Conservation Through Communities (4-minute Video)
Setting up a new anti-poaching operation takes more than boots on the ground. In this video, Derek Littleton from LUWIRE in the Niassa Reserve of Mozambique explains why information is sometimes more useful than firepower and why turning villagers into allies works better than treating them as adversaries.
He's honest about what the team has had to change about itself to earn that cooperation.
He also gets into the practical side: managing internal leaks, using EarthRanger to track activity across the reserve in real time, and how the operation has reworked its relationship with surrounding villages.
One example: game meat now goes directly to individual households, rather than being distributed in bulk through community leaders.
Small change, but it shifts who has a stake in the reserve staying intact.
It's slow work.
