MANAGING BUSHMEAT HUNTING IN OKAPI WILDLIFE RESERVE, DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Projected rates of agricultural clearing in the Ituri Forest of north- eastern Democratic Republic of Congo range from 0 to 0.1 per cent per year and suggest that deforestation for subsistence agriculture is not an immediate threat to the integrity of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve (O WR). If the human population continues to grow at over 3 per cent per annum, and bushmeat continues to be a major source of income for rural communities, subsistence-level exploitation of bushmeat may, however, not be sustainable. This paper proposes management approaches that ad dress the demand for and supply of bushmeat, which are targeted at tho se political districts within the OWR where hunting is the greatest th reat to populations of bushmeat species. These management approaches a re designed to help conserve the Ituri's natural resources without com promising the health and income security of rural communities.