Biological Resource Use in African Rural Communities: Are International Frameworks Enough?

Abstract

International agreements such as CITES and the Nagoya Protocol provide a standardized and top-down approach to the cross-border movement of genetic and biological materials. However, there are often problems in applying these at local levels, especially where rural communities depend on biological resources for food, livelihoods, and medicine, as well as for informal trade networks. This is particularly the case in Africa where poaching, rare species trade, and bushmeat cause negative impacts on biodiversity and increase the likelihood of zoonotic diseases. This study investigates the pinch-points in the enforcement of these international agreements, including the lived reality of community interactions with biological resources in Africa, with a particular focus on forest ecosystems. This is undertaken through an examination of relevant literature across a range of academic disciplines in which community engagement with forest ecosystems in Africa has taken place. Results show that local communities use forest resources and ecosystem services in a variety of ways, strongly influenced by indigenous knowledge systems. Informal trade networks in forested areas, especially in a cross-border context, present risks to compliance with CITES and the Nagoya Protocol because of the unregulated transfer of biological and genetic materials that may include endangered species, bushmeat, and illegal goods such as ivory. This analysis shows that there are limitations to these international agreements in regulating biological and genetic resource use in Africa. Working with local communities to address sustainable ecosystem service exploitation and trading in biological and genetic resources may be a more fruitful approach.