Comaco

Highly Engaged Employees

We built a business that incentivizes conservation. Our founders saw that traditional models of wildlife conservation werent working. Telling people not to poach didnt address the root cause of their action rural poverty. Instead of punishing people for poaching, which only exacerbated issues of hunger and impoverishment when a family member went t... o jail, COMACO designed a system that instead rewards people for conserving their natural resources. We ask everyone we work with poachers and farmers to take a Conservation Pledge, agreeing to abide by a set of community-decided principles designed to safeguard the health of their soils, forests, and wildlife. In exchange, we offer extensive trainings, support, and the means to secure a substantial, reliable income through farming. With the economic driver removed, incidents of poaching have dramatically decreased. Instead, villagers are busy tending to their fields, producing high yields of nutritious food crops, which we purchase at premium prices and turn into quality products sold across Zambia under the brand Its Wild! Our systems approach is working: incomes are rising, nutrition is improving, and wildlife is returning to the Luangwa Valley.Read More