Saving Wildlife

One of Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS's) most insightful discoveries was the scale and magnitude of wildlife snaring by food-impoverished households. Survey studies revealed that over 4000 wild animals were killed this way annually in Luangwa Valley, including such species as the large cats and the relatively scarce hooved species like the hartebeest and roan. Much of the meat they obtained was used to exchange for maize or sorghum that they failed to grow in sufficient amounts for their own family needs.

People who owned firearms, typically the muzzle-loading type, were able to selectively hunt larger animals, which gave them greater opportunity to sell meat as well as to barter for other commodities. Survey studies suggested these hunters killed annually on average 23 animals.

With prospects of hundreds of such hunters in Luangwa Valley and thousands of families practicing snaring, the specter of large-scale wildlife losses was real and was well advanced when it began developing the COMACO approach. Efforts to contain these threats by conventional means of law enforcement were often constrained by the high costs of mounting law enforcement operations. It was determined, for example, that to arrest one poacher and bring this person to court, Government had to pay between $2500 and $3500. Search and find operations to remove snares were equally as cost-ineffective.

COMACO has demonstrated a phenomenal capacity to use its business model to offer improved livelihood options in exchange for giving up illegal hunting and snaring. Without having to arrest a single person, rural people benefitting from COMACO have surrendered over 40,000 snares and over 800 firearms. Many of the latter originated from notorious poachers who opted to follow COMACO's markets with help in learning new skills and receiving necessary inputs to benefit from these markets. These results have demonstrated how feasible it is to transform a poacher to alternative legal livelihoods for less than $700 per poacher.

Systematic aerial wildlife counts have shown a steady but significant increase in wildlife numbers since the COMACO program began, and in areas where COMACO does not occur, wildlife populations remain severely depleted. WCS continues to perfect the COMACO model by building stronger alliances with key partners and stakeholders in order to advance COMACO's impact on wildlife conservation in Zambia.

>>Read further about COMACO's results on wildlife conservation