The Profile of Hunting in the Brazilian Biomes: a Panorama of the Federal Conservation Units from the Infractions Acknowledged by ICMBio

Abstract

Hunting is widespread in the whole country including in Protected Areas. However, hunting information is scarce mainly because the activity is prohibited in most situations. Records from seizures on poaching by the federal agencies provide one of the few data sources that can be analyzed at wide spatial scale and used to identify patterns to support conservation strategies. I analyzed the hunting data recorded in the seizure records from ICMBio between 2008 and 2017 to provide an overview of hunting in Brazil, identifying patterns of the most hunted animals in the biomes and categories of federal Protected Areas. I identified six patterns of hunting that occur heterogeneously across the biomes and with different intensities across the categories of Protected Areas. Reptiles, birds and mammals are the most hunted species groups. In Amazonia, freshwater turtles are mainly hunted for large scale commercialization, whereas mammals and birds are hunted for local consumption, including for subsistence. In Caatinga, hunting is mainly of small mammals and birds for local consumption and birds for captivity. In Cerrado, there is hunting of freshwater turtles for large commercialization, of rhea (Rhea americana) and small birds to raise in captivity, and mammals for local consumption. In the Atlantic Forest, hunting is focused in small birds and Psitacidae to raising in captivity or trafficking, and mammals and other birds for local consumption, same pattern observed in Marinho Costeiro biome, where hunting Crustaceae is predominant. Apart these hunting types, ICMBio is probably less effective in combating international traffic, hunting for crop damage and predator control, and fur trade. Hence, it is necessary to consider the different types of hunting in law enforcement strategies for conservation in the country.