Abstract
This article examines current net hunting practice by BaAka Pygmies of central Africa. In terms of time allocation, net hunting remains the single most important activity for the BaAka, But net hunting is only one in a range of subsistence and economic activities among which individuals switch on a daily basis. Returns from net hunting are roughly equivalent to those from competing activities. Several factors encourage the decline of net hunting and its replacement with snare hunting: enforcement of park regulations, higher individual returns to snare hunting, and greater involvement in formal employment and agriculture. However, net hunting has not been abandoned completely for several reasons: the local market demand for bushmeat is growing, numerous forest products besides meat are collected on net hunts, and economic alternatives remain irregular and unreliable.
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Noss, A.J. The Economic Importance of Communal Net Hunting Among the BaAka of the Central African Republic. Human Ecology 25, 71–89 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021935903440
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021935903440