Pattern and sustainability of the bushmeat trade in the Haut Niger National Park, Republic of Guinea

To document the bushmeat trade in the buffer zone of the Haut Niger National Park (HNNP), Republic of Guinea, we monitored the number of carcasses offered for sale in 16 villages over a one year period in 2001. Overall, we counted a total of 9134 carcasses from 27 species. This represents a biomass harvest of about 170,000 kg, a figure that could reach 335,100 kg when game consumed by hunters (i.e. not sold) and markets not sampled are taken into account. Ungulates (eleven species) and rodents (four species) accounted for 53.5% and 24.8% of the carcasses counted respectively (80.8% and 11.4% of the total biomass, respectively). The number of carcasses counted in villages bordering a heavily trafficked road was significantly higher than in more rural villages, thus highlighting the stimulating effect of roads on the bushmeat trade. Compared with existing data collected in 1995, the proportion of ungulates counted in the Mansira Moribaya village in 2001 increased significantly while that of rodents decreased significantly. The harvest of duiker species at Mansira Moribaya was in excess of the maximum sustainable harvest. These results of this study were used to establish a sustainable wildlife management scheme in the HNNP.