On April 16 and 17, 2007, a seminar organized by the International Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) on “the implication of parties taking part in the reinforcement and application of the regulation of meat from the Bush” took place in Libreville, Gabon. The goal of this meeting was to reinforce the application of laws already in effect.

But, what is this meat from the Bush?
Meat from the Bush generally refers to the flesh of wild animals destined for consumption.
In Gabon, it commonly comes from monkeys, (porc-et-pic), wild boar, crocodile, gazelle, pangolin, snake, hippopotamus, buffalo, and elephant trunk.
The problems with meat from the Bush are numerous. For example:

• The majority of these animals are protected species.
• Trade isn’t limited to Gabon. It is generally international trafficking, and it has a much larger base market than the one inside the country of origin. This puts even more protected species in danger.
• The risk of transferring sickness to man (because the meat cannot be traced, it isn’t refrigerated, etc.), which then becomes an epidemic, is prevalent.
• The environment is destroyed because of dwindling forest populations.
  
  
  

monkeys elephant trunk

Current laws are not respected
Gabonese law assumes that hunting won’t take place between defined dates (hunting is banned for six months each year, between September and March, when animals are normally reproducing); won’t exceed strict quotas (no more than two animals from the same species, or four animals from different species, killed each day by each hunter); and won’t include completely protected species.
Yet, the problems associated with hunting wild animals for their meat persist despite the repression of poaching by the country’s authorities. This meat comes primarily from villages, the forest (which covers 80% of the territory), and forest rangers, who often work hand in hand with the hunters and vendors.
 Moreover, “the development of the Transgabonese highway, as well as the highway system that cuts through the equatorial forest, supports the transport of animals (dead or alive) towards Libreville… thus, it is urgent to reinforce the control in markets, and on railcars and timber trucks (where cargo is often questionable)…”

 

reptiles heads Hornbill beak

The Brigitte Bardot Foundation intervenes

All of these reasons, coupled with the event of the seminar organized for April 16-17, 2007, compelled the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, through the voice of its president, to intervene and call President El. Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba to remind him of, among other things, “the CITES Conference that will take place in a few weeks. … It is urgent to control the development of international trafficking where meat from the Bush is concerned because it threatens numerous protected species.”
In fact, “all of this is unacceptable and should be firmly denounced. It is vital to punish and educate the young Gabonese, so that they understand how urgent and important the protection and defense of this natural wealth is when weakened by the lure of profit.”
The Brigitte Bardot Foundation proposed, to the President, concrete aide to guide this project (against international trafficking). It would be a true cooperation between two countries – like in Senegal, Mali, or Chad, where the Brigitte Bardot Foundation “solicited and obtained (in the past) the support of French forces to aid the national police and anti-poaching patrols, so that their mission would be brought closer to the animals it serves (donations of observation equipment, communication devices, vehicles, etc.).”  

The feet of small monkeys A stand with monkey, antelope, and other meat