A presentation by IIED principal researcher Dilys Roe for the Uganda Wildlife Authority planning workshop in July 2015. The presentation summarised experiences from across Africa in engaging communities to reduce wildlife trade through a series of case studies.

1. 1
Author name
Date
Dilys Roe, IIED
Engaging communities in
combatting illegal wildlife trade –
experiences from Africa

2. 2
Current responses to
illegal wildlife trade
Law
enforcement
Reducing
demand
for illegal products
Supporting
communities
and livelihoods

3. 3
African Elephant
Summit (2013)
Engage communities living with elephants as active partners
in their conservation
London
Declaration
(2014)
Increase capacity of local communities to pursue sustainable
livelihood opportunities and eradicate poverty
Work with, and include local communities in, establishing
monitoring and law enforcement networks in areas
surrounding wildlife
Kasane
Declaration
(2015)
Promote the retention of benefits from wildlife resources by
local people where they have traditional and/or legal rights
over these resources. We will strengthen policy and
legislative frameworks needed to achieve this, reinforce the
voice of local people as key stakeholders and implement
measures which balance the need to tackle the illegal
wildlife trade with the needs of communities, including the
sustainable use of wildlife.
Brazzaville
Declaration
(2015)
Recognize the rights and increase the participation of
indigenous peoples and local communities in the planning,
management and use of wildlife through sustainable use and
alternative livelihoods and strengthen their ability to combat

4. 4
Ruvuma Elephant Project, Tanzania

5. 5
At a glance
Poaching context High levels of elephant poaching and
declining population
How are communities
involved in tackling
wildlife crime?
As village game scouts
As informants
By stopping their own illegal killing of
elephants
What incentives do
they receive?
Financial and non-financial rewards for
activities as scouts and informants
Effective human-elephant conflict
programme
Income generating opportunities
What has been the
impact on wildlife
crime?
Poaching declined to the extent that
elephant population now stable
Elephants killed as a result of HWC
declined from av 11 p.a to 4 p.a.

6. 6
Mali Elephant Project

7. 7
At a glance
Poaching context Historically limited elephant
poaching but an increasing threat
How are communities
involved in tackling
wildlife crime?
As game guards and informants
What incentives do they
receive?
Social status
Payments in kind (food)
Better grazing land and other natural
resources (healthy elephants = healthy
environment)
What has been the
impact on wildlife
crime?
No poaching until coup in Jan 2012.
Since then, with limited rule of law, local
people considered critical to minimising
poaching

8. 8
“if elephants
disappear it
means the
environment is no
longer good for
us”
“Anyone who
kills elephants
steals from the
local people”
“I do not watch the elephants for the money but because they were here long before
us humans. Looking after them gives my life meaning. I also know that the god-
crazies are liars, but not everyone understands that, especially when they have a
family to feed.”

9. 9
Olderkesi Wildlife Conservancy, Kenya

10. 10
At a glance
Poaching context Background but continuous threat
of poaching of all species for meat
and other commodities
How are communities
involved in tackling
wildlife crime?
As game guards and informants
What incentives do
they receive?
Performance-based lease payments
for land under conservation (payments
reduced for poaching incidences or
livestock incursions)
Additional rewards for information
leading to capture of poachers or
location of guns and ivory
What has been the
impact on wildlife
crime?
A bit early to tell but an apparent rise in
overall wildlife numbers on the
conservancy land.

11. 11
Rhino Rangers Incentives
Programme, Namibia

12. 12
At a glance
Poaching context Currently low but significantly
increasing threat of rhino poaching
How are communities
involved in tackling
wildlife crime?
As game guards
What incentives do they
receive?
Skills development (as rhino monitors
and trackers)
Professional uniforms and equipment
Performance based cash bonuses
Potential for tourism development
What has been the
impact on wildlife
crime?
Poaching incidents are lower on
Communal Rhino Custodian land than
elsewhere

13. 13
Would these work here?
• Community rangers?
• Improved mitigation of human-wildlife
conflict?
• Performance based payments for
conservation?
• Better income-earning
opportunities/small enterprises?
• More access to “minor” resources?
• Other?

14. 14
Intervention Possible in
Uganda?
Conditions
Community rangers
Improved HWC
mitigation
Performance based
payments
More resource access
More income earning
opportunities
Other possibilities?

15. 15
THANK YOU