Schulte-Herbrüggen Björn, Cowlishaw Guy, Homewood Katherine, Rowcliffe J Marcus
Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, United Kingdom ; Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2013 Aug 16;8(8):e72807. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0072807. eCollection 2013.
Bushmeat is an important resource in the livelihoods of many rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa and may be a crucial safety-net for the most vulnerable households, especially during times of economic hardship. However, little is known about the impacts of wildlife depletion on these functions. This study quantifies the role of bushmeat in diversified rural household economies in a wildlife depleted forest-farm landscape in Ghana, assessing its importance overall, as well as differentiated by the relative vulnerability of households. Using repeat socioeconomic questionnaires (N=787) among 63 households over a one-year period, the following hypotheses were tested: (a) vulnerable households harvest more bushmeat; (b) bushmeat contributes a greater proportion of household production in vulnerable households; (c) bushmeat is more important for cash income than consumption in vulnerable households; and (d) bushmeat sales are more important for vulnerable households. The bushmeat harvest value averaged less than US$1.0 per day for 89% of households and comprised less than 7% of household production value. Household wealth and gender of the household head had little effect on the importance of bushmeat. However, bushmeat harvest and sales were highest during the agricultural lean season. Overall, most harvested bushmeat (64%) was consumed, enabling households to spend 30% less on meat/fish purchases. These findings suggest that, despite heavily depleted wildlife and diversified livelihoods, bushmeat continues to have an important role in rural livelihoods by acting as a safety net for income smoothing and reducing household expenditure during times of economic hardship.
在撒哈拉以南非洲的许多农村社区，丛林肉是重要的生计资源，对最脆弱的家庭而言可能是关键的安全保障，尤其是在经济困难时期。然而，人们对野生动物数量减少对这些功能的影响知之甚少。本研究量化了丛林肉在加纳野生动物数量减少的农林景观中多样化农村家庭经济中的作用，评估了其总体重要性，以及按家庭相对脆弱程度区分的重要性。通过在一年时间里对63户家庭进行重复的社会经济问卷调查（N = 787），检验了以下假设：（a）脆弱家庭捕获更多的丛林肉；（b）丛林肉在脆弱家庭的家庭生产中所占比例更大；（c）在脆弱家庭中，丛林肉对现金收入比对消费更重要；（d）丛林肉销售对脆弱家庭更重要。89%的家庭丛林肉捕获价值平均每天不到1.0美元，占家庭生产价值不到7%。家庭财富和户主性别对丛林肉的重要性影响不大。然而，丛林肉的捕获和销售在农业淡季最高。总体而言，大多数捕获的丛林肉（64%）被消费，使家庭在肉类/鱼类购买上的支出减少30%。这些发现表明，尽管野生动物数量大幅减少且生计多样化，但丛林肉在农村生计中仍继续发挥重要作用，即在经济困难时期作为收入平滑和减少家庭支出的安全保障。
