Managing wildlife to conserve amazonian forests: population biology and economic considerations of game hunting

Abstract Rural inhabitants in Amazonia can overexploit many mammalian species by game hunting, and tropical forests lose their value as a source of game meat when mammal populations decline. Implementing a sustainable hunt should reduce overexploitation of animals, and therefore help retain the value of intact Amazonian ecosystems. Rural folk in the Tahuayo region of the Reserva Comunal Tamshiyacu—Tahuayo of northeastern Peru appear to be overharvesting primates and lowland tapir Tapirus terrestris , but are apparently not overexploiting artiodactyls and large rodents. Converting the current overhunting in Tahuayo to a more sustainable harvest would require cessation of hunting of overexploited species and the setting of artiodactyl and large rodent harvests at or below current levels. Costs of implementing a more sustainable hunt in Tahuayo would incur a 26% reduction of economic benefits for hunters and reduce the extraction of mammalian biomass by 35%.