Agents of death for wildlife become jewelry in Zambia

Agents of death for wildlife become jewelry in Zambia
mongabay.com
July 12, 2007

Snareware jewelry being made by Zambian designer Misozi Kadewele; and the raw materials – a pile of confiscated snares. Photos by Julie Larsen Maher ©WCS

Craftswomen in Zambia are turning snares formerly used to illegal kill wildlife into jewelry. Called "snareware", the handmade jewelry is part of a program that has grossed $350,000 for rural communities and helped protect endangered wildlife.

The program, known as COMACO (Community Markets for Conservation), is a farming co-op designed by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Zambia's rural Luangwa Valley. It allows poachers to trade firearms and snares for training in organic farming methods, bee-keeping, gardening, carpentry, and jewelry making. WCS says over 40,000 snares and 800 firearms have been turned in to date.

"Snarewear is wearable art with a mission," said COMACO director Dale Lewis of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "Necklaces, bracelets, earrings and decorative pieces not only make a fashion statement, but a statement for conservation as well."

"Supplies are hopefully limited as snares will become a thing of the past in Zambia," he added.

Reformed poacher Thomson Tembo who reportedly killed 700 elephants over 40 years proudly modeling a necklace. Photo by Julie Larsen Maher ©WCS

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