World citizens who face no such consequences must speak out against this project. Without World Bank funding, the Chad-Cameroon pipeline will almost certainly fail to attract other investors. The World Bank is the key. Wild animal meat has been part of the traditional diet of many forest-dwelling African people. As Africa has urbanized, however, the bushmeat trade has accelerated out of control.
Primates are main targets, especially chimpanzees and gorillas.
Half of all primate species are threatened with extinction. Logging is largely responsible for the boom in the bushmeat trade. Commercial bushmeat hunters use logging roads to gain access to the deep forest and to transport the bushmeat out to markets, often in logging trucks. Hunters also sell huge quantities of bushmeat at logging settlements that can have up to 4,000 residents. AIDS researchers have joined the fight to save Central African rainforests, convinced that a cure for AIDS depends on the survival of chimpanzees and their habitat.