Hunting Ban
On October 27, 2007, the government of Equatorial Guinea banned the hunting and consumption of primates, a move likely to dramatically improve the conservation status of endangered monkeys on Bioko Island.
Background on hunting written prior to the ban
The major threat to the wildlife of Bioko Island is the commercial shotgun hunting of larger wildlife, especially primates and duikers (forest antelope), for the bushmeat market in the capital city of Malabo.
Since it began in the mid-1980’s, commercial shotgun hunting has steadily eliminated wildlife from Bioko, moving from north to south. In the north, Pico Basile National Park, which was the major habitat for black colobus and Preuss’s monkey as recently as the late 1990’s, now has almost no monkeys. In the south, the Gran Caldera Southern Highlands Scientific Reserve is coming under increasing pressure from hunters. The two protected areas make up more than 40% of the island’s area.
Bioko Island map showing protected areas and hunting camps.
Enlarge image
Monkeys are taken almost entirely (99 %) by shotgun rather than by trapping, so the threat to the monkeys is limited to shotgun hunters.
Shotgun hunters sell between 40 and 60 percent of the monkey they shoot to women who resell the monkeys and other bushmeat in Malabo’s Municipal Market. Monkeys are resold at about an 88 percent markup, leaving market women with monthly net revenues of approximately 5,210,000 Fcfa (US$ 10,500) on average monthly sales of 300 monkeys. Total revenue accumulating to the bushmeat sellers for monkeys is estimated to be Fcfa 62,500,000 (US$113,000) for 2005.
Nearly all of the monkeys killed on Bioko for the bushmeat trade are killed with shotguns, of which there are around 90 used in 21 hunting camps located mostly in the southern end of the Island. In total, during 2005, the 75 shotgun hunters received, on average, a gross monthly income of about 3,240,000 Fcfa (~US$ 6,500) from the sale of the monkeys they shot. After firearm and ammunition expenses, the average hunter was left with approximately Fcfa 35,000 (~US$ 70) in monthly income. Shotgun hunters have diverse backgrounds and supplement their incomes by farming and trapping.
Sea turtles are also captured as they come ashore to nest and sold as bushmeat. Although hunting these animals is forbidden by law (both as endangered species, and because they live in a protected area), the law is not enforced. The deployment of government-funded park rangers is now on the horizon, but still several years from realization. In the meantime, several monkey species could disappear from the island as the result of this unsustainable hunting.
The challenge now is to stop the shotgun hunting before major species become extinct, not only for the sake of biodiversity, but also because the appeal of these intact forests, complete with their wildlife, can be leveraged to upgrade the academic standards of UNGE, the national university of Equatorial Guinea. This strategy has been at the core of the partnership with UNGE.
