Sustainable Wildlife Management

The Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme is lucky right now to have biologist Franciany Braga-Pereira on the team! Fran, From 13 April to 8 May, has been conducting a wild meat trade survey in Regions 1 (Mabaruma), 8 (Mahdia, Princeville, Micobie, Campbelltown), and 10 (Linden, Kwakwani, and Ituni) in the hinterland of Guyana. Fran visited areas with different socioecological characteristics regarding mining and logging activities, urbanization level, predominant ethnicity, human density, vegetation type, and etc. Some interesting information gathered from the trip:
- The most traded species in the interior included paca, tapir, white-lipped peccary, deer, agouti, and Black Curassow.
- Most sellers have mentioned the number of customers has increased and the number of animals (mainly the lowland paca) has decreased in the last 5 years. - Few sellers have mentioned significant changes during the COVID 19 pandemic.
- The species and amount of wild meat being traded have been influenced by the eletricity and transportation availability.