User:Onyebuchi Echezona/sandbox

Poaching in Nigeria
Wildlife poaching in Nigeria remains a prominent challenge for national park authorities, persisting despite ongoing efforts to mitigate this issue. In recent decades, bushmeat hunting and trade have evolved into widespread commercial activities, leading to significant adverse effects on wild animal populations. The local poaching networks comprised hunter-poachers, individuals involved in bushmeat trade (middlemen, retailers, and caterers), charm makers, and local medicine practitioners in both nearby and distant communities. The demand for bushmeat has risen in tandem with the growth of human populations, resulting in intense hunting pressure and the subsequent decline in the populations of various bushmeat species across all regions of Nigeria. The bushmeat supply to the market primarily originates from farms, areas adjacent to National Parks, and within National Parks through illegal hunters and other forest product harvesters. Bushmeat is transported from forests, primarily where hunting occurs, to local community markets and larger urban markets for sale and trade. These markets offer a wide variety of animal species, including birds, reptiles, bats, rodents, antelopes, as well as larger mammals like elephants, buffalos, leopards, and primates.

Poaching and wildlife in Nigeria
Poaching poses a primary threat to large mammals, while biodiversity faces a more significant danger from habitat loss, primarily caused by agricultural activities. The demand for ivory is on the rise, leading to a rapid decline in Nigeria's elephant population. The illegal hunting of various ungulate species occurs throughout the year, with many hunters disregarding the sex, age, or reproductive status of the animals they target. The interconnected human activities of bushmeat trade and hunting have been recognized as major contributing factors to the decline in the sustainability of biodiversity and the supply of wildlife. The insufficient consideration of bushmeat's significance as a key contributor to local livelihoods by development agencies, non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations, as well as national governments, contributes to the unsustainable hunting of bushmeat in tropical forests.

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