What evidence exists on the drivers, ecological and socio-economic outcomes, and distribution of hunting in Peru: a systematic map protocol.

backgroundAcross the tropics, hunting for wildmeat is essential in supporting diets, livelihoods, and food security for millions, and is also central to many cultures. Wildmeat consumption has however increased rapidly over recent decades as human population growth has increased and threatens biodiversity. Measuring hunting impacts at global scales is challenging as hunting can vary even at local scales between localities, social groups, habitat types, motivations, hunting techniques, and governance. A national scale focus would capture local literature and give context specific evidence. This evidence would inform national and subnational policies and decision-making that would be locally acceptable and sustainable. Here, we focus on hunting in Peru, where wildlife and forest research policy is motivated in developing local economies through sustainable wildlife use management and seeks scientific knowledge to meet its needs in this area. A systematic map of the literature would provide an overview of the state of knowledge on hunting and identify research gaps, which is currently lacking and would help inform policy. This protocol describes the process for conducting a systematic map to address the following question: what evidence exists on the drivers, ecological and socio-economic outcomes, and distribution of hunting in Peru?

methodsA study is included if it presents information on hunting of at least one species and a location description. Using Spanish and English languages, relevant bibliographic databases will be searched, including Peruvian-specific databases, as well as grey literature on organisational websites. Articles will be title and abstract screened, and those meeting the criteria will have meta-data extracted. Extracted data will include location and habitat, hunting details (e.g., techniques, motivations, and governance), species hunted, and reported ecological and socio-economic outcomes and how these were measured. To identify knowledge gaps, we will map the distribution of hunting studies by region, province, and habitat type. We will also describe how hunting has been studied by summarising the frequency of species hunted, hunting characteristics, and reported ecological and socio-economic outcomes, including the associated metrics and methods used.