benefit both people and wildlife. The Congo Basin Project is striving to eliminate the illegal commercial bushmeat trade in endangered species, and regulate the legal trade, as part of an integrated approach towards sustainable forest resource management with the participation of the forestry industry, governments and local communities. Our proposed programmes are increasingly focusing on the role of community stakeholders, and especially women, in the commercial bushmeat trade, in order to provide local populations with the opportunity and ability to live sustainably.

 

"Do we really care that within 15 years there may be no chimpanzees or gorillas or elephants, or any other amazing beings, roaming the forests of the Congo Basin and other parts of Central and West Africa. Does it matter?

That is something everyone must ask in his or her own heart. We are not asking for charity to help save the wildlife - and ultimately the people - of African forests. We are asking for a collective investment in the future, and in a legacy that we can be proud of. We do not have much time left. We must act now."

Dr Jane Goodall

 

For more information, please contact:

Christina M. Ellis,
Director of Africa Programs,
The Jane Goodall Institute,
PO Box 14890,
Silver Spring,
MD 20911-4890, USA.
Fax: +1 301 5653188;
e-mail: [email protected];
www.janegoodall.org

Trade in bushmeat

Wildlife throughout Africa, South America and Asia is threatened not only by habitat destruction, but also by hunting for the live animal trade, for food, skins, medicine and other products. The focus on the trade in wild meat (also referred to as bushmeat) has been increasing in recent years. The trade is primarily on a local to national scale, with the majority of meat being consumed within the country of capture, although a small percentage does cross national borders. By comparison, the level of wild meat trade in African species found outside Africa is far less significant. However, as ethnic African populations outside Africa continue to grow, so too does the demand for wild meat and this has resulted in wild meat being imported into European countries. It has been found on sale in outlets in Brussels, Paris and London, as well as at points of import in Spain and the United Kingdom.

 

On 15 June 2001, in the first conviction in the United Kingdom for offences relating to the smuggling of wild meat, the two proprietors of a shop in London, which offered wild meat for sale, were each sentenced to four months' imprisonment for illegally importing and selling CITES specimens, some in the form of wild meat. All the species involved are listed in CITES Appendix II (EU Annex B) and, as such, their importation into the European Union requires an import permit.

 

As awareness of the wild meat trade has grown, governments as well as conservation organizations have taken up this issue. Wild meat was on the CITES agenda at the meeting of the Conference of the Parties in 2000 and resulted in the formation of the Bushmeat Working Group. This trade is a key focus of the programme of Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC). In addition, a number of other non-governmental organizations (NGOs), chiefly through the Ape Alliance in the United Kingdom and the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force in the United States, have also focused attention on this subject. Law enforcement agencies are now more aware of the possibility of wild meat being imported from Africa, and are faced with the challenge of trying to identify species offered for sale from the animal parts or whole animal carcasses. (Source: TRAFFIC Bulletin, Vol. 19, No. 1 [2001].)

[Please see under International Action - Convention on Biodiversity - for more information on bushmeat.]

Biometrics

The last decade has witnessed a steep increase in interest and activities concerning NWFPs. The current interest in NWFPs among conservationists, foresters, development workers and indigenous peoples' groups has prompted numerous initiatives aimed at promoting NWFP use and commercialization as a means of improving the well-being of rural populations and, at the same time, conserving existing forests.

These initiatives are rarely linked to studies on the sustainable exploitation of the products that are promoted, and no accurate information is available on the resource abundance, distribution and reproductive biology, which is necessary for the determination of the biologically sustainable harvest levels of a product.

Although there is often considerable indigenous knowledge for specific NWFPs, formal resource assessment of NWFPs, especially in tropical countries, is relatively new and has received little attention to date. The multitude and variety of NWFPs, the multiplicity of interests and disciplines involved in NWFP assessment, the organizational and financial constraints, the lack of globally, or even nationally, recognized common terminology and units of measurement all contribute to make the assessment of NWFPs, and of the resources providing them, a difficult task.

To raise awareness of the importance of accurate and precise resource assessments at all levels of forest use for NWFPs, and to provide guidance on the design and selection of appropriate methods for resource quantification in different situations and for different products, a publication was prepared, Resource assessment of non-wood forest products. Experience and biometric principles, in which a review and analysis of the wide range of approaches used and developed to date to measure NWFP resources was made. However, the methodology proposed still needs to be tested and fine-tuned to specific NWFP types, such as for assessing fruits, barks, lianas, roots, etc. The EC-FAO project aims to produce tools for inventory of NWFPs.

[Please see the following articles for more information on the publication and the EC-FAO project.]

