Health alert over rise in bushmeat trade

Research carried out by the group in 2004 indicated that as much as 40 per cent of meat sold as beef or goat in certain Nairobi butcheries was either wholly or partially bushmeat.

Julius Kipng’etich, Director of Kenya Wildlife Service, said: “Commercial trade in bushmeat is a conservation challenge that KWS takes very seriously.”

The chief executive of Born Free, Will Travers, said the foundation was “attempting to halt illegal and unsustainable trade in bushmeat,” in conjunction with KWS.

Ian Redmond, Born Free’s senior wildlife consultant, added that commercial bushmeat trade was now “out of control.”

But tackling the poachers needs money, good vehicles, efficient communication and committed wildlife rangers.

Born Free says the issue is “not just about saving individual animals, important as that is.

“It is about preserving functioning eco-systems that bring benefits to every person on the planet. The ecosystem services provided by Africa’s forests and savannahs include rainfall, carbon storage and stabilising the global climate. So we all have an interest in preventing a few profiteers from destroying these important ecosystems for personal gain.”

Organised criminals can poach hundreds of animals at a time. A typical lone poacher can ensnare between 40 to 50 animals a day, five or six of which will be caught and sold in informal butcheries as bushmeat.

The Kenyan government, which condemns the practice as strictly illegal, is trying to eradicate the trade but lacks the resources and the manpower to do so.

The Independent newspaper says individual poachers have often been forced into the trade by a rise in poverty.