Another example where ex-hunