Reconciling evidence with management to mitigate impacts from hunting pressure in tropical forests

Tropical forests provide important ecosystem services and are maintained by biodiversity and species functional roles. Tropical forests are threatened by deforestation, habitat loss, fragmentation and hunting. Of these threats, hunting poses the largest impacts on large herbivores and carnivores due to loss of prey which reduces biodiversity and impacts ecosystem services. Despite this, hunting is necessary for millions living in tropical forests as it is their only source of protein and is important for livelihoods and is associated with cultural identity. Hunting may be sustainable in indigenous territories through traditional tool use. This practice is little studied but could provide insights in sustainable hunting management that could be used elsewhere. In the Amazon specifically, subsistence hunting is widespread and traditional techniques such as the bow and arrows are still used. In particular, at Manu National Park, in the South-Eastern Peruvian Amazon hunting is believed to be sustainable. This PhD project aims to provide a case study of indigenous traditional hunting practice impacts on mammals in Manu National Park at landscape scale in an interdisciplinary approach combining social and ecological aspects. This case study is set within the Peruvian national scale context that will provide an overview of the extent and diversity of the hunting literature. Evidence and themes from these components will be drawn together to co-design management and mitigation solutions as well as a policy analysis to understand how these management solutions can be applied elsewhere. Specific objectives and background for each chapter is provided below.