Togo’s growing belief-based use trade sweeping up avian biodiversity, says study

One of West Africa’s largest markets selling wildlife for belief-based uses has expanded rapidly over the past decade, according to a recent study. Researchers surveyed the Akodessewa Fetish Market in Lomé, Togo, between 2022 and 2024 and found a booming trade in live birds and their parts. They registered more than twice the number of stands selling wildlife and more than four times the number of bird species compared to surveys conducted in 2016. In total, 82 bird species from 36 families were on offer. “When you look at the amount of wildlife available in West Africa, the market should have gotten smaller,” Nico Arcilla, co-author on the paper and president of the International Bird Conservation Partnership, told Mongabay. “But instead, it’s the opposite. It’s more than doubled in size.” Hornbills were the most traded bird group, while barn owls (Tyto alba), northern white-faced owls (Ptilopsis leucotis), double-spurred spurfowl (Pternistis bicalcaratus) and black kites (Milvus migrans) had the most individuals on sale. The study found that the larger the bird, the more likely it was to be sold. Species whose sale is listed by CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty, as either restricted or regulated also appeared more frequently. This is a troubling sign that restrictions are not disrupting trade, said Arcilla. All traders at the market were from Benin and from the Fon ethnic group. Threatened species, including birds presumed to be extinct in Togo, were also found to be on offer. This included the Yellow-casqued hornbill (Ceratogymna elata) and black crowned crane (Balearica pavonina), last seen in Togo in 1988 and 1989 respectively, according to the researchers. “For all we know, that could have been the last yellow-casqued hornbill in Togo,” said Arcilla. Critically endangered hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) were also on sale. Research by Arcilla’s team estimates there are as few as 300 vultures left in Togo. “You can wipe them all out very quickly when you’ve got a trade like this,” Arcilla said. Traders also shaved the heads of around one-third of black kites on sale to make them appear like vultures, selling them for a higher price. The variety of birds recorded at the market is “shocking” as is the clear commercialization of belief-based trade, said Fadzai Matsvimbo, preventing extinctions programme coordinator for BirdLife Africa, who wasn’t involved in the study. “The demand is increasing and our efforts are not matching the pace of the increase,” she told Mongabay in an interview. As conservationists gather in Nigeria to discuss the implementation of the West African Vulture Conservation Action Plan, from Nov. 2-5, Arcilla said the study “underlines the urgency of addressing belief-based use.” “We need to step up the efforts in a more coordinated manner,” added Matsvimbo. “What we need is more action. We need more commitment from government to really intervene in the trade issue.” Banner image: Black kites with heads shaved to appear like vultures on sale at the Akodessewa Fetish Market. Image by Nico Arcilla. Credits Topics