Hunting Project
One of the most complicated and difficult projects undertaken by INCEF was to respond to the need of how we could help Congolese citizens understand the devastating cost of the commercial trade in bushmeat and the threat it poses to sustainable hunting.
In fact, as INCEF’s production team tackled this issue, they quickly realized it was not enough to raise warnings about the detrimental effects that over hunting was having on their forests. We needed to convince rural populations that the current practices in commercial bushmeat hunting would leave forests empty of protein sources for future generations, were taking great tolls on protected keystone species like gorillas, chimpanzees and elephants who were necessary to maintain the integrity and health of the habitats they relied on, and that there were other options for providing protein to their families and to achieve economic security.
INCEF found that most villages they visited understood issues, the laws governing hunting and the repercussions they faced for breaking those laws. But those same villages echoed over and over again – What is the alternative? How can we feed and cloth our families or pay school fees?
In 2006 INCEF produced a film on alternatives to hunting, which included not only raising fish and domestic livestock, but diversification of agricultural crops. However, audiences felt the film failed to give them the necessary information and resources to pursue these options.
In 2008, INCEF adapted and lengthened that film to include Congolese who had faced these same issues and took it upon themselves to find a way to raise domestic livestock and diversify their crops as examples of how this could be done. In 2008 we will also begin to collaborate our outreach on Hunting with Congolese Non-governmental Organizations who will help to supply the answers and provide the resources needed for rural populations to begin working with alternatives and diversifying their livelihoods.
