How much wild meat reaches Iquitos beyond formal markets?
Interviews with 1,548 households measured species, quantity, source, and expenditure across all four districts of the city.
Informal supply chains of wild meat from rural Amazonia and food security in an urban center
Household interviews across Iquitos reveal how wild meat reaches urban consumers through markets, purchases beyond markets, hunting, gifts, and kinship networks.
Wild meat reaches Iquitos households through both markets and socially connected, non-market pathways.
Briceño Huerta, F., Gilmore, M. P., Bowler, M., & Griffiths, B. M.
Conservation Biology · 2026 · DOI 10.1111/cobi.70272
Key findings
Household consumption extended far beyond market sales.
The study estimated 1,786 metric tonnes consumed annually. About 30% was not purchased, while another 14% was purchased outside established markets.
Social relationships are part of the urban food system.
Hunting, rural parcels, travel gifts, and shared meals supplied species and quantities that market-only monitoring would miss.
Brief Background
Most studies of urban wild-meat consumption in Iquitos have monitored established markets. That approach cannot capture meat obtained through neighbors, street vendors, travel, hunting, gifts, or shared meals. This study instead surveyed households across the city and peri-urban settlements to estimate the full set of pathways connecting rural wildlife harvest to urban diets.
Methods
Household interviews projected into citywide estimates
Citywide household sampling
From June through October 2019, researchers interviewed heads of 1,548 households representing 7,831 people. Sampling covered 1-km grid cells across Iquitos, Belén, Punchana, and San Juan Bautista.
Species- and source-specific projections
Seven-day recall records were converted to fresh-meat mass, projected within districts, adjusted for seasonality, and summed across the city. Species reported fewer than three times were excluded.
Results
A substantial supply chain operates outside formal markets
1,786 tonnes annually
Estimated consumption equaled about 4.25 kg per person per year across Iquitos. The citywide estimate was substantially higher than recent estimates based on market monitoring alone because household interviews also captured purchased and unpurchased flows outside formal markets.
Paca and peccary dominated
Paca and collared peccary together represented more than four-fifths of estimated mammal meat by mass.
Informal flows broadened access
Gifts, hunting, travel, neighbors, restaurants, street vendors, and bodegas connected households to meat beyond established markets.
Publication Data Explorer · Figure 3
Follow wild meat through the city
Select a species, district, or source to isolate its pathways. Line width represents estimated annual consumption.
Highlight by pathway
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Accessible data table
| Species | District | Source | Annual tonnes |
|---|
Figure 3 web reconstruction. Estimates refer to 2019 consumption and are shown as fresh-meat equivalent metric tonnes per year.
Table 1
Consumption and expenditure by source
| Source | Definition | Annual consumption (t) | Annual expenditure (thousand USD) |
|---|