Design of techniques to assess non-wood forest products in ACP African countries (EC-FAO project, component 4)

Non-wood forest products make important contributions to livelihoods in Africa, especially for people living in poor rural areas. These contributions encompass edible foods, medicines and income generation. In addition, such NWFPs also provide various food products for local markets and raw material for local industries creating local employment. Because of the increasing demand, these products need to be sustainably managed otherwise they will disappear. The lack of sound knowledge on the distribution in the forests, on the abundance and on the yield growth dynamics of the NWFP resources constitutes a real uncertainty for their wise management. These resources, therefore, are constantly under threat, preventing people from managing them sustainably. The intention for designing component 4 of the EC-FAO project GCP/INT/679/EC (Data Collection for Sustainable Forest Management in ACP Countries - Linking National and International Efforts) is specifically to provide a response to this problem through the development of practical inventory guidelines and tools to assess NWFP resources. National forest services, NGOs and local people in ACP African countries will also use this to design policy and to manage sustainably their forests providing NWFPs. Without such assistance, these populations are unable to benefit fully from the NWFP resources in the forest areas near their homes.

In the project design, a two-way traffic for the exchange and provision of practical knowledge was recognized as an important means for the identification of major problems facing the assessment of NWFP resources. A lack of reliable data prevents the setting up of priorities for the design of an appropriate NWFP resource assessment policy or NWFP management device that better suits the needs and work conditions of people in ACP African countries. By the end of 2002, the FAO Forest Products Division with European Commission financial support hopes to elaborate guidelines so that people in ACP African countries henceforth benefit from the management and utilization of the NWFP resources occurring in natural forests.

The main project objective is to develop practical NWFP inventory guidelines that include biometric rigour and test protocols, taking into account the different specific life forms and occurrence period of the product.

The expected outputs of component 4 of this project are to:

an international expert consultation on NWFP resource assessment and produce draft NWFP resource assessment guidelines;

Expert Consultation, English-speaking African countries

An expert consultation was held in Lusaka, Zambia from 15 to 17 October 2001 in which 14 experts from nine countries participated. The meeting objectives were:

As a follow-up to the Lusaka meeting, the development of three case studies testing draft NWFP inventory protocols on three different products was recommended. National experts were selected to carry out these case studies in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia and work is already under way. The three case study reports and the final report of the expert meeting will be completed by mid-2002.

 

Case studies

The following three case studies are being carried out to field-test the draft protocols developed for inclusion in the final document of NWFP inventory guidelines.

Case study No. 1. The purpose is to test the hypothesis that local knowledge can be used as a basis for biometric quantification of seasonal wild mushroom production. The site selected for the study is the Perekezi Forest Reserve in the Mzimba District of Malawi. The study will be closely carried out with local mushroom collectors. The study team will accompany the collectors into the forest and enumerate the size, species and productivity of the collection sites.

Case study No. 2. The purpose is to compare inventory techniques for single product versus multiple products for selected NWFPs. An inventory will be made for six species (Uapaca kirkiana, Anisophyllea boehmii, Parinari curatelifolia, Strychnos cocculoides, Rhynchosia insignis and Satyria siva) in Mwekera National Forest, Zambia. The first inventory will use systematic sampling and enumerate all species. Then three to six other inventories will be undertaken depending on the characteristics of the species found in the study sites.

Case study No. 3. The aim is to develop methods for estimating average densities and fruit yields of baobab trees. An inventory will be made of baobab tree (Adansonia digitata) density and fruit yields of individual trees to enable resource planning of the trees' fruit production. Suitable and appropriate resource inventory techniques for NWFPs to estimate plant densities (combination of local knowledge and known adaptive clumped sampling as assessment methods) will be identified and selected. During the fieldwork, non-conventional forestry sampling methods will also be used for the quantification of fruit yield per tree.

 

Consultation d'experts, pays francophones d'Afrique

Une consultation d'experts de pays ACP francophones d'Afrique sur l'évaluation des ressources des PFNL s'est tenue du 12 au 15 février 2002 à Yaoundé, Cameroun. Les co-organisateurs de la réunion étaient la Division des produits forestiers de la FAO, le Bureau de la FAO au Cameroun, le Ministère de l'environnement et des forêts et le Centre pour la recherche forestière internationale (CIFOR).

Le but de la Composante no 4 du programme de l'Union européenne sur les produits forestiers non-ligneux (PFNL) est de contribuer au soutien de la gestion durable des forêts, dans les pays ACP d'Afrique. Le développement des guides pratiques d'inventaire des PFNL ainsi que le suivi du test d'expérimentation de ceux-ci constitueront l'essentiel de cette contribution.

Le but de tels guides est de permettre aux administrations nationales des forêts et d'autres dépositaires appropriés d'améliorer et d'assurer un suivi régulier des ressources fournissant les PFNL, ainsi qu'un développement soutenable des régimes de récoltes de ces produits, notamment en faveur des communautés locales.

