1 October 2014 – CIFOR’s Robert Nasi with co-authors Simon Pooley and John E. Fa published a letter in New Scientist in response to Tennyson Williams’ recommendation to clamp down on bushmeat trade in Africa.
An excerpt of their response:
We fear that in a time when “paranoia and uncertainty… drive behaviours reminiscent of those during the Black Death”, as Williams states, identifying bats, chimpanzees and other species as primary sources of this terrible scourge could trigger attempts to eradicate these animals.
It also smacks of hypocrisy to ask these African governments to forbid the use of local natural resources in this way. By analogy, following the spread in the UK of BSE – aka mad cow disease – should British citizens have given up eating and trading beef once and for all?
Read the full text at New Scientist.
Learn more about CIFOR’s work on Ebola and bushmeat.
