Impacts of rural to urban migration, urbanization, and generational change on consumption of wild animals in the Amazon

For the first time in history, more people live in urban areas than in rural areas. This trend is likely to continue, driven largely by rural-urban migration. We investigated how rural-urban migration, combined with urbanization and generational change, affects consumption of wild animals, using one of the most hunted taxa in the Amazon: chelonians (tortoises and freshwater turtles). We surveyed 1,356 households and 2,776 schoolchildren across 10 urban areas of the Brazilian Amazon (six small towns, three large towns, and Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon Basin), using a Randomized Response Technique and anonymous questionnaires. Urban demand for wildmeat (i.e., meat from wildlife) was alarmingly high, with conservative estimates of approximately 1.7 million turtles and tortoises being consumed annually in Amazonas state. However, consumption rates declined with urban area size and between generations (adults versus children). Furthermore, the longer rural-urban migrants lived in urban areas, the lower their consumption rates were. These results suggest that wildlife consumption is a rural-related tradition that decreases with urbanization and over time after people move to urban areas. Current conservation efforts in the Amazon do not address urban demand for wildlife and may be insufficient to ensure the survival of traded species in the face of urbanization and human population growth. Our findings show that conservation interventions must target the urban demand for wildlife, especially by focusing on young people and recent rural-urban migrants.