Description:
The study addresses the importance of wildlife to people, and as a resource of nutritional, economic, and socio-cultural values, and examines the complexities of hunting in tropical forests. It also expresses that today, such hunting is rarely sustainable, because of declining forest areas, which decreases wildlife populations; because of changes among human populations in the tropical forests, who have increasingly become more sedentary; because of cultural changes, where social taboos against hunting certain species are breaking down, and systems of traditional hunting territories are disappearing; and, because environmental economic changes, prod the commercialization of wildlife hunting in these areas. The study explores the multifaceted, and complex problem of hunting, suggesting solutions must be area specific, based on detailed knowledge of hunting patterns, ecology, and local socio-cultural conditions. Recommendations include: establishment of national networks to manage protected, and extractive reserves areas, to supply subsistence needs to local hunting communities; establish land uses to support protected/extractive reserves areas in partnership with local communities; enact, comply, and enforce regulations to prevent exploitation by timber companies' workers; and, encourage participatory approaches among non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, and the international community at large