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The meat of several protected African animals is being illegally imported into and sold in Belgium.

Sophie Gombeer at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and her colleagues have identified wild animal meat, also known as bushmeat, being sold in several markets in Brussels.

They identified the meat of three species listed as protected according to CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora: the red-tailed monkey, De Brazza鈥檚 monkey听and a species of small antelope called the blue duiker. Under European Union law, importing wild meat products is illegal without specific authorisation.

In 2017 and 2018, the research team visited five vendors and purchased a total of 15 pieces of bushmeat. According to the vendors, the meat originated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It wasn鈥檛 directly advertised, but available on request, at a price of 鈧�40 per kilogram.

The team used DNA sequencing to identify the species that the meat came from. In addition to the three CITES-listed species, the other meat came from species including the greater cane rat and domestic cattle, which had been erroneously sold as African buffalo.

The researchers had heard anecdotal reports of bushmeat being imported into Brussels, but existing research was scant. 鈥淏ecause there is no [existing] data, it鈥檚 easy to ignore the problem,鈥� says Gombeer. 鈥淲e really wanted to show that it is there 鈥� that it is available in Brussels.鈥�

To better understand the drivers of bushmeat consumption, the team also interviewed expatriates from seven African countries who had been living in Belgium for the past 10 years. Of the 16 participants, 15 said they often imported African food items, including bushmeat, primarily driven by a desire to stay connected to their countries of origin.听

In certain regions with tropical forests, wild animals are hunted as a source of protein, particularly when meat from domesticated animals is unavailable or unaffordable.

鈥淚t鈥檚 very much a practice that鈥檚 just embedded in everyday life,鈥� says Liana Chua at Brunel University London, who wasn鈥檛 involved in the research but has studied . A challenge for conservationists when trying to reduce wild meat hunting, she says, is to take into account the social and nutritional role that hunting plays in people鈥檚 lives.

Local and Indigenous people living in and around forest areas should have the right to continue traditional practices and hunt sustainably, says at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.

鈥淵ou have to make the distinction between eating wild meats really to survive鈥� and the market that has grown in the past decade in big cities where there are alternative proteins available and it鈥檚 more of a delicacy,鈥� says Gombeer.

Gombeer suggest that stricter enforcement of meat importation laws could help clamp down on the market, while Fa favours social campaigns in Brussels to reduce demand.

鈥淭here shouldn鈥檛 be any consumption of wild meat in urban centres,鈥� says Fa. She estimates that 5 million metric tonnes of mammal meat is hunted and extracted from the Congo basin each year 鈥� a rate two to three times higher than hunted animal populations can sustainably support.