Hunting sustainability within two eastern Amazon Extractive Reserves

Subsistence hunting provides an important food source for rural populations in tropical forests but can lead to wildlife depletion. Management of wildlife resources depends on assessments of hunting sustainability. We assessed the sustainability of subsistence hunting in two Amazonian Extractive Reserves. We examined hunting data from a community-based monitoring programme conducted in 30 communities during 63 consecutive months to address temporal trends in hunting yields in terms of catch per unit of effort of all game species and the six most hunted species. We also assessed the prey profiles across different communities. Game species composition did not differ between monitored communities, and the most hunted species were Tayassu pecari, large cracids, Cuniculus paca, Mazama spp., Tapirus terrestris and Pecari tajacu. Catch per unit of effort was stable for all game species and each of the most hunted species, indicating that hunting was generally sustainable. These findings reflect the exceptionally low human population density and continuous forest cover of the study landscape, and long-term hunting sustainability and local protein acquisition will depend on maintaining these social and environmental settings. The results also show that large Sustainable Use Protected Areas can help foster sustainable game management and should thus be included in public policies.