Bushmeat Working Group Activities

Ape Alliance

These are the steps that the Ape Alliance would like to see logging firms implement:

1. Ensure that your employees, their families, and other parties present on your concessions* obey the wildlife laws of the country within which you are operating.

2. Make sure that none of the species protected by national law are hunted un your concessions.

3. Ensure that there is no bushmeat exported from your concessions.

4. Ensure that hunters are not transported into/within the specified concessions on logging trucks or other vehicles.

5. Do not allow hunters to reside in logging camps on your concessions.

6. Make sure that workers in camps in the above specified concessions are provided with sufficient protein to ensure that hunting for food is not necessary.

7. Do not allow workers in these camps to possess unlicensed firearms.

8. Regulate the type of ammunition available to people on the above specified concessions in compliance with national law.

9. Do not allow the use of snares in your concessions.

10. On leaving a concession ensure that further vehicle access is impeded.

11. Make sure that chemicals are disposed of in responsible fashion, avoiding contamination of local water sources.

12. Ensure that awareness of national wildlife laws is raised amongst the communities in your concessions.

[* concessions includes those that you have holdings in.]

In addiition to this set of measures there should be a separate sheet detailing national wildlife law, a list of protected animals, and 'recommended actions/methods' relating to the enumerated points such as:

re. 6. The Ape Alliance realises that this may take some time to implement, but expects you to work towards full provision of protein for workers on your concessions. This can be done by providing meat through outlets on site at or near to cost price.

re. 9. The use of snares is indiscriminate and affects species of animals that are protected by national and international law. It is, therefore, necessary to prevent their use. This can be done by limiting the availability of wire on the concessions, but would also be controlled by a ban on exportation of meat, and by increased provision of protein. Additionally, snares could be checked for by certifiers and other enforcement bodies on the ground.

re. 10. This could be done by destroying bridges and ploughing up side cuttings and roads. The former is cheap as bridges are constructed of local timber and therefore on reentering a concession can be rebuilt from the same materials cut on site. The ploughing of side roads not only inhibits vehicle access deeper into the forest, but also promotes secondary growth which can be beneficial to some species including gorillas and elephants.

Richard Banwell (pers. comm.) makes the following points about the code of conduct.

1. Government Wildlife and Forest Conservation personnel should be assisted to visit and patrol concession areas.
2. Timber companies should be responsible for passing information in illegal activities to the relevant authorities.
3. Well managed protected areas must remain a cornerstone of rainforest conservation initiatives, which logging companies must be made to respect. This is also the area where capacity building and other forms of support by local and international NGOs can be most effective.