Domestication of Wildlife Species

Various countries in Africa have started projects to domesticate wild animal species to produce meat and to decrease the hunt on animals living in the wild. Often these projects are sponsored by international NGO's and not by the Ministry of Agriculture in a country. As a result, the outcomes of the projects, the findings and the scientific information created in such projects are not being considered in national policies. The information stays localized and does not get disseminated effectively.

This section of the website of the West African Bushmeat Network serves to spread the knowledge we have on the domestication of wildlife species. Readers are strongly encouraged to share their experience on domestication by sending a brief project outline (please fill in the format, which can be downloaded here).

Please send any information you have concerning domesticating, farming, feeding, breeding, processing etc. of wild animal species to the focal point of the website: WABN@fao.org

• What about the wild animals? Wild animal species in community forestry in the tropics. Community Forestry Note 13, 1995 by Kent H. Redford, Robert Godshalk and Kiran Asher
  Wild animals, from ants to elephants, represent a natural resource of great significance for most forest-dwelling communities, as well as for those living in many other rural contexts. In spite of this, most development projects ignore their role in subsistence as well as non-subsistence rural economies. The purpose of this Community Forestry Note is to fill the vacuum left by the fact that in community forestry, as well as in agroforestry and other development activities, the contribution of wildlife to rural livelihoods has been greatly undervalued. The intent is to raise wild animals to their rightful value in the community forestry development process, and to provide an input for designing projects in ways that better fit the reality of most rural people in the tropics.
• Rabbit project development strategies in subsistence farming systems by S.D. Lukefahr and P R. Cheeke in Animal genetic resources - Ressources génétiques animales - Recursos genéticos animales - 68 1991/3
• Non-wood forest products for rural income and sustainable forestry, Non-wood forest products 7, 1995.
  • Scope for domestication of species
• Twenty-third Regional Conference for Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1-5 March 2004
  
  • Information item: The Bushmeat Crisis in Africa: Conciliating Food Security and Biodiversity Conservation in the continent
• Better feeding for improved production 73 - 1992/4, World Animal Review
  • Herd dynamics modelling applied to a venison ranch in Kenya by H. Fink and R. Baptist
• Strategies for dry season feeding of animals in Central and Southern Africa Proceedings of a joint ZSAP/FAO Workshop held in Harare, Zimbabwe, 25th - 27th October 1999. Organizing committee: J. de Castro, D. Holness, J. Sikosana, G. Smith. Edited by: D. H. Holness
• Deer farming, guidelines on practical aspects By Antoon de Vos, FAO Animal production and health paper 27.

top of page