|
Actress-activist Stefanie
Powers
Discusses the Bushmeat Crisis
at the National Press Club
|
From Left to Right:Dr. J.
Michael Fay,
Ms. Stefanie
Powers, 1. Heather E. Eves
and Dr. Michael Hutchins
© RG Ruggiero |
"I'd like to thank the National
Press Club and its president,
Richard Ryan, as well as Emily
Murray, for allowing me to speak to
you this afternoon on an issue that
is very important to me: the
Bushmeat Crisis in Africa.
Unsustainable hunting has become the
most immediate threat to the future
of wildlife on the continent. "Bushmeat,"
which refers to all African
wildlife species used for
meat, is a wildlife and
human crisis on the
continent. It's causing
wildlife extinction and
disease transmission from
animals to humans. While
this crisis is devastating
in its magnitude, there are
many factors contributing to
the crisis, making it a
challenge to resolve.
Economics, population
growth, industry, local |
traditions,
hunting regulations and government
policies all play a role in this
complex issue. To eliminate the
illegal killing of wild life for
commercial gain there is a
ground-breaking effort in the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force.
I am speaking to you today
on their behalf, because the work of
this group in only two years has
nevertheless created some remarkable
results. Only yesterday the BCTF
concluded their 2001 international
collaborative action planning
meeting. Later in this presentation,
I will share with you the results of
this meeting, which are being
reported to you here for the very
first time.
You may be wondering why an
actress like me is reporting to you
about a crisis that is happening
thousands of miles away. While
acting is my career, I actually lead
a double life, one that is dedicated
to wildlife conservation in Africa
and around the world. Ever since my
childhood I have had a love for
animals, both domestic and wild. But
it wasn't until I met the late actor
William Holden that my interest in
Africa and conservation really
heightened. In honor of his memory,
I co-founded the William Holden
Wildlife Foundation, and today I
serve as its president. It was
Bill's dedication to preventing
species extinction that affected me
so deeply.
With the dedication of the
William Holden Wildlife Foundation
to education and conserving wildlife
in Africa, we were dismayed to
discover in recent years the
dramatic increase -- and the
widespread -- of illegal hunting and
the trading of meat from wild
animals, otherwise known as "bushmeat."
This practice proliferates
throughout Africa, especially where
large tracts of logging are in
progress. It is this practice of
overexploitation of natural
resources that exposes new and
virgin environments where wildlife
has sought refuge, wildlife that in
many cases is threatened or
endangered.
The bushmeat crisis is
probably something that isn't
familiar to everyone. Allow me to
take a step back and explain. In
Africa, natural land is often
referred to as "the bush." Thus
wildlife and the meat derived from
it is referred to as "bush meat."
This term applies to all wildlife
species, including many of those
that are threatened and endangered.
These species are used for meat,
including elephants, gorillas,
chimpanzees, other primates, forest
antelope, bush pig, porcupine,
monitor lizards and various other
species.
Through habitat loss -- and
it is often cited that habitat loss
is the primary cause of wildlife
extinction, the illegal commercial
hunting for the meat of wild species
has become the most immediate threat
to the future of wildlife
populations in Africa. Wildlife has
been hunted for food ever since
humans first evolved, and wildlife
is still viewed as a resource for
free food for the taking.
Today in Africa bushmeat
continues to be an economically
important food and a trade item for
thousands of poor, rural and urban
families. Animal parts are also
important in their rituals, and
bushmeat has become a status symbol
for the urban elite trying to retain
links to the village often
commanding extremely high prices in
city restaurants.
Africa, as many of you know,
has one of the highest population
rates in the world -- some 30
million people live within the
forested regions of Central Africa.
Forty to 60 percent live in cities
and towns; and most rely on the
meat. Wildlife is a primary source
of animal protein. Forest antelope,
pigs and primates are most often
eaten, and as many as one million
metric tons of wildlife is killed
for food in that region every year.
West African wildlife
populations have been so depleted by
years of unsustainable hunting for
meat that the bushmeat is no longer
the most important source of protein
in the family diets; it simply
doesn't exist. When bushmeat is
eaten in West Africa, rodents have
replaced the over-hunted and now
scarce antelope and primates as the
most commonly eaten wildlife.
In East and southern Africa
the same factors driving the
bushmeat crisis elsewhere are
evident: poverty, lack of economic
alternatives, protein sources and,
after three years of drought, the
demand is no longer relegated to
traditional or subsistence
communities, but it has become an
integral part of trade and of
economic activity throughout both
rural and urban communities.
Logging is an economically
important land usage throughout West
and Central Africa; but it is also a
major threat to wildlife throughout
the world. Present selective logging
practices not only result in
increased consumption of bushmeat
within concession areas; but also it
facilitates the supply of bushmeat
to urban markets and enhances the
profitability of the trade.
