In the Global North, hunting has ceased to be a subsistence activity and has become leisure or sport. However, in Central Africa the situation is very different: there, high-cost sport hunting in private reserves coexists with illegal practices linked to the trade of species and with traditional forms of hunting that ensure meat consumption in regions where livestock farming does not exist or is not sufficient to supply the population.
Beyond ivory and horns
When talking about illegal hunting, it is often thought of elephants killed for their ivory or rhinos hunted for their horns, destined for international markets such as those of traditional medicine in Asia. But in the Congo Basin, there is another more silent and widespread reality: hunting for human consumption, which includes both authorized and protected and threatened species.
The boundaries of protected areas are permeable, and this practice constitutes one of the great current challenges for conservation.
The case of Equatorial Guinea
A study conducted in 2025 by the Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC), the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC), and the INDEFOR-AP, with support from the Psittacus Foundation, revealed that more than 25% of the species hunted in rural communities or marketed in urban markets are threatened species.
- In 1990, only two consumed species were at risk.
- Today there are 15 threatened and another 8 endangered according to the IUCN.
Among them are emblematic species such as chimpanzees and gorillas, sold as meat, pets, or even ritual remains. Also, the red-tailed grey parrot, marketed as a pet despite being globally threatened. The consumption of pangolins and monkeys has increased, leading these species to a critical state of conservation.
A growing pressure
Although Equatorial Guinea maintains relatively well-preserved forests and low population density, in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo the situation is more severe. There, the bushmeat trade connects the forests with the eastern mining regions, in a context of high demand and armed conflicts. Thousands of people depend on this source of protein, generating a constant flow of smoked meat for transport and conservation.
The pressure on fauna adds to deforestation and other factors. In the Lomami National Park, for example, the arrest of a poacher transporting a bonobo, an endemic and severely threatened species, was documented, whose hunting can carry up to five years in prison.
Conservation and subsistence: a dilemma
Field studies are essential to gauge the impact of this activity, which is often underestimated by focusing only on urban markets. The reality is uncomfortable: conservation cannot be based solely on prohibition when hunting constitutes the main source of protein for millions of people.
In the jungles of Central Africa, not only the future of emblematic species is at stake, but also the balance between human subsistence and the capacity of ecosystems to sustain it. Ignoring this tension will not make it disappear; understanding it is the first step to designing fairer and more effective conservation strategies.
