What is COMACO?

Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) is a limited-by-guarantee, non-profit company called COMACO Ltd. Stewarded by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in close consultation with Community Resources Boards of Luangwa Valley, Producer Group Cooperatives, District Council authorities, and key Government institutions, such as Zambia Wildlife Authority and Ministries of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Local Government, it uses a business approach that finds economic solutions to end poverty among rural small-scale farmers and encourages improved farming technologies to help end hunger.  Full economic incentives are assured if participating farmers resist poaching and adopt farming practices good for their land and resources.

COMACO draws from a wide range of other collaborating partners to provide technical support for its holistic, integrated approach to rural development and conservation.  Some of the partners includes General Mills of the USA,  Mogul Enterprises of RSA, Cornell University, Haas Business School of Berkeley University and Conservation Farming Union of Zambia.

COMACO Ltd is comprised of a head office in Lusaka and regional branches corresponding to each COMACO conservation trading center (CTC).  The centralized head office of senior business managers provides on-going oversight of as well as support to branch management in terms of financial accounting, product distribution, product development, logistics, marketing, and sales.

Each CTC branch operates as its own profit/cost centre with formal ties to the producer community with which it is associated through the establishment of a Community Advisory Committee.  This committee consists of representatives from Producer Group Cooperatives and Community Resource Boards (if they exist) and meets CTC management at least once a year to review and discuss issues relevant to helping COMACO better serve the interests of local producers and the natural environment where they reside.

Governing COMACO Ltd is a Board of Directors. The Board is tasked with providing oversight on management, administrative and financial matters for the company and is required to meet at least annually to review the audited financial statements and the annual report. 

This organizational and governance structure has helped establish a credible business institution capable of expanding its activities into new geographic areas while remaining focused on reducing rural hunger and poverty in ways that promote conservation.

The Company is primarily a food processing business that market organic, healthy, nutritious value-added products derived from commodities grown by and purchased from farmers who have become COMACO producer group members.  It works as a non-profit company to operate sustainably but to offer producers the highest value possible for crops best suited for their soils and crops that are also an important source of food and nutrition locally.  The urban-based consumer provides the economic engine that sustains this market-based solution to drive better rural incomes and increased food security.

Rural people benefit from this company by joining a COMACO-registered producer group, which requires group members to learn improved farming skills and adopt by-laws that refrain group members from using snares or other practices destructive to their natural resources. COMACO facilitates the formation of Producer Group Cooperatives among the different producer groups for each COMACO trading depot. Producer group members are entitled to improved producer prices and producer bonus prices for complying to their by-laws and other conditions the company may set forth to help improve food security and environmental management.

Read more about the COMACO model:
Markets, Food Security and Conservation: A Model for Rural Development in Zambia