Green Markets and Tourism Lodges

COMACO has embarked on the development of IT'S WILD! Green Markets that offer direct sales of COMACO products to the public.  Its first Green Market was built in Mfuwe to provide a direct link between local farmers and the tourism lodges in the area.  By serving as both a retail shop with attractive displays about the COMACO approach itself and as a wholesale outlet for selling products in bulk to the lodges, COMACO has found an effective way to communicate its story to the consumer public.  More and more lodges, for instance, have begun to appreciate and understand how COMACO is contributing to the safety and protection of Luangwa Valley’s wildlife and habitat.  As a result, they are making direct efforts to buy the commodities and products the Green Market offers.  In turn, they not only have a source for lower cost goods, but they are directly supporting local farmers with markets that keep farmers from poaching and degrading wildlife habitat.

The approach seems to be working.  Some of the lodges, for example, have agreed to seek donations from their clients to support the COMACO conservation dividend fund.  This fund provides a direct payment of a dividend to COMACO farmers who comply with all the conservation guidelines and is paid out at the end of the dry season when many farmers are cash-short.  It is a small contribution from the lodges but with a big impact on conservation – small because most of the incentives to cooperate is paid out by the COMACO company when buying the commodities, but significant because the farmer received an added top-up just for doing what is good for the soil and for wildlife.  It is a win-win relationship that lodges are getting behind to help their own business grow with more wildlife and more reasons to visit Zambia.