Illegal Harvesting within a Protected Area: Spatial Distribution of Activities, Social Drivers of Wild Meat Consumption, and Wildlife Conservation

International audienceThe African tropical forests host an inestimable number of resources, including food,medicine, vegetal and animal species. Among them, chimpanzees are threatened with extinction byhuman activities affecting their habitats, such as forest product harvesting, and/or more directly,snaring and trafficking. We aimed to better understand the spatial distribution of these illegalactivities, and the reasons for setting snares and consuming wild meat in an agricultural landscape(subsistence farming and cash crops) densely populated near a protected area (Sebitoli, Northernpart of Kibale National Park, Uganda). To carry out this study, we combined GPS records of illegalactivities collected with group counts (in total, n = 339 tea workers, 678 villagers, and 1885 children)and individual interviews (n = 74 tea workers, 42 villagers, and 35 children). A quarter of illegalactivities collected (n = 1661) targeted animal resources and about 60% were recorded in specific areas(southwest and northeast) of the Sebitoli chimpanzee home range. Wild meat consumption, which isillegal in Uganda, is a relatively common practice among participants (17.1% to 54.1% of respondentsdepending on actor types and census methods). However, consumers declared that they eat wildmeat unfrequently (0.6 to 2.8 times per year). Being a young man coming from districts contiguousto Kibale National Park particularly raises the odds of consuming wild meat. Such an analysiscontributes to the understanding of wild meat hunting among traditional rural and agriculturalsocieties from East Africa