title: Long-term spatio-temporal changes in a West African bushmeat trade system.
abstract: Landscapes in many developing countries consist of a heterogeneous matrix of mixed agriculture and forest. Many of the generalist species in this matrix are increasingly traded in the bushmeat markets of West and Central Africa. However, to date there has been little quantification of how the spatial configuration of the landscape influences the urban bushmeat trade over time. As anthropogenic landscapes become the face of rural West Africa, understanding the dynamics of these systems has important implications for conservation and landscape management. The bushmeat production of an area is likely to be defined by landscape characteristics such as habitat disturbance, hunting pressure, level of protection, and distance to market. We explored (SSG, tense) the role of these four characteristics in the spatio-temporal dynamics of the commercial bushmeat trade around the city of Kumasi, Ghana, over 27 years (1978 to 2004). We used geographic information system methods to generate maps delineating the spatial characteristics of the landscapes. These data were combined with spatially explicit market data collected in the main fresh bushmeat market in Kumasi to explore the relationship between trade volume (measured in terms of number of carcasses) and landscape characteristics. Over time, rodents, specifically cane rats (Thryonomys swinderianus), became more abundant in the trade relative to ungulates and the catchment area of the bushmeat market expanded. Areas of intermediate disturbance supplied more bushmeat, but protected areas had no effect. Heavily hunted areas showed significant declines in bushmeat supply over time. Our results highlight the role that low intensity, heterogeneous agricultural landscapes can play in providing ecosystem services, such as bushmeat, and therefore the importance of incorporating bushmeat into ecosystem service mapping exercises. Our results also indicate that even where high bushmeat production is possible, current harvest levels may cause wildlife depletion.
authors.affiliation: Imperial College London, Division of Biology, Silwood Park Campus, Manor House, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, Berks, SL5 7PY, United Kingdom.|Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regents Park, London, NW1 4RY, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McNamara
authors.affiliation: Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regents Park, London, NW1 4RY, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Kusimi
authors.affiliation: University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Rowcliffe
authors.affiliation: Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regents Park, London, NW1 4RY, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cowlishaw
authors.affiliation: Ghana Wildlife Division, Forestry Commission, Accra, Ghana.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brenyah
authors.affiliation: Imperial College London, Division of Biology, Silwood Park Campus, Manor House, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, Berks, SL5 7PY, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Milner-Gulland
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D003132:Commerce; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D005869:Ghana; D008322:Mammals / Q000502:physiology*; D008460:Meat / Q000191:economics*; D011157:Population Dynamics; D014186:Transportation
keywords: Africa; bosque; cambios en el uso de suelo; cambios en la cobertura de suelo; conservation planning; detección remota; ecosystem management; forest; land-cover change; land-use change; land-use planning; manejo de ecosistemas; planeación de la conservación; planeación del uso de suelo; remote sensing; África