- The rate at which Africa is devouring its wildlife is
entirely unsustainable, Cameroon's Environment Minister says.
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- He is demanding international action to control the trade,
which produces as much as five million tonnes of bushmeat from the Congo
basin alone every year.
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- The trade threatens the survival of several already endangered
species, including elephants and great apes.
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- The minister, Chief Clarkson Oben Tanyi-Mbianyor, is
visiting London to address a Bushmeat Campaign conference.
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- The campaign says Mr Tanyi's call for international cooperation
is the first time any African leader has made such a proposal.
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- Time to stop
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- The aim of the conference is to secure agreement on how
to tackle the unsustainable bushmeat trade, in which London plays a prominent
part.
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- Other speakers include Ghana's Minister for Lands and
Forests, Dominic Fobih, the Okyenhene (tribal king) of Akyem Abuakwa in
eastern Ghana, the UK's International Development Minister, Gareth Thomas
MP, and representatives of the timber trade.
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- Mr Tanyi told BBC News Online: "I am calling on
our partners to try to help our efforts in fighting the bushmeat trade.
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- "What we are saying is that we cannot go on selling
bushmeat, because people believe in looking after the environment.
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- "It's not local consumption that's the problem,
but the wider trade, taking the meat into the towns and out of the country.
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- "So we're calling on our partners to fight the trade
by helping us to recruit and train eco-guards, and by providing local people
with alternative ways of earning a living that will keep them out of the
forest.
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- "Some of these forest concessions can be up to 70,000
hectares in size, so the guards will need to be able to communicate with
each other. We're hoping other countries will help us to equip them.
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- "This is in the context of Cameroon itself, of course.
But I am also speaking in a wider context, about the need to fight the
bushmeat trade across west and central Africa.
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- Looking for action
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- "And I'll be asking Mr Thomas for his help in stamping
it out in the UK. But the best way to tackle it is to fight it at source,
and keep the animals in the forest."
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- Adam Matthews, the Bushmeat Campaign's director, is hoping
Mr Thomas will spell out how the UK Department for International Development
plans to implement the conclusions of a recent study it carried out on
the links between wildlife and poverty.
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- He said: "Now that African governments have recognised
that bushmeat is a priority the international community must act, act now,
and act quickly to make funding available to address the bushmeat crisis."
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- Mr Matthews told BBC News Online: "That study said
150 million people - one in eight of the world's poor - depend on wildlife
for both protein and income.
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- "The report's recommendations were excellent, but
we have yet to see any move towards carrying them out. I hope the UK will
incorporate wildlife into its poverty strategies."
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- Some zoologists believe the bushmeat trade is so important
to people's survival that it would be better to try to control it than
to stamp it out.
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- They say it may be possible to tell when large species
like apes are reaching a dangerous point by seeing when smaller animals
like cane rats enter the market.
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- The smaller species tend to do so just before the flagship
animals reach crisis point, and this could serve as a warning mechanism.
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- © BBC MMIII
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3314529.stm
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