Logging progresses like a
wave over the landscape. As timber
companies enter into unlogged areas
in search of the few valuable trees
that are scattered throughout the
forest, once these rare trees are
logged the company quickly moves to
another area.
This road-building activity
both heavily fragments the forest
and it opens it up to hunters. A
hunting trip for bushmeat that might
have taken days to complete before
the arrival of the loggers may be
reduced to just a few hours. In
addition, with the help of the
logging company drivers and their
vehicles, hunters no longer have to
carry dead animals for long
distances, and can kill many more
animals on each trip.
There is documented evidence
that logging companies not only
directly increase demand for meat by
hiring a large work force; they also
greatly facilitate their workers'
entry into the commercial trade to
supply bushmeat to urban markets.
This is the scenario that existed
decades ago in West Africa, and it's
what contributed to the widespread
and dramatic declines in wildlife
populations evidenced there today.
Advocacy and media attention
at the international level has
encouraged several multinational
companies to develop partnerships
with conservation NGOs to design and
implement activities to curb the
flow of bushmeat from concessions,
and to provide logging company
workers and their families with
alternatives to bushmeat.
A code of good conduct for
logging companies who are active in
the region is also being developed.
Rising demand for bushmeat, lack of
economic options for rural and urban
communities, the absence of
affordable substitutes, the opening
up of frontier forests by logging
and mining companies and the fact
that anyone can hunt almost anywhere
and trade the meat with few if any
restrictions, are the most important
factors driving the commercial
hunting and working against wildlife
conservation.
So, what can be done, and
what should be the next step to
eliminating the illegal commercial
bushmeat trade? The Bush Meat Crisis
Task Force is a major step forward.
The BCTF was formed just over two
years ago as a result of meetings
hosted by the American Zoological
and Aquarium Association. The AZA
called together a group of the
world's leading experts on bushmeat
in order to identify what actions
could be taken to address the
bushmeat crisis. At the conclusion
of that meeting the Bush Meat Crisis
Task Force was born. The BCTF, as a
consortium of conservation
organizations and scientists
dedicated to the conservation of
wildlife populations threatened by
commercial hunting of wildlife for
sale as meat. I mentioned earlier
that the BCTF had just concluded
yesterday its international
collaborative action planning
meeting. I am honored to deliver to
you the results of this meeting and
their recommendations for ending the
bushmeat crisis.
This level of international
cooperation and collaboration is
significant. True conservation of
wildlife cannot take place without
it. The additional goal of the BCTF
meeting was to develop a four-year
action plan to partner with other
African members in leveraging
limited human and financial
resources, so members can work
together as efficiently as possible
to develop and implement solutions
to the bushmeat crisis.
To do so BCTF members will
spend the next three months
assessing their own plans and will
report specific commitments back to
the international collaborative. At
that time an integrated plan for
international action will be
crafted. The primary goals
identified by the BCTF for the plan
are the general education of key
international decision makers and
support of its members' efforts in
the areas of public education,
proposed development, catalyzing
action locally, and information
dissemination and archiving.
The group details specific
long-term and short-term actions to
take place in both the United States
and Africa. Long-term actions
include new wildlife management
policy development; sustainable
financing for conservation
activities; public education and
protected area management and
monitoring; short-term actions
including forming hunter and market
seller trade associations, building
the physical and technical capacity
to control trade routes, brokering
linkage among non-governmental
organizations, governments and
private industries, public outreach
and raising awareness and developing
economic and protein alternatives.
Specific steps included in the plan
are: assisting in the development of
national wildlife policies,
addressing food security and poverty
reduction issues, and strengthening
existing wildlife protection. I know
from personal experience that these
steps will make a definable
difference. Awareness of the
bushmeat crisis must permeate the
global community.
The crisis goes beyond
conservation issues. So the
solutions must involve groups
ranging from the World Bank, the IMF,
to arms organizations to
humanitarian aid groups. This is
crucial that Americans become
involved in solving the bushmeat
crisis. There is no way to set a
value for Africa's wildlife. While
it's impossible for most of us to
picture the world without it, we are
faced with that very real
possibility within our lifetime.
Beyond the beauty and intrinsic
value of nature, we must acknowledge
that we are dependent upon Africa's
resources in many ways, some very
visible -- gold, diamonds, woods,
and for the minerals used in making
capacitors used in cellular phones.
I believe that Bill Holden
would be quite proud of the BCTF and
their call to action to end the
bushmeat crisis and to preserve
wildlife. I know that I am certainly
proud of their achievements and
goals for the future. Bill once was
quoted to say, "wildlife is an echo
of our own beginnings." His
statement is a true reflection of
our past. Let us learn from our past
and eliminate the bushmeat crisis,
and secure the future for our
wildlife.
Thank you."
Stefanie Powers
President, WHWF |