En parallèle avec d'autres projets, deux réunions d'experts ont été planifiées en vue de:

Les objectifs généraux

Développer des guides pratiques pour l'évaluation des ressources des PFNL afin de contribuer à une gestion soutenue des forêts dans les pays ACP d'Afrique.

Objectifs spécifiques

La réunion de consultation avec les experts des pays ACP francophones d'Afrique visait les objectifs spécifiques suivants:

La rencontre de Yaoundé a été un véritable succès au regard des objectifs qui sont atteints, notamment la participation massive des experts dont le nombre atteignait le double de ce qui était initialement prévu (30 personnes au lieu de 15) et, surtout, de la médiation de l'événement par les moyens de communications mobilisées par les autorités locales.

Pour plus de détails, veuillez contacter:

François Ndeckere-Ziangba,
Programme PFNL de la FAO.
Mél.: [email protected]

 

Études de cas

Les quatre études de cas ci-dessous ont été proposées pour le test souplesse et de flexibilité sur le terrain des protocoles d'inventaire des PFNL avant d'être inclus dans le document final des guides d'inventaire des PFNL. Pour réaliser le programme de l'étude, le consultant devra se servir du document de protocole d'inventaire élaboré dans le cadre de la préparation des guides d'inventaire des PFNL d'une part et, d'autre part, la notice sur les idées suggérées par la Réunion de consultation des experts de Yaoundé.

Étude de cas no 1. Estimation de la quantité des feuilles de Combretum micranthum disponible pour le prélèvement. Le but de l'étude, qui sera réalisée au Bénin, est de quantifier la masse foliaire des feuilles par unité de surface et hauteur moyenne par la méthode d'échantillonnage aléatoire à surface fixe carrée de 1 000 m² (31,62x31,62 m) sans compromettre à la survie de la ressource.

Étude de cas no 2. Estimation de la quantité des écorces de Pausynlara yohimbe. Ainsi l'étude visera à développer des techniques de quantification de l'écorce du Yohimbé au niveau des tiges et des branches de la ressource et comparer la productivité de celles-ci avec du fût (tronc). Cette étude, qui sera réalisée au Cameroun, permettra de déterminer la quantité optimale de produit à prélever sur une tige tout en garantissant la pérennité de la ressource.

Étude de cas no 3. Développement d'une méthode pour la récolte des lianes (Gnetum sp.) en vue d'assurer une gestion durable de ce produit. Le consultant chargé de mener l'étude veillera à développer une méthode de quantification de la ressource et la tester sur le terrain en vue de sa validation pour assurer une gestion durable du produit dans la région du bassin du Congo. Cette étude sera réalisée dans la Forêt de Ngotto en République centrafricaine.

Étude de cas no 4. Techniques de quantification des exsudats et plus précisément de la gomme de Sterculia setigera. L'objet de l'étude sera de déterminer la production saisonnière en gomme dans une parcelle inventoriée (à partir du nombre de pieds disponibles par chasse de diamètre). Les conclusions de cette étude, qui sera menée au Tchad, permettront de proposer une approche pour la gestion soutenable de cette ressource.

 

Resource assessment of non-wood forest products. Experience and biometric principles - new publication in FAO's NWFP series

A new publication in FAO's NWFP series is intended as reference material for practitioners considering inventory of NWFP resources. Through review and analysis of experience it provides an overview of biometric issues in the design of NWFP inventory in the following areas:

This publication will be of most interest to people with some previous knowledge of the basics of inventory. It is based on the outputs of Forest Research Programme (FRP) pre-project ZF0077 (of the United Kingdom Department for International Development [DFID]) on the biometrics of current NWFP resource assessment methods. This project organized a workshop which brought together a range of people interested in NWFP assessment to discuss the need for quantitative assessments and to decide on priority research themes. The workshop was held in Rome in May 2000 and was hosted by the European Tropical Forest Research Network (ETFRN) and FAO. The workshop endorsed the findings of the review and provided the impetus for the publication of this paper.

Jennifer Wong wrote the review paper and the final draft of the publication was prepared by Jennifer Wong, Kirsti Thornber and Nell Baker. FAO undertook the publishing in its Non-Wood Forest Products series, within the framework of a current partnership programme with the European Commission aimed at developing methodologies for NWFP assessment.

The publication has been translated into French and Spanish and is accompanied by a trilingual CD-ROM.

Copies of all three versions can be purchased from FAO's Sales and Marketing Group ([email protected]).

For more information, please contact:

François Ndeckere-Ziangba,
FAO NWFP Programme.
E-mail: [email protected]


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