Assessing local knowledge of bushmeat species, abundance and persistence of hunting livelihoods in the fragmented forest islands of Dahomey Gap (southern Benin)

Abstract

Landscapes that are somewhat changed by human activities evidence a decrease in biodiversity. Southern Benin has experienced a major forest habitat fragmentation resulting from several forest patches with only one sizable patch considered as mainland according to the theory of island biogeography. The research objectives were to gauge the current population trends of bushmeat species in southern Benin using Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) from local hunters gathered from a questionnaire and assess the harvest and hunting drivers in the fragmented forest islands of Dahomey Gap in southern Benin. Our study highlighted the abundance and rarity statute of 35 bushmeat species in the fragmented forest islands of Dahomey Gap in Southern Benin. Several abundant species in the Lama forest (mainland) were listed as rare in the forest islands. We grouped the recorded bushmeat species into nine orders: Artiodactyla, Carnivora, Galliforma, Hyracoida, Lagomorpha, Pholidota, Primates, Rodentia and Squamata. Some functional groups such as Carnivora, Primates, Artiodactyla, Pholidota, Carnivora and Hyracoida were found predominantly in the Lama forest (mainland) while Rodentia order observed in the forest islands according to the TEK. This observation significantly increases with the perimeter of forest patches. Also the near distance of the forest islands to the mainland affects the number of games hunted with an increasing of the hunted pressure in the forest island while close to the Lama Forest (mainland). In addition to the Lama forest, we recorded the presence of four endangered species (C. e. erythrogaster, Perodicticus potto C. vellerosus, Phataginus tricuspis) from local perception in the forest islands evidencing the importance of these forests although tiny in Benin wildlife protection. This raises out the ineffectiveness of conservation measures in place in the fragmented ecosystems of southern Benin, as conservation of the larger fragment (Lama Forest) would not be effective in conserving wildlife diversity in its entirety.