Sub-Saharan Africa is a pretty tough place to try and eke out a living, whether you are a human being, a forest antelope, or a threatened species of monkey. The conditions in Gabon, for example, are such that many families are on the verge of serious malnutrition and starvation. 

 

The only way these rural villagers can obtain any protein in their diets is to slip into nearby forests and hunt whatever animals they can find, either with bow and arrow or with snare traps. Can you blame them? Would you do the same, if your spouse and children were so desperately hungry and relying on you to bring home something to eat?

This is the issue at the heart of the "bush meat" trade, which threatens to exterminate many rare species from the rain forests of Africa. (The term "bush meat" means "whatever you find," whether it's a bird, a wild boar, a monkey, or a jaguar. If you're hungry enough, it's all just meat.) On one hand you have conservationists who are working to save the animals and preserve the ecosystem, which is under threats at every side. On the other hand you have people - human beings just like you and me - who are literally at risk of starving to death.

 

If this seems like an insoluble dilemma, you would be in good company. Governments and NGOs have been trying to halt or reduce the trade in bush meat for decades, with little result. The problem is that no matter how hard you work to educate people about threatened species, or patrol protected areas, people are pretty determined when it comes to feeding their family. 

 

A recent anthropological survey has shown that most of the bush meat is being taken by hungry people who eat it locally, not by (as was previously assumed) people hunting meat in order to sell it at the larger markets. In other words, for the most part bush meat is not a cash crop - it is a subsistence crop.

 

One possible solution? Chickens.

 

Chickens, that staple the world over, are not currently being reared in the Gabon villages where people hunt bush meat. These villages are situated in the heart of the rain forests, where rearing traditional livestock has not been feasible. But chickens require little in the way of care or shelter, and a flock of chickens can be kept communally. Best of all, other studies found that chickens passed the "taste test" in Central Africa, where they were ranked in the middle of the bush meat pantheon in terms of flavor.

 

Could a few flocks of hens and a rooster solve this intractable ecological issue? Here's hoping!