The bushmeat market in Lagos is booming despite concerns by conservationists about the large-scale commercial hunting of slower-breeding species like apes and monkeys, as well as other endangered species for consumption and trade, writes CHINEDUM UWAEGBULAM.
Years after the Ebola virus, bush meat markets still thrive in different locations in Lagos, despite warnings by World Health Organisation (WHO) and efforts by conservationists to curb the trend.
In Oluwo market in Epe, an outskirt of Lagos, bush meat is not in short supply from crocodile, grass cutter, antelope, and bush pig to deer, both seasoned and dried. It’s a common sight in eateries, restaurant in these areas, which also promote their catch online and offline meat shop with assorted varieties of local dishes.
The market is one of the biggest in the city, where bush meat is sold unchallenged. The market, which is as old as the Epe city has become entrenched into the culture of the community and the mood, is festive daily, as customers besiege the market.
Tens of millions of Africans rely on bushmeat and wild fish for up to 80 per cent of their protein, and recent calls to end the trade because of links to Ebola virus outbreaks could never be enforced, said Robert Nasi, Deputy Director General of the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), as an estimated five million tonnes of bushmeat is consumed on the continent every year.
This consumption also overlaps with the illegal trade networks, fueling the trade in protected species like elephants and pangolins. While studies have shown that bushmeat consumption in Nigeria is influenced by a number of factors such as taste, health, and culture, there is little information on the attitudes, awareness, preferences, and reservations of the general public in major cities such as Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Calabar.
Wild Africa Fund (WAF), formerly WildAid sampled 2,000 respondents in 2020 across four major cities in Nigeria. Results found that over 70 per cent of urban Nigerians have consumed bushmeat at some point in their lives, and 45per cent consumed it within the last year.
Taste and flavour are significant factors influencing urban bushmeat consumption, with about 51 per cent of bushmeat consumers indicating that it is one of the primary reasons for their choice.
Grasscutter (cane rat or Thryonomys swinderianus) and antelopes (such as bushbuck, red-flanked duiker, bay duiker, Maxwell’s duiker, black duiker, Ogilby’s duiker, yellow-backed duiker, and dwarf antelope) were reported as the most commonly eaten species and were also the most desirable animals, even without taking price into account.
More than half of consumers surveyed believe that there is less bushmeat available now as compared to five years ago. The Endangered Species (Control of International Trade and Traffic) (Amendment) Act, 2016 and several other federal and state laws that impose penalties on hunting and trading of species like pangolins, rock pythons, elephants, and some antelope species, were found to be poor deterrents on consumer behavior, as 54 per cent of consumers believe that all bushmeat is legal to buy, and 88 per cent believe that some or all bushmeat should be legal to buy.
Around 98 per cent of urban bushmeat consumers indicated that there are suitable alternatives to bushmeat, with one-third of consumers citing fish as the most appropriate substitute, followed by chicken.
However, urban consumers demonstrate a sense of worry about the impact of their choices on wildlife populations. Thirty-eight per cent of consumers indicated concern about animals going extinct in the wild as one of the top reasons why they would consider avoiding bushmeat consumption.
By extension, almost 80 per cent feel that it is the responsibility of the federal or state governments to protect Nigeria’s wildlife, while 69 per cent of urban bushmeat consumers sampled believe iconic species like lions and elephants should be protected, and 59 per cent believe that these animals are an important part of Nigerian heritage.
Wildlife in Nigeria faces a number of threats from poaching for body parts and meat, to habitat loss from deforestation, infrastructure development, and agricultural expansion. Populations of lions, elephants, gorillas and chimpanzees have dramatically declined and some species, such as pangolins, are either endangered or on the brink of extinction. Other declining species, including crocodiles and antelope species like duikers, are widely found in bushmeat markets across the country.
In addition to bushmeat consumption, Nigeria has emerged as the primary transit hub in Africa for ivory and pangolin scales exported to Asian countries. The country was linked to about half of all pangolin scale seizures globally between 2016-2019.
While wildlife laws and penalties were upgraded in 2016, they are often poorly understood by the public and law enforcement officials and frequently go unenforced by authorities.
The bushmeat supply chain varies and largely depends on the species involved. The supply chain starts with primary suppliers such as hunters, who typically capture the grasscutter from the wild to sell to local middlemen/wholesalers or directly to bushmeat traders that sell to end consumers, comprising individuals and restaurant operators. At Oluwo market, bushmeat traders say they purchase grasscutters from hunters in nearby and remote villages and bring them to urban markets.
With pangolins considered to be the world’s most trafficked wild mammal, bushmeat traders say they receive live pangolins from hunters in neighbouring towns and villages, which lie close to forest habitats. In most cases, the hunters sell directly to market traders who then sell them to locals and Chinese expatriates.
While the meat is consumed locally, bushmeat traders often work together to consolidate scales into a larger quantity and sell to mostly Chinese expatriates, who then export the scales illegally to China, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Singapore. In some cases, Chinese middlemen also visit rural communities to purchase directly from agents or intermediaries who aggregate scales from hunters.
The Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) reported that an estimated 206.4 tonnes of pangolin scales were seized between 2016 and 2019, and more than half of these seizures were linked to Nigeria, underscoring the West African nation’s prominent role in the supply chain of pangolin scales.
Bushmeat market traders say scales originating from Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, and Democratic Republic of the Congo are brought into Nigeria, added to the locally sourced scales before being exported overseas.
Although pangolins account for just two per cent of species consumed by those surveyed, Nigeria is considered to be one of the largest markets for pangolin meat, demonstrating the massive impact that even low levels of consumption can have on protected species. WAF Africa Director, Mr. Linus Unah, advised against indiscriminate consumption of bushmeat to avert the extinction of some animals.
“We need to educate urban Nigerians, who typically live far away from forests where bushmeat is often harvested, about the risks of zoonotic diseases, the conservation impact of bushmeat trade and the fact that current wildlife laws prohibit the hunting and trade of several species,
“Faced with enormous threats including hunting for bushmeat, wildlife species in Nigeria have declined dramatically over the past 50 years. Today, Nigeria has fewer than 50 lions, 100 gorillas, 500 elephants and between 1,400 to 2,300 chimpanzees left in the wild,” he said.
WAF Coordinator, Market Unit and Research, Dr. Mark Ofua, explained that illegal bushmeat consumption or trade in animals or their by-products whose killing, trading and consumption are banned by law. These animals are deemed as protected by these extant laws and thus their consumption is illegal.
He said: “Legal bushmeat are wild animals permitted by law to consume and there are usually animals whose conservation status is of least concern because the animals are abundant in nature and usually have a very high rate of reproduction such that their rate of replenishment is more than the rate of consumption and so are not in danger of extinction.
“In Nigeria, every animal, anything, and everything that breathes and moves and is not human is considered fair game for bushmeat. From birds to bats to snakes to frogs, lizards, crocodiles and turtles, practically anything is killed, sold, and eaten as bushmeat and we often do this to our detriment.
“Animals classified by law as illegal bushmeat are listed by such laws and one must familiarise with these laws to be on the safe side. Generally, all animals classified as endangered and listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), appendix I and II to which Nigeria is a party are illegal to consume.”
He disclosed that over 70 per cent of human diseases originated from animals. “We have however developed innate immunity to these diseases or the drugs to combat these should they arise. The fear and the danger, therefore, arise when this inordinate consumption of bushmeat gives rise to the possibility of the outbreak of new and emerging diseases to which we do not have immunity or drugs or even the understanding to contain them.
“These diseases that can spread from animals to humans are known as zoonotic diseases. The hunting, trade, and consumption of wild meat, or bushmeat, in Nigeria is a past, current, and potential future zoonotic disease risk. Disease-causing organisms that have spread to humans from bushmeat include Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), monkeypox virus, Ebola viruses, anthrax, and Lassa fever amongst others,” Ofua added.
