Helping animals and humans

[Guest guest]

All compassion whether demonstrated towards humans or non human animals helps

heal all life.

 

I am with Wild Cats Plus. A scheme was run some years ago to help snow leopards

which were being killed. The villagers were offered goods in return for saving

the lives of snow leopards. It was thought the people would ask for expensive

items. However what they asked for was milk and blankets and basics for their

babies. They only wanted the basics for life. Nothing expensive.

 

The following is from another list I am on.

 

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1709186,00.html

 

Eco-Bargain: Save Animals, Reduce Poverty

By Bryan Walsh

 

If you want to protect wildlife in developing countries, the conventional

wisdom has long been that you put the animals in a well-run reserve and

safeguard it like it were a prison, keeping the wildlife separate from the

people who actually live there. The locals, in this case, are the threat

because they're the ones who poach endangered wildlife, whether for the

ivory or skin trade, or just for meat. But, so far, this conventional

wisdom hasn't led to much progress. According to the International Union

for Conservation of Nature's annual report, nearly 40% of surveyed species

are currently threatened, and their numbers are growing.

 

Dale Lewis has a different theory of conservation: Instead of helping the

animals that are being hunted, help the people who are doing the hunting.

In the West African country of Zambia, where he has lived and worked for

nearly 30 years, Lewis has helped launch an innovative new program that

seeks to save wildlife by improving the livelihoods of local people,

giving them an economic incentive to give up poaching. The program is

called Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO), and it may help change

the way wildlife is protected. " I realized I could have told you all the

vital statistics of an elephant, but not the vital statistics of the

people who lived with an elephant, " says Lewis, whose work is sponsored by

the Wildlife Conservation Society. " Once you really begin to know what

they're up against, you can really begin to understand [their behavior]. "

And once you understand that behavior, Lewis continues, you can change it.

 

For villagers in Zambia's Luangwa Valley, where Lewis is based, poaching

can represent the best sometimes the only way to pull themselves out of poverty.

A farmer on his own might make $75 in a year. Agood poacher, thanks to the

growing

demand for ivory in Asia, might pull in over $300. " If I were in their position,

I might set out a snare too, " says Lewis.

 

COMACO counters the economic pull of poaching with a safer, more

consistent alternative: organic farming. Villagers who sign up for COMACO

receive training in sustainable agriculture

such as organic bee-keeping techniques

and band together to form farming co-ops. COMACO agrees to buy their

produce at a higher-than-normal price, and the organization markets the

products to Zambian stores, under the brand name " It's Wild! " If villagers

agree to join COMACO, they aren't allowed to poach, and they pledge to

protect the land, eschewing slash-and-burn farming techniques. COMACO

checks up on its members

villages that see elevated poaching rates, or evidence of erosion, earn

visits from Lewis's staff. " If you do certain things, we'll provide

certain things, " says Lewis. " We work together, and see if we're all

better off. "

 

The results are heartening. Some 40,000 villagers have joined COMACO since

it was launched in 2001, and poaching rates have declined, though animal

numbers have not yet rebounded. Some 800 guns and more than 40,000 wire

snares have been turned in to COMACO, and many former poachers are now

being retrained as wildlife guides. (Lewis notes that it costs a little

more than $200 to retrain a poacher, but as much as $800 to catch, arrest

and jail him.) Those traps are even being recycled, with a local jeweler

refashioning the wire as necklaces and bracelets called Snarewear. (The

jewelry isn't available in the U.S. yet, but you can make advance orders

on COMACO's website.) " These are better ways of making an income [than

hunting], " says Lewis. " If we can make sure that fathers don't teach their

sons how to kill, poaching won't go on. "

 

COMACO has been successful enough that the model should be adapted in

other high-poaching areas, though it would require conservationists to

rethink their methods. And they should

as population density and economic growth increase throughout the

developing world, the ideal of the isolated, pristine nature preserve may

become a thing of the past. Humans and wildlife will intersect, and only

by taking care of people, can we take care of animals. " This is a virgin

area, and we'll be testing it repeatedly, " says Lewis. " But at least we

have something on the ground. It's not theoretical. We're all sick of

talking about theoretical ways of reducing poverty. " Lewis's COMACO is

win-win-win - and that's not theory.