Field surveys on the medicinal wildlife species

This book derives from the field survey component of a 2010 conservation project to promote the sustainable use of wildlife products in natural medicine. The study was conducted in North-West Cameroon to identify the wildlife species used in traditional medicine and how users acquire them. The model for the data collection was a questionnaire style interview. The objectives were: to establish whether medicinal wildlife products are used in natural medicine in the project site; to find whether these wildlife products were generally acquired by poaching or from the illegal wildlife trade; to identify how the unsustainable use of such wildlife resources contributes to the decline in population of large mammals in North-West Cameroon. The results of the study would lay the foundations for future conservation actions. Data was collected from 58 tradi-practitioners, who affirmed that 54 wild animal species are used in natural medicine for the treatment/prevention of 56 health problems. Of the 54 species identified 4 are large mammals already extinct in the study site, and several are in the IUCN Red List.