1. Communities Combatting
Illegal Wildlife Trade
Online Learning Event Series
September to December 2020
Event One
©PhilipJ.Briggs

2. Welcome and opening remarks
• Jean Baptiste Havugimana - Director Productive Sectors
(DPS), East African Community Secretariat
• Charles Oluchina, Programme Coordinator, IUCN Eastern and
Southern Africa Regional Office
• Aurelia Micko, Environment Office Director, USAID Kenya and
East Africa
• Dr. Philippe Mayaux, Team Leader, Biodiversity and
Ecosystem Services, European Commission, DEVCO

3. Introduction to community engagement in combatting
illegal wildlife trade
 Policy context for engaging local
communities
Dr Dilys Roe
• IIED Principal Researcher and Biodiversity
Team Leader
• Chair, IUCN SULi
 From policy to practice
Dr Holly Dublin
• IUCN ESARO Senior Adviser
• IIED Senior Associate
• IUCN SULi
 Case studies and introduction to the
People Not Poaching platform
Liv Wilson-Holt
• IIED Researcher, Biodiversity

4. Communities and IWT:
the policy context
Online Learning Event Series
Dilys Roe
©PhilipJ.Briggs

5. African Elephant Summit (2013)
London Declaration (2014)
Kasane Declaration (2015)
Brazzaville Declaration (2015)
UNGA Resolution 69/314 (2015)
SDG Targets 15.7 & 15.c (2015)
Hanoi Declaration (2016)
UNEA Resolution 2.14 (2016)
UNGA Resolution 71/326 (2017)
LONDON CONFERENCE 2018
ENGAGING LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN
COMBATTING IWT
Lots of policy rhetoric on
community engagement ….

6. Four key pillars of international
IWT PolicyEradicatemarket
forillegalproducts
Buildeffective
legalframeworks
Strengthenlaw
enforcement
Supportsustainable
livelihoods
STOP ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE

7. Community commitments
made…
• Tackle negative impacts of IWT on people
• Support sustainable livelihood opportunities
• Support community-led conservation
• Recognise community rights to benefit from
wildlife
• Involve local people as law enforcement
partners
• Reduce the costs of living with wildlife
• Support information sharing about
community-based approaches

8. Kenya: National elephant
strategy 2012-2021
• Identify ways to increase the value of elephants to
communities
• Provide tangible benefits that are directly linked to the
presence of elephants
• Devolve rights and responsibilities to communities
• Engage communities to work with KWS as partners
and informants
• Increase opportunities for alternative livelihood options
• Develop elephant-friendly land use initiatives and
wildlife-friendly investment opportunities
• Implement a variety of different approaches to mitigate
HWC and encourage coexistence

9. Rwanda: Wildlife policy 2013
• Promote and support community conservation
initiatives
• Support devolved wildlife management
institutions
• Implement measures to mitigate and respond
to human wildlife conflict

10. South Sudan: NBSAP 2018
• Develop community-based conservation strategies
that promote sustainable use of wildlife
• Assess and build management strategies based
on traditional conservation practices
• Secure access and use of rights for communities
• Build capacity for communities to develop skills in
wildlife protection
• Forge a special relationship between wildlife
authorities and communities

11. Tanzania:Wildlife Conservation
(WMA) Regulations 2012
• Supporting communities to benefit from and
have ownership of wildlife through WMAs:
• Grant community-based organisations the right
to manage WMAs
• Facilitate the training of Village Game Scouts
• Address HWC

12. Uganda: Community
Conservation Policy 2020
• Strengthen community conservation in
management of wildlife resources inside and
outside the PAs
• Enhance equitable sharing of wildlife benefits with
local communities,
• Promote sustainable wildlife-based enterprises
• Address human-wildlife conflicts.
• Strengthen partnerships between government,
private sector, NGOs, local communities in wildlife
conservation initiatives.
• Mainstream local communities in wildlife crime
management.

