Reformed Poacher Compliance

Under the COMACO model, natural resource management and land use behaviors are expected to change in favor of conservation-based practices when the economic benefits outweigh benefits of adopting practices contrary to conservation. This hypothesis was put to a formal test with the implementation of this program, called the Poacher Transformation Program (PTP).

The basic steps of PTP included:

During the course, participants engage with a number of instructors who share with them their views about the risks of illegal hunting and relative benefits of legal professions and sound natural resource management strategies. Within context of this training and continued dialogue, trust develops between participants and instructors. At the end of the course, a senior instructor known to all the participants administers a verbal questionnaire individually to each participant to assess the hunter's profile. Some of the results from this questionnaire are summarized below:

From its inception in 2002, the total number of hunters who have participated in this program across the entire COMACO area is 344 ( see map below for a spatial distribution). For the COMACO core area, total number of poachers transformed from 2002 to 2006 for each Chief's area is given below and of this number, all but 6 (7%) have remained fully compliant with the condition that they cease all illegal hunting activities. This determination is derived from periodic visits to the ex-poacher's home, typically three times per year, and the monitor questions neighbors, local government works and other people deemed fit to provide trustworthy information.

From a 2001 sample of 19 poachers residing in the core area (interviewed in the home of their village headmen who guaranteed them anonymity from any incriminating information they might provide), average annual income from illegal use of wildlife was $210 and from non-wildlife legal sources, total annual income was $95. In 2006, 35 transformed poachers residing in the same area, representing about 41% of the total sample of transformed poachers, were interviewed to obtain annual income, which equaled $198 per hunter. These figures suggest that while average total income remains approximately 35% less than total income as an illegal hunter, income from legal livelihoods has risen by over 100%. The small number of transformed poachers who have quit the program to return to illegal hunting is a strong indication of the program's success in reducing illegal hunting threats in Luangwa Valley. Assuming these hunters previously hunted for at last 3 months per year, total number of animals saved by supporting illegal hunters with alternative livelihoods is in excess of 1290 animals/year.

An independent validation of the programs impact on presence of active illegal hunters in the COMACO core area was the results of patrol data collected by the Zambia Wildlife Authority for the period from 2002 to 2005 (see Table below), which showed a 10-fold decrease in poacher encounter rate by scouts on short day patrols from 2002 to 2005.

Diagram offers additional evidence that illegal wildlife activities have occurred from a comparison of wildlife law enforcement indicators for the COMACO core areas from 2004 (n= 133 patrols) to 2006 (n= 126 patrols). Each showed percentages of decrease varying from 35.8% to 73.5%. BACK TO TOP