The Birth of It's Wild Snarewear

Presently, Snarewear is only available in Zambia in limited amounts, although we are looking for ways to expand its sale. By wearing Snarewear, we increase public awareness of how people can help wildlife - vital to our shared future - Contact Us

Snarewear is an idea that was conceived by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Director Dale Lewis. After confiscating heaps of snares from poachers, Lewis thought of how best these wire snares could be turned into income generating objects.

“Over the past few years I have been thinking of how we could turn these snares into profit making objects that would in turn support our Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) projects such as bee-keeping,” says Lewis.

Lewis says he was confident that tourists coming to Zambia and the local community would be interested in buying these local products. After pondering over the idea, he then shared it with his wife, Julia, who is an artist herself. Positive with his idea, Lewis then embarked on a mission of finding artists who could design and create different products from the wire snares.

“I found artists who made soap dishes and candle stands but I was not overly impressed with these products as an art form,” revealed Lewis. “To be honest with you the products were just not selling.”

Asked why the products were not selling, Lewis suggested the products were not attractive enough to lure customers into buying them. However this did not make Lewis give up on his idea, but rather he forged ahead in search of an artist to design a product that would be an attractive art form, sell and convey the COMACO message. It was not until last year when he saw some attractive traditional anklets and necklaces in a gift shop at Mfuwe Airport that he realized he might have found the right design. He enquired as to who was making the jewellery and a name was given, Misozi Kadewele, a local resident and budding jewellery maker. Lewis met Kadewele a couple of weeks later and told her about his idea and Kadewele agreed to start experimenting with wire snares and seeds from wild fruits.

Kadewele started making the jewellery in April this year with the help of WCS who supplied her with authentic wire snares. Apart from supplying her with the material, WCS also helped in the marketing of the products which will soon be available for sale online. Kadewele says there has been an overwhelming response from tourists visiting Mfuwe. ”They get excited when they get to know that the jewellery is made out of snares once used for poaching,” she explains.

Kadewele explains that she uses indigenous wild seeds such as wild beans locally known as Nkansi and lucky beads locally known as Tulunguti when making the jewellery.

“I also use other wild seeds that are not harmful,” adds Kadewele. She says the prices for the jewellery range from five dollars to fifteen dollars. “We have bracelets packed in special gift boxes made from elephant dung paper going at fifteen dollars, and those that are not put in box are going at thirteen dollars,” she says. “We also have earrings at five dollars”.

Asked what prompted her to start the traditional jewellery design, Kadewele who has employed several local people in Mfuwe says the area has very few economic activities and that the place is usually flooded. “Here in Mfuwe, we have very few companies that can employ the local people and area is usually flooded,” says kadewele. “So I thought of how I could help to empower local people economically,” she says. Kadewele says she hopes to expand on her project through COMACO and employ more people.

With such efforts, it is hoped that more people not only in Mfuwe but other rural areas will be more conscious of snaring and realise alternative activities that are environmentally friendly to raise their incomes and food security.

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