STOP THE BUSHMEAT TRADE!!!!!!!!!!!

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Author: Tayler Kaplan

Started: June 29, 2007, 4:26:56 pm

Target: President George W. Bush

Category: Environment

Supporters:

Goal:

100,000

Goal Progress:

Status

Active

Great apes -- gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos -- are being hunted to extinction for commercial bushmeat in the equatorial forests of west and central Africa. A ragged far flung army of a few thousand commercial bushmeat hunters supported by the timber industry infrastructure will illegally shoot and butcher more than two billion dollars worth of wildlife this year, including as many as 8,000 endangered great apes. People pay a premium to eat more great apes each year than are now kept in all the zoos and laboratories of the world. If the slaughter continues at its current pace, the remaining wild apes in Africa will be gone within the next fifteen to fifty years. With them will vanish most of the equatorial rain forest, and the cultures of indigenous people who have lived there for millennia.

It is time that those of us who care about the survival and well-being of the apes, and all life in Africa, confront this crisis. Since our first reports to the international conservation community in 1996 the Bushmeat Project has been urging conservation donors to support programs aimed at helping the African people protect the apes and other endangered animals. The largest wildlife and animal welfare organizations in North America joined us in 1999 in agreement that the Bushmeat Crisis is a top priority concern. It is time to act.
source: bushmeat.net

Gorillas, chimpanzees, elephants and many other wild animals are being killed for human consumption. The illegal bushmeat trade threatens the future of many endangered species

The bushmeat trade is now an unsustainable commercial business. Vast profits are being generated, it is no longer simply a subsistence occupation for local people
More than 1 million tonnes of wild animals every year are killed for their meat in the tropical forests of Africa
Roads made by logging and mining companies have created easier access for hunters to the forest and its wildlife. These roads facilitate transport to markets and bushmeat is often taken to towns on the logging vehicles.*Robinson et al, Wildlife Harvest in Logged Tropical Forests, Science, 23.4.99.
If we don't do anything
bushmeat hunting at the present levels will lead to:

THE EXTINCTION OF MOST LARGE ANIMAL SPECIES IN THE HUNTING AREAS WITHIN THE NEXT FEW DECADES
That includes elephants, gorillas, leopards, bonobos, duikers, chimpanzees...
A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
The impact of over-hunting affects people too. The sources of food, medicine and livelihood that indigenous communities depend upon are being severely depleted. Unsustainable exploitation is critically reducing vital human resources.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP:
Please get in touch with your local Zoo and sign the petition and join us in asking:
AFRICAN LEADERS
* To enforce the existing wildlife laws which should protect endangered species
* To recognize the need for sustainable management of Africa's wildlife and make serious moves to address this issue
THE EUROPEAN UNION
* To ensure no aid is directed to projects that will assist the illegal bushmeat trade
* To encourage and support African governments in the containment of this trade
Our target is one million signatures
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED TO SAVE THE APES
and other wildlife threatened by the bushmeat trade

source: rainforest live