SNAREWEAR – A mission to wear, not to snare

For years the silent killing by wire snares brought cruel, agonizing deaths to 1000’s of wild animals in Luangwa Valley, as hunger-stricken families sought relief by selling or bartering game meat for the food they failed to produce as farmers.
Today, COMACO transforms these objects of death into artful jewelry, called SNAREWEAR, and uses the earned income to support rural families with skills and markets that further reduce threats to wildlife and habitat.

The artistic creator of SNAREWEAR is Misozi Kadewele. She is a local girl from Chief Mkanya’s area and knows how wildlife has suffered from the effects of poaching, snaring and tree clearing in recent years across much of her traditional lands. Exposed to the hope that education and a chance to travel abroad can bring to a sharp and creative mind, Misozi believes SNAREWEAR is her chance to bring similar hope to the people of her village. For many, poaching was the only skill people had, and in 2007, Misozi joined efforts with COMACO to help provide a better alternative.

Among the local hunters COMACO has transfrmed in her area, she recruits prospective candidates to work as jewelry makers. Among her assembly line of 16 workers, 9 are reformed poachers. Geoffrey Tembo of Chief Jumbe is among these ex-poachers. Geoffrey stopped his poaching activities last year after surrendering his firearms to COMACO. He explained that life was not easy for him as a poacher. “I had little time for my family because I was always in the bush hunting for elephants. If I managed to kill one, I had to quickly look for customers to buy the ivory before Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) officers might pounce on me.”

Geoffrey acknowledges he made the right decision, “I now have a decent job and I no longer worry or live a life of denial that poaching was a good life. So far, I have managed to convince five of my friends who used to poach with me and they have also joined the COMACO programme.”

COMACO has an exclusive relationship with Misozi, giving her access to the 10,000s of wire snares surrendered by the farmers assisted by COMACO. From this supply of authentic snares, responsible for years of wildlife destruction in Luangwa Valley, Misozi is able to maintain SNAREWEAR production and offer a good salary to the reformed poachers she employs. In return, COMACO buys the jewelry in bulk and ships them to the US. With the help of Wildlife Conservation Society in finding distributors willing to help add value to SNAREWEAR, a net balance is returned to COMACO to continue its efforts in transforming the 100’s of local hunters who continue to destroy wildlife in regions of Zambia where COMACO has yet to reach.

SNAREWEAR is a jewelry with a mission: not to snare but to wear. An artful style of jewelry fashioned from snare wires and attractive wild seeds collected by ex-poachers, it saves up to six wild animals a year for each piece of jewelry sold. While blood diamonds undermine an entire generation of youths in other parts of Africa, SNAREWEAR builds hope in Zambia and breaks the generational link of fathers teaching sons the harmful and dangerous life of a poacher. It does this by investing its sales into skills, inputs and markets that motivate people to conserve. From the sale of one SNAREWEAR necklace, Wildlife Conservation Society derives sufficient returns to help COMACO purchase two top-bar bee hives that can earn a family $80 to $160 per year from selling harvested honey through the COMACO market. Combined with other markets COMACO offers, it is a real incentive to cooperate with conservation and to give up poaching, a practice that accounts for 6 wild animals killed per year for the average hunter.

Here and there and growing by the year throughout the Luangwa Valley, people sing COMACO stories because singing is a tradition in Zambia and a way of sharing feelings and thoughts. Misozi’s staff sing as they work. They are songs of past days gone, days made dark by ignorance and poverty, replaced by the hand of COMACO. They are days about a future, made brighter and better, when someone decides to wear SNAREWEAR for Africa.

Misozi Kadewele, “Thanks to our partnership with COMACO, I would like to mention that I am impressed with the contribution of the reformed poachers towards the production of SNAREWEAR. They have been hard working and good learners, and with their help, we are able to make 500 pieces of jewelry per month. I have a passion for what am doing as an artist. There are many ways we can appreciate our natural heritage, and for me, it is making SNAREWEAR and helping people in my community to under that our future is tied to conservation.”