Bushmeat hunting around Lomami National Park 423 Focus group discussions were organized in the same way
in all villages, and were facilitated and translated by a person of the same ethnicity as the inhabitants of the village stud- ied. Discussions focused on: (1) preferred wildlife species used for household consumption (i.e. those eaten more often) at the village level (not at the participants’ own house- holds), (2) preferred species used for income generation at the village level, and (3) observed changes in species’ popu- lations and potential explanations for these changes. We specifically asked participants to identify (and agree upon) the three most important species for household consump- tion or income generation.We also discussed hunting tech- niques. During discussions we clarified that by species for income generation we specifically asked about those killed for bushmeat. Some primates may be traded as pets and some pangolins for medicinal purposes, but we did not dis- cuss these uses as they are not widespread in the study area (RB, pers. obs., 2018). We used photos from available literature (e.g. Kingdon,
2006) to confirm which species the vernacular names used during the focus group discussions referred to. Wealso took photos of carcasses and showed them to Park staff to con- firm species identity in some cases.
Kindu market survey
Our market survey took place in Kindu (c. 450,000 inhabi- tants; Population Data, 2018), the largest urban centre near Lomami National Park (Fig. 1) and a major trading centre for timber, bushmeat, agricultural products and minerals. The bushmeat market is open every day during the open season (October–June), during which it is legal to hunt and trade non-threatened species. We conducted the survey in October 2018, after the closed season (July–September). We conducted interviews with 30 vendors, which was c. 50% of the vendors in the market during our study period. These 30 vendors participated in our survey on a voluntary basis, and their responses were kept anonymous. Although this is a relatively small number of vendors, the species ac- cumulation curve (Supplementary Fig. 1) indicates that we captured the majority of species for sale. We gathered data on the number of species traded, their price and format (fresh/smoked), their origin (i.e. village), the volumes sold per week, and perceived changes over time in species’ availability. Carcasses offered for sale were identified using photos and vernacular names, as in the village surveys. We also recorded age, gender, and socio-ethnic group of all vendors. We gathered market data with amixed approach: obser-
vation of market stall (which species a vendor had on her/his stall, and how many individuals of each) and vendor recall (we asked her/him to estimate how many carcasses of each species she/he usually sold per week during the open season,
and if any species commonly sold were not in her/his mar- ket stall that day). We multiplied vendor recall estimate on weekly volumes by the number of weeks during the open season (30 weeks/year) to estimate annual trading volumes. Although vendors mentioned that they also traded dur-
ing the closed season, we did not ask them about volumes sold during that period and thus did not include those in our analysis. During the closed season bushmeat is not sold openly, but customers ask vendors in the vegetable market for it, and vendors retrieve the bushmeat from hid- den places. Direct observation (counting numbers of species and individuals per day and vendor) was not possible during the closed season as vendors would suspect that we may work for the National Parks Authority (see Discussion for limitations of the study).
Data analysis
Species’ scientific names and conservation status followed the IUCN Red List (IUCN, 2018). To determine the effects of ethnicity on villagers’ re-
sponses, the four villages of each ethnic group were pooled (villages of the same ethnic group were in close vicinity to each other). Estimated travel times by motorbike (these vil- lages are not accessible by four-wheeled motor vehicles) to Kindu are as follows: Kusu 6.5 h, Kuti 7.5 h, Ngengele 3 h, Silwamba 5 h, Tetela 6.5 h and Mbote 8 h, with the latter two inaccessible by motorbike during most of the rainy season. We observed no differences between ethnic groups, nor by distance to Kindu. We therefore combined all 24 focus group discussions and report responses as per cent of the total. For Kindu market data, we extrapolated volumes in
number of carcasses, biomass and monetary value of the annual harvest from the mean number of carcasses traded per week per vendor (from vendor recall), multiplied by number of vendors, similar to Gonedelé et al. (2017). We extracted mean biomass for each species from Kingdon (2006), assuming equal distribution of male and female individuals amongst the carcasses. A large proportion of carcasses were smoked and therefore our prices per kg (compared with beef or chicken) and annual retail values are approximate. We report price per smoked rather than fresh carcass, because we only found a few fresh carcasses of some species. Our estimates represent a minimum vol- ume and retail value of bushmeat trade in Kindu because we calculated annual volumes excluding the closed season (although most vendors mentioned trading during that season), and we only surveyed c. 50% of the vendors in the market and computed annual volumes using this number of vendors. Because study participants did not mention any change in species’ presence or abundance related to the cre- ation of the Park in 2016, we do not discuss this further.
Oryx, 2021, 55(3), 421–431 © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605319001017
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