13. Less progress on the ground

18. Uneven allocation of funds
across the pillars

19. Next step: how to move from
great policy to great practice
©PAMSFoundation

20. Questions or Comments?
©MicahConway

21. From Policy to Practice
Online Learning Event Series
Holly T. Dublin
©PhilipJ.Briggs

23. Engaging local
communities
Responses to Poaching Crisis
Law
enforcement
along the entire
value chain
Reducing
demand for
illegal products

24. Why is it so important to engage
communities?

26. 1. Relying on law enforcement to stop poaching
difficult, expensive, and only rarely effective
• Wildlife is on community land:
• 1/4 of Earth’s land managed
by communities, 40% of
formal conservation areas
• Community members live with
and near wildlife - often involved
in poaching
• Best-resourced law enforcement
will struggle without community
buy-in

27. 2. Communities have borne costs of conservation:
its unjust for anti-IWT efforts to worsen this
• historical dispossession and
exclusion
• anti-poaching efforts often
target IPLCs, often unjustly
• loss of livelihood options
through tightened access to
wild resources
• massive social impacts of
killing and incarceration of
young men, loss of livelihood
assets to pay fines
• human rights abuses

28. 3. Empowering communities and increasing the value
of wildlife to them can have much broader conservation
benefits
Habitat loss and degradation remains primary
threat even for many species impacted by IWT…
…retaliatory killing for human-wildlife
conflict can also be reduced
Community-based approaches can build support for wildlife as
a land use and tolerance for its impacts more broadly

29. 4. Communities can be powerful and positive agents in
combatting IWT
Know what is happening on the ground –
can be “eyes and ears” of enforcement
Highly motivated when have stewardship
rights and / or when gain tangible
benefits from conservation
Now many powerful examples of
communities taking lead themselves or
forming effective partnerships with
authorities

30. 5. It is not just about benefits but also about reducing
costs
• Even where benefits are
accrued communities do
not tolerate continued
conflict well
• In some cases
communities may prefer
physical separation but this
can cause other ecological
impacts

31. 6. Many projects to date have failed to stem IWT
Resulting in flawed assumptions
Leading to sometimes deeply flawed Theories of Change underpinning project design
No engagement with communities from the start
Photo credits: A. Vishwanath

32. Difficulty with “how” to engage
communities in tackling IWT

33. The Basic Equation
BENEFITS
FROM
CONSERVING
WILDLIFE
COSTS OF
CONSERVING
WILDLIFE
BENEFITS
FROM
ENGAGING IN
IWT
COSTS OF
ENGAGING IN
IWT>
Photo credits: H. Dublinfrom Cooney et al 2016 Conservation Letters
NET BENEFITS OF CONSERVING NET BENEFITS OF POACHING>

34. Building our understanding

35. Developing a methodology
Local Communities:
First Line of Defence against IWT (FLoD)

36. Enabling actions
Enabling actions
• Support development and implementation of
legal & institutional frameworks for effective &
fair wildlife protection and management
• Fight corruption and strengthen governance
• Build community skills and capacity
• Better compare & contrast costs & benefits at
individual & community levels

37. DECREASED PRESSURE ON SPECIES FROM
ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE
.
Four Primary Pathways
A.
Increase
costs of
participating
in IWT
C.
Decrease
costs of
living with
wildlife
D.
Increase
non-wildlife-
based
livelihoods
B.
Increase
incentives
for
stewardship

38. Connecting pathways to the equation
• Pathway A – increase disincentives / decrease incentives –> decreases
the net benefits of poaching
• Pathways B and C – increase incentives for stewardship and decrease
costs of living with wildlife –> increases the net benefits of conservation
• Pathway D – non-wildlife livelihoods –> reduces dependence on
conservation and on IWT
NET BENEFITS OF CONSERVING NET BENEFITS OF POACHING>

