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Innovative Organization Turns African Poachers Into Sustainable Farmers
June 20, 2015 by Amanda Froelich
This non-profit teaches alternative life choices to poachers, such as beekeeping, sustainable farming, and carpentry.
A former hunter and his family prepare rice fields for the imminent Luangwa river basin flooding.
Credit: Gael McKeon
This is the aim of the non-profit organization Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO), which is in the business of providing alternative life choices for would-be poachers. When individuals grow weary of hunting the increasingly barren brush in Africa, COMACO teaches them beekeeping, vegetable gardening, and carpentry in exchange for putting their guns to rest.
For example, Edson Zimba used to illegally hunt animals in Zambia; he was a poacher. For twenty years, he combed the bush of Zambia’s Luangwa National Park, a remote reserve known by tourists as a place to experience wildlife undisturbed.
A procurer of animal products, Zimba hunted buffalo, elephant, and hedgehog. But inevitably the sport took its toll, and he decided change was in order. About that time the non-profit asked him to learn a new trade and stop illegally hunting animals, an offer he quickly accepted.
After being taught by the organization sustainable farming techniques, Zimba now yields enough to feed his family. And what is left of his yield, he sells to COMACO for its food processing facility. This, in turn, is used to manufacture It’s Wild food products sold in markets across Zambia.
For example, Edson Zimba used to illegally hunt animals in Zambia; he was a poacher. For twenty years, he combed the bush of Zambia’s Luangwa National Park, a remote reserve known by tourists as a place to experience wildlife undisturbed.
A procurer of animal products, Zimba hunted buffalo, elephant, and hedgehog. But inevitably the sport took its toll, and he decided change was in order. About that time the non-profit asked him to learn a new trade and stop illegally hunting animals, an offer he quickly accepted.
After being taught by the organization sustainable farming techniques, Zimba now yields enough to feed his family. And what is left of his yield, he sells to COMACO for its food processing facility. This, in turn, is used to manufacture It’s Wild food products sold in markets across Zambia.
One reformed poacher says that, before, he was a destroyer. Now, the farmer calls himself a human being.
Full article: http://www.trueactivist.com/innovative-organization-turns-african-poachers-into-sustainable-farmers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TrueActivist+%28True+Activist%29
