In 2020, WildAid, an environmental organisation, surveyed 2,000 people in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Calabar. The survey in the report titled: “Understanding Urban Consumption of Bushmeat in Nigeria,” discovered that 71 percent of participants had eaten bushmeat at some point in their life, with 45 percent eating it within that year.
Bushmeat is a term used to describe wildlife species consumed by people. Animals such as pangolins, elephants, and gorillas, among others, are often poached and their meat consumed.
However, hunting for bushmeat, particularly rare species, lowers their populations and may lead to extinction. Furthermore, the bushmeat trade feeds into the illicit wildlife trade of endangered animals, such as the pangolin.
In addition, bushmeat consumption has public health implications. Recent research has connected bushmeat intake to the Ebola outbreak, which expanded across West African countries in 2014 and 2015 and claimed over 11,000 lives.
Unfortunately, a new trend is shaping the demand for illegal bushmeat. It is online. E-commerce websites and social media platforms have emerged as the new online marketplaces for illegal bushmeat trade.
A health hazard
As stated earlier, consumption of bushmeat does have health consequences. COVID-19, the pandemic of the modern era reportedly began from animal sources. Aljazeera reported that the virus was first detected in Wuhan, China in late December 2019, and was quickly linked to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. Removed from the market were the exotic wildlife, such as raccoon dogs and bamboo rats, that many scientists believe was the intermediary step between horseshoe bats – a common reservoir for coronaviruses and endemic to the area around Wuhan – and COVID-19’s jump to humans.
Prior to COVID-19, Nigeria faced with zoonotic illnesses such as Lassa fever and monkeypox. The Lassa Fever outbreak in 2020 was exceptionally severe, killing 244 people, the largest number of deaths ever associated with the disease, which is common in Nigeria and some parts of West Africa.
However, according to the survey by WildAid, “COVID-19 appears to have had a minimal and likely temporary impact on people’s immediate consumption behaviour. Like many countries, a wave of conspiracy theories, misinformation, and myths about the origin, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19 has spread across Nigeria since the country recorded its first confirmed case in late February 2020. Many Nigerians believe the pandemic is not real and question the credibility of statistics surrounding confirmed cases, deaths, and discharges released by health authorities.”
Therefore, the survey noted that “despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the links between the bushmeat trade and the spread of zoonotic diseases, 75 percent of the respondents intend to eat bushmeat in the future.” This is a cause for concern for conservationists.
The conventional supply chain
An investigation by Wild Aid revealed that the conventional method by which trade in bushmeat occurs is in-person trading and supply. The bushmeat supply chain varies and largely depends on the species involved. For example, grasscutter is a common bushmeat item. Its 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, who in turn sell to end consumers comprising individuals and restaurant operators.
Wild Aid discovered that at a certain market in Lagos, bushmeat traders reported that they buy grasscutters from hunters in nearby and remote villages and bring them to urban markets. They are often kept with different species of animals. The traders then sell to restaurant owners and to other retailers who resell in smaller quantities in urban markets.
With pangolins, bushmeat traders say they receive live pangolins from hunters in neighboring 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.
The shift online
However, there has been innovation of sorts with bushmeat trade that has leveraged technology. The internet is a place where anonymity and secrecy can thrive and certain individuals are taking advantage of this fact to trade bushmeat.
Dr Mark Ofua, a veterinarian, wildlife conservationist and country representative for Wild Africa, noted that “The sale of bushmeat online has been on for a while because the internet gives you a kind of pseudo presence. Criminals have over time exploited this. On social media, criminals with pseudonyms and locations illegally trade bushmeat and wildlife openly. They get buyers and agree on where to meet and do they trade.”
He said lion cubs, cheetah cubs, pangolins, elephant tusks are openly on sale online. “In Nigeria, this is a problem because in the open markets where these things were sold, it is no longer business as usual as Customs officers and NESREA officials carry out raids. So, they have gone to the web. We now see people post crocodile meat for sale; restaurants are included!”
Dr Ofua noted that the online space offers a wider market for the illegal sale of wildlife and bushmeat. “In the open market, it is only when customers come to the market before they can sell. But by putting it on social media, it is there for the whole world to see!” This makes it easy for illegal wildlife trade to cross borders.
He told Nigerian Tribune: “The internet has made it easier for them to carry out this dastardly act without even stepping out of their rooms. There’s no cash involved. The seller brings the illegal wildlife or bushmeat to the buyer at an agreed location, business is done and every one of them is happy! The internet has facilitated illegal wildlife trade!”
According to him, the routes used for illegal wildlife trade are the same used for other nefarious activities, such as illicit drug trafficking.
“It is high time we focused on illegal wildlife trade online and curtail it,” said Ofua.
New law to the rescue?
As indicated in the survey contained in the report, “Understanding Urban Consumption Of Bushmeat In Nigeria” by WildAid, The Endangered Species (Control of International Trade and Traffic) (Amendment) Act, 2016 and several other existing 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 percent of consumers believe that all bushmeat is legal to buy, and 88 percent believe that some or all bushmeat should be legal to buy.
Wilson Ogoke, Wildlife Policy Coordinator with Africa Nature Investors (ANI) Foundation agrees with the above observation. He stated that Nigeria’s suite of laws pertaining to the conservation of wildlife is no longer fit for purpose.
“Notable shortcomings include the very narrow protections afforded wildlife species and the even narrower range of offences which are both insufficient to address immense threats to biodiversity in our country and across Africa.
“Implementation has also not been great as the laws are ridden with gaps and inconsistencies, which make effective implementation very difficult. As a result of this, over time, unsustainably high levels of poaching have led to local extinctions of some of our iconic wildlife species.
“These shortcomings in our laws are also largely responsible for our country’s unfortunate emergence as a hub for trafficking in illicit wildlife products like elephant ivory and pangolin scales sourced from other countries in west and central Africa,” Ogoke noted.
To address these gaps, Ogoke said that a new and comprehensive law that addresses the issues must be introduced.
He said, “Fortunately, to address these issues, Nigeria has recently introduced the Endangered Species Conservation and Protection Bill 2024 which aims to provide for the conservation and management of Nigeria’s wildlife as required under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and other wildlife-related conventions to which Nigeria is party.
“The bill has passed both first and second readings in the House of Representatives and is now at the committee stage, after which it will go back to the full house for a third reading.
“Championed by Hon. Terseer Ugbor, the Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Environment, the bill aims at pressing challenges such as illegal wildlife trade, habitat loss and the decline of Nigeria’s unique wildlife populations. The Bill seeks to improve the capabilities of law enforcement agencies, give investigators more powers to look into financial matters and conduct operations guided by intelligence, and enable judges to speed up wildlife cases and recover assets. Additionally, it aligns with international treaties, encourages global cooperation and introduces strict penalties for poachers and traffickers.”
He told the Nigerian Tribune that the proposed bill would also address issues such as illegal online wildlife trade.
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