People and Nature

Li, Y., Kinzonzi, L., Loundou, P., Malekani, D., Mavakala, K., Yobo, C. M., Abernethy, K., Dunn, M. E., Iponga, D. M., Mwinyihali, R., Wright, J., Milner-Gulland, E. J., Coad, L., Wright, J. H., & Challender, D. W. S. (2025). The impact of COVID-19 on public perceptions of wild meat in Central Africa. People and Nature, 00, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.70094

Wild meat, which can be defined as non-domesticated terrestrial wild mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians, is an important source of food and income generation in Central Africa throughout history. However, there is little knowledge of how the assumed link between COVID-19 and wild meat consumption has been communicated to people, and whether they trust the information and change their consumption behaviours.

To find out answers, we analysed 264 media articles published in 2019-20 related to wild meat consumption in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Gabon and Republic of Congo and carried out mobile phone surveys with 3,644 respondents in Cameroon and DRC in 2021. We found that COVID-19 increased discussion of wild meat in the media across all three countries since February 2020. Despite the dominant media discourse focusing on disease risk associated with wild meat (61%), over one-third of respondents considered domestically-raised red meat as the riskiest meat. The theory that COVID-19 originated in laboratories was observed both in the media (10%), and among phone survey respondents (7% Cameroonian, 9% DRC respondents).

About half (47%) of Cameroonian respondents and one-third (38%) of DRC respondents reported a reduction in wild meat consumption in the surveyed period in 2021 with the most selected reason being perceived risks of infectious disease. On the other hand, reduced availability of other meats was the main reason given by those who increased their wild meat consumption (3% Cameroonian, 32% DRC respondents) during COVID-19.

Our results suggest that COVID-19 brought increased media attention to wild meat consumption and changed public perceptions and stated consumption behaviours related to meat consumption in Central Africa. Bans on trading wild meat were widely discussed in the media as a potential policy response to COVID-19, but there was a lack of consensus among respondents that this would be the most appropriate policy: more than half of respondents did not support a ban on wild meat consumption. If policymakers wish to reduce wild meat consumption in Central Africa countries, trustworthy communication strategies and access to alternative food sources are needed.