The Bas Ogooué is important habitat for vulnerable, endangered, and critically endangered species including African forest elephants, hippos, chimpanzees, western gorillas, giant pangolins, African manatees, red-capped mangabeys, African dwarf crocodiles, and Central African slender-snouted crocodiles and other species all threatened by illegal bushmeat trade. To raise awareness about protected species and to change consumer preferences for bushmeat, we work with hunters, vendors, restaurant owners, and Lambaréné area residents.
Market Vendor Coop
When we first started our outreach in 2012 on protected species in Lambaréné restaurants, many would not talk to us, let alone allow us to open every cooking pot to do a survey. Now the heads of the main market, Marché Isaac, have pledged to stop serving protected species in their restaurants and most market restaurant owners display protected species posters on their walls. A group of 14 restaurant owners have legalized the first restaurant cooperative in Gabon, “Inonghe Coop: Responsible Vendors and Protectors of Biodiversity” and signed pledges to no longer sell illegal meat and to spread the word about protected species laws. We collaborate with Inonghe on a variety of conservation related projects including an upcoming cookbook for conservation.
Since 2012, OELO has surveyed the largest bushmeat market in Lambaréné, marché Isaac, to monitor changes in bushmeat availability. After years of outreach, environmental ed, and building community partnerships with local leaders, we had recorded a 93% decrease in illegal bushmeat for sale on market tables. Our market surveys are compiled biannually, at the beginning and closing of the hunting season, and shared with local conservation partners. While in 2012 it was common to find species like African manatees and elephants openly for sale and even printed on menus, by 2020 species protected under Gabonese law had all but disappeared from market commerce on both market tables and in market-side restaurants.
Projet Faux Gavial
In the past, the most frequently recorded bushmeat at the market was crocodile from two species that are both fully protected under national law. Particularly troubling was open commerce of the newly described species the Central African slender-snouted crocodile. In 2014 we launched a citizen science initiative “Projet Faux Gavial,” with our student led nature clubs, to record commerce of this critically endangered species and to spread awareness. Now crocodile commerce is on the decline.
