Management of Subsistence Hunting of Mammals in Amazonia: A Case Study in Loreto, Peru

Subsistence hunting of mammals by rural people has been permitted in the Peruvian Amazon since 1976. Research has shown that the brocket deer, peccaries, and large rodents can be hunted sustainably in terra firme (non-flooded) forests, whereas the slower reproducing tapir and primates are vulnerable to overhunting and should not be hunted. Hunting of terrestrial species in flooded forests (varzea) is less sustainable due to annual flooding that reduces populations of deer, peccaries, and large rodents, making them more vulnerable to overhunting especially during recent intensifications of weather conditions due to climate change. In the Peruvian Amazon of Loreto, people manage subsistence hunting in regional community conservation reserves, national community comanaged reserves, and Indigenous territories through a set of guidelines that include limits on hunting of non-vulnerable species, cessation of hunting on vulnerable species, wildlife habitat management, and source-sink areas. Currently, 60% of the Peruvian Amazon of Loreto includes some form of community conservation that incorporates management of subsistence hunting.