Who gets to eat wild fish and meat? A socially-disaggregated analysis of wild animal consumption across diverse rural environments in five countries of the Global South

Wild fish and meat (WFM) are vital provisioning ecosystem services in tropical regions, supporting food security, livelihoods, and cultural identity. Yet their use increasingly intersects with conservation and nutrition challenges amid rapid social and ecological change. Actors engaged in WFM span a wide spectrum, from rural subsistence consumers to commercial harvesters and urban consumers for whom WFM represents a luxury good. Understanding this social differentiation is essential for developing conservation and nutrition policies that are both equitable and sustainable. Using data from approximately 2000 households across 40 settlements in two regions, the Amazon Rainforest (AR: Colombia, Peru) and East African Savannas (EAS: Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya), we modeled how settlement-level (urban connectivity, proportion of uncultivated area) and household-level (income, livelihood activity) factors influenced the likelihood of consuming wild meat, fish, and domestic meat within a week. WFM consumption varied widely across sites, reflecting distinct ecological and cultural contexts. Fish was consumed more frequently than wild meat, underscoring its central nutritional role. In AR, wild meat was more common in remote settlements, whereas in EAS it played dual roles: a subsistence food in poorer, remote areas and a luxury item among wealthier, more urban-connected households. Consumption patterns further revealed that wild meat in AR, and fish and domestic meat in EAS, were normal goods, with their likelihood of consumption increasing with income. Domestic meat intake rose with urban proximity, consistent with the global “nutrition transition.” Yet concurrent consumption of wild and domestic proteins within settlements suggests complementarity rather than substitution. Overall, spatial and economic access to markets and landscapes, rather than culture alone, shaped animal protein use in tropical rural areas. WFM remains a critical yet evolving dietary component. Policies reconciling biodiversity conservation with nutrition security should integrate sustainable fisheries and community-based wildlife management while ensuring equitable access to diverse animal and plant proteins within local food systems.