Bushmeat in Cameroon. Photo: Inge Luyten
Hunting is a major cause of ape population decline, in both Africa and Southeast Asia. This is usually driven by trade in their meat (bushmeat), and to a lesser extent in live infant apes or body parts; the latter being used for ceremonial or medicinal purposes. Occasionally hunting results when humans and (other) apes come into conflict, for example over crop-raiding by the apes, where agriculture encroaches on, or is adjacent to, their natural habitats.
Hunting of all great apes and many gibbon species is illegal in their range states. In many countries, however, legislation is often poorly enforced or easily circumvented, so hunting continues.
The bushmeat trade and other traditional uses of dead apes
The bushmeat trade is the commercial exploitation of wild animals for meat. This trade is enormous in both Africa and Southeast Asia. Bushmeat hunting in most places has long ceased to be subsistence hunting by indigenous communities. Instead much bushmeat hunting of apes is illegal, unsustainable and highly commercialised. As a consequence of habitat loss, primarily due to the timber industry, forests are increasingly opened up and fragmented. Professional hunters thus have greater access into these habitats and to apes, ensuring an on-going supply of bushmeat for the trade. Supply chains from rural areas to urban centres are well established, and it is not unusual for them to cross international borders.
In many parts of Africa primates are eaten widely, and although apes make up a relatively low proportion of the trade, hunting of apes is nevertheless a major conservation issue. Great ape meat is reputed to give the consumer strength or cunning. In addition, as a high-value commodity it confirms the status of the person serving it to guests. Ape parts are also used in traditional medicine. The high value of the meat and other body parts is also an obvious incentive for hunters and others in the supply chain.
Trade in live apes
The trade in live apes is also a major conservation issue, occurring both within country, mainly for the pet trade, and also internationally. Illegal international trade in apes takes place for the pet trade, for private collections and for some zoos in regions lacking regulation and with no managed breeding programmes.
In Africa this live trade is largely a by-product of the bushmeat trade. Groups of apes are killed for meat; any young that survive go into the pet trade. Confiscated pets are taken into sanctuaries. Very few of these animals have been reintroduced due to the lack of identified, secure reintroduction sites, inadequate social or survival skills among sanctuary animals, and the great expense of such projects. It remains, however, a goal among many sanctuaries.
In Southeast Asia, the pet trade in orangutans has been a serious problem in the past. Between 1995 and 1999 as many as 1,000 infant orangutans were reported to have been imported into Taiwan. Much of this trade has now been stopped, but the pet trade remains highly lucrative. Despite Indonesian law protecting orangutan and gibbon species from hunting for 75 years now, population declines of all these species show that hunting continues. As in Africa, confiscated apes arrive in sanctuaries in large numbers.
CITES
International trade in wild animals is regulated through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora (CITES). Apes are listed on Appendix 1, which means that it is illegal for signatories to this convention to import or export them, unless there are special circumstances, in which case a licence is required. At the time of writing, all countries with endemic ape populations are signatories to this convention, as are many European countries. However, most trade is undercover and often associated will other illegal activities.
In spite of CITES controls, illegal international trade continues, including both meat into Europe and live apes to the middle east and far east.
