Foraging in the fallows: Hunting patterns across a successional continuum in the Peruvian Amazon

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Abstract

Studies comparing hunting between secondary and mature forests are critical to understanding secondary forests’ potential as sustainable hunting grounds. I examined hunting across a successional continuum by surveying 67 households in three communities near the Cordillera Azul National Park, Peru, and analyzing the potential for sustainable hunting. Ninety-nine percent of households surveyed went hunting during the six-month study. Ninety-one species were recorded from seven vertebrate and invertebrate classes, with mammals the most hunted. Five percent of extraction events were species of concern on IUCN’s Red List. Households extracted significantly more, in terms of number of species, number of collection events, and biomass, from older forests (>20 y) than from young secondary (1–5 y) or old secondary forests (5–20 y). However, when extraction is measured per unit area (kg/km2 or collection events/km2), households extracted more wildlife from old secondary forest. Households consumed meat at rates below Amazon regional averages. However, because human population densities are well above carrying capacity, current low harvest rates are likely a relic of past overharvests and do not reflect sustainability. Even if management focuses on source-sink dynamics with buffer zone hunting resupplied by protected area populations, long-term sustainability seems doubtful. As more agricultural clearing converts older forests to fields and fallows, the role of secondary forests in resource management plans will increase. The impact of high human population densities in the region means conservation and development programs should focus more on supplying alternative sources of protein and income and limiting immigration into the area.

Introduction

Both land conversion and hunting are major threats to tropical wildlife. Agricultural clearing has created a mosaic of much of the world’s tropical forests. Areas of mature forest are often surrounded by a patchwork of secondary forests, fields, and pastureland. Hunting has drastically reduced wildlife numbers in many areas of the tropics, and is considered the major cause of population decline in one-third of threatened bird and mammal species (Rosser and Mainka, 2002). In addition, hunting has led to numerous local extinctions (Rao and McGowan, 2002 and references therein). In areas with larger human populations, hunting has emptied forests of game, dramatically altering forest species compositions, and leading to a cascade of ecological impacts (Redford, 1992, Chapman and Onderdonk, 1998, Wright et al., 2000, Kaiser and Jennings, 2001, Wright, 2003).

A synergy exists between agricultural forest clearance and the impact of hunting on wildlife. Wildlife is a critical resource for rural poor throughout the tropics, with bushmeat acting as a major protein source (Bennett et al., 2000, Rao and McGowan, 2002), and as a means of income (Bodmer et al., 1994, Eves and Ruggiero, 2000). Increased access to forest interiors, caused by migration to frontiers and more roads, facilitates forest clearing and leads to more hunting. With more people clearing forests, hunting is bound to increase in frequency. In addition, agriculture presents those species capable of adapting to a human-dominated landscape with food supplies in the form of crops. Crop raiding can cause substantial losses for farmers on the forest frontier, and these losses are often balanced with the gains from hunting in fields and fallows (Naughton-Treves et al., 2003, Smith, 2005). Some wildlife species, particularly those with short-lived individuals, shorter generation times, and higher intrinsic rates of increase, can actually increase in abundance in human-dominated environments due to forest disturbance or even in response to harvesting (Bodmer et al., 1997, Lopes and Ferrari, 2000, Peres, 2000).

Robinson and Bennett (2004) hypothesize that secondary forests may have a greater supply of wildlife than either mature forests or newly cleared fields, and that the secondary forest supply of meat may often be greater than the demand from hunting. Therefore, hunting in these secondary forests has the greatest potential to be sustainable in the long-term. Such a scenario would support conservation and development programs that seek to establish multiple use areas in buffer zones surrounding protected areas, where human influences lead to more secondary forest cover. These zones might take advantage of the large numbers of anthropogenic species in fallows while still protecting mature forest obligates within adjacent protected areas. Such a strategy could meet development goals by providing local people with access to the secondary forest game species, which are generally not a major concern for the conservation efforts focused on mature forest species. However, the potential of these secondary forests to act as reservoirs for wildlife depends on numerous factors, including human population density, cultural norms, and ecology, which determine the ultimate impact hunting has on wildlife (Cuaron, 2000, Peres, 2000, Robinson and Bennett, 2000).

Quantitative studies that compare hunting between secondary and mature tropical forests are critical to understanding the role secondary forests and buffer zones can play as sustainable hunting grounds. To date, no studies have examined wildlife use across a successional continuum in forests of different ages. Researchers have focused on hunting in fields/gardens versus mature forests and found mixed results with some studies showing more hunting in older forests (e.g., Naughton-Treves et al., 2003) and others the opposite trend (e.g., Smith, 2005). My research contributes to the literature on tropical hunting by examining the use of fauna in young secondary forests, old secondary forests, and older forests in the buffer zone of a national park in the Peruvian Amazon and analyzing the potential for sustainable hunting in this region.

Section snippets

Methods

My research focused on three human communities in the northwestern section of the Cordillera Azul National Park’s buffer zone. I selected communities with similar population sizes and forest ecology. The communities sampled depend on slash-and-burn agriculture, hunting, and gathering of river and forest products for subsistence. All three communities are situated within lowland tropical moist forest between 200 and 500 m. I selected houses at random (community leaders pulled names from a hat)

Results

Ninety-one animal folk species were recorded from seven different classes. Although I recorded all uses of fauna, the analysis presented here remains consistent with the definition of hunting put forth by Robinson and Bennett (2000), and thus is limited to those species of mammals, reptiles, and birds that are captured by humans. I have not included data in this analysis from the species collected in the four other classes, including eight species of fish, seven species of insects, two species

Discussion

The results presented here provide information on where hunting is occurring, who is involved, what is being hunted, and how sustainable current hunting practices might be. Together these data have important implications for conservation strategies in the Cordillera Azul.

In the Cordillera Azul hunters extract more animals and biomass from older forests (>20 y). The most hunted animals, even those typically associated with fields and young forests, were taken most often from older forests.

Acknowledgements

Financial support was provided by the Conservation, Food, and Health Foundation, Switzer Foundation, US Fulbright Programs, Garden Club of America, Conservation and Research Foundation, Ronald Bamford Endowment of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and the Graduate School and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of the University of Connecticut. For logistical support and advice I thank the staff of the Centro de Conservacion, Investigacion, y Manejo de Recursos

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