39. Community engagement and truly
“listening” is key to success
Hi Folks!
This Dude is a member of camp staff at Larsens Camp in Samburu game reserve:
A true example of African appropriate technology in action, the hands-free kit:
Salaams,
Alex

40. Questions or Comments?
©MicahConway

41. People not Poaching
Online Learning Event Series
Liv Wilson-Holt
©PhilipJ.Briggs

42. People not Poaching: Community
based approaches to tackling IWT
Part of IIED led project: Learning and Action for
Community Engagement against IWT (LeAP).
Funded by the UK Government’s IWT Challenge
Fund.
People not Poaching (PnP) is a learning
platform designed to build a global evidence
base of case studies to understand how
communities are engaged in tackling IWT.
We want to understand what works, what
doesn’t work – and most importantly why – in
initiatives that have involved communities in
anti-poaching activities.
https://www.peoplenotpoaching.org/

43. We have 18 case studies from the
East African Community region
The majority of these are from Kenya and Tanzania
and nearly all focus on charismatic mammal
species, such as elephants, rhinos and lions.
Common approaches include:
• Supporting community-based ranger
programmes
• Catalysing informal intelligence networks
• Facilitating land lease payments
• Supporting alternative livelihoods
• Reducing human-wildlife conflict
• Educating and raising awareness

44. These initiatives have had
some great successes
• Case studies have managed to reduce poaching – some by over 50% in their
project area.
• Many initiatives have achieved positive results in increased income – from
tourism revenue or alternative livelihood programmes.
• Implementing financial, preventative and reactive measures have also led to
reductions in human-wildlife conflict incidents and revenge killings.
• Communities have access to better education, healthcare and sanitation
services.

45. Lessons learned include the need
to develop projects from the
bottom-up
Local people must buy in to an idea, rather than be
forced into it – even though this can take a lot more
time
Important not to over promise – promising less and
delivering more
Spend time building relationships – community
engagement can’t just be one-off events
Leverage expertise through multi-stakeholder
partnerships

46. Challenges include sustainability
and access to long-term funding
Developing long-
term sustainable
solutions
Achieving equal
participation of
men and women
Historical
grievances
Inadequate
benefits
Lack of flexibility
Sheer
scale of
the
problem

47. Increasing capacity for anti-
poaching and enhancing human-
elephant coexistence
A 3 yr project led by the Southern Tanzania
Elephant Program (STEP). Funded by the UK
Government’s IWT Challenge Fund.
Aims are to strengthen the capacity of wildlife
authorities in Rungwa-Kizigo-Muhesi Game
Reserves to combat poaching and enhance
human-elephant coexistence
• Support Village Game Scouts
• Improve livelihoods
• Mitigate human-elephant conflict
• Educate and raise awareness
©STEPS

48. Fauna & Flora International
(FFI) South Sudan Programme
©BenoitMorkel
Providing support to the Ministry of Wildlife
Conservation and Tourism, which includes
the Wildlife Service, plus local communities
through technical expertise and direct
funding.
The aim is to improve the conservation
management of 3 protected areas in
Western Equatoria State
• Provide equipment, resources and training
• Support Community Wildlife Ambassadors
• Facilitate small-scale enterprise
• Support livestock and agriculture
development

49. People not Poaching has a
range of other features
• Resources
• Country profiles with relevant policies,
strategies and legislation
• Events

50. We are always looking for new
case studies!
Head to our contribute page or get in touch at
peoplenotpoaching@gmail.com
Follow us on social media
• Twitter @CommunitiesIWT
• Facebook @peoplenotpoaching
Sign up to our newsletter on our home page:
peoplenotpoaching.org

51. Questions or Comments?
©MicahConway

52. See you next time!
We look forward to seeing you at our
second online learning event:
Date: 30th September
Time: To be announced
You will shortly receive details on how to
register for this event.
©IUCN
For more information:
https://www.peoplenotpoaching.org/
https://www.iucn.org/flod