In Tropical and sub-tropical Range States, wildmeat is an important source of
nutrition and income, but current extraction levels of vulnerable taxa are considered
unsustainable. As such, wildmeat use is often seen as problematic for wildlife
conservation. From a development perspective, balancing the nutritional needs
of people who depend on wildmeat with biodiversity conservation is the greatest
challenge. But why can’t wildmeat use be seen as an ally for conservation?
Most analysis of wildmeat use have framed the problem around a rather simplistic
paradigm where wildmeat use is unsustainable and should therefore be reduced or
stopped to ensure wildlife conservation. Indeed, until the early start of this century
most research efforts have been rooted in the biological disciplines, focused on
quantifying the magnitude of the trade and measuring its level of destruction on
wildlife species and ecosystems. This most often led to the institution of prohibitive
policies intended for the protection of the wild resources, such as separating
people from wildlife, expanding tightly-managed protected area networks, blanket
criminalization of wild meat hunting, and increasing enforcement and interdiction
measures. More recently, based on the elucidation of the role of wild meat in human
livelihoods, some practitioners defend the idea that consumptive uses of wildlife are
the only way to save it in the long run.