Across the borderlands of Kenya and Tanzania, an illicit commercial enterprise is draining one of Africa’s greatest wildlife strongholds. Hunting wild animals, once largely associated with localized subsistence, has evolved into an increasingly organized, profit-driven trade that poses a major emerging threat to East Africa’s biodiversity.
A report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) shows that, across much of the landscape, hunters are moving away from traditional hunting methods such as snares and increasingly turning to lamping—a technique that uses artificial light to locate and capture nocturnal animals. The method allows hunters to target large numbers of animals in a single operation.
The report estimates that at least 300,000 animals are hunted annually in the landscape. Plains zebra are reportedly the most heavily targeted species, followed by dik-diks, giraffes, eland, gazelles, wildebeest, lesser kudu, impala and buffalo.
The situation analysis assessed the 134,000-square-kilometre Southern Kenya–Northern Tanzania (SOKNOT) transboundary landscape, which encompasses the Serengeti–Maasai Mara, Amboseli–Kilimanjaro and Tsavo–Mkomazi ecosystems.
These interconnected ecosystems support some of the world's most renowned wildlife migrations and provide critical habitat for vulnerable populations of elephants, rhinos, lions and giraffes. But the growing commercial demand for wild meat is putting increasing pressure on wildlife populations and the communities and ecosystems that depend on them.
“For years, wild meat hunting was treated as a hidden, low-level subsistence issue, but it has now been overshadowed by the high-profile fight against ivory and rhino horn,” said Jackson Kiplagat, Chief Executive Officer of WWF-Kenya.
“Commercial syndicates deliberately pursue large mammals that yield maximum meat for minimum effort and risk. Plains zebras, Maasai giraffes and Kirk’s dik-diks are bearing the brunt,” he added.
Myths Fuelling Exploitation
The exploitation of wildlife is also being driven by unfounded claims about the medicinal value of wild animal products. Among the beliefs documented are claims that tree hyrax meat can cure eczema and that elephant liver can treat hepatitis.Unlike international ivory trafficking routes, wild meat supply chains are largely domestic, making them more agile, difficult to detect and capable of moving rapidly from hunting grounds to consumers.
The trade is sustained by a two-sided market involving both hunters and consumers, with increasingly sophisticated networks connecting rural hunting areas to urban markets.
Youth Drawn Into a Lucrative Illegal Trade
Young people, particularly those aged between 20 and 25, are increasingly becoming involved in the commercial wild meat trade, encouraged by narratives of rapid and seemingly effortless financial gain.
One commonly cited motivation is the belief that successfully hunting and selling a single zebra can generate enough money to purchase a motorcycle for use in the boda boda transport business.
Overall, returns from the wild meat trade are perceived to be high. This creates an incentive for dealers to recruit larger hunting teams, coordinate extended trading networks and facilitate increasingly sophisticated and large-scale operations.
The growing commercialization of the trade also exposes a weakness in some previous conservation and livelihood interventions. Past programmes often assumed that people involved in hunting were primarily motivated by the need to feed their families. This approach overlooked the wider network of actors who profit from commercial sales—including young hunters, motorcycle transporters and urban brokers.
As the trade becomes more organized and financially driven, tackling it will require more than traditional anti-poaching measures. Conservation efforts will need to address the economic incentives drawing young people into the trade, disrupt commercial supply networks and challenge the myths and demand that continue to fuel the market.
For East Africa's wildlife, the threat is no longer simply about individual animals being hunted for food. It is about an expanding commercial enterprise capable of turning the region's extraordinary wildlife abundance into a source of illegal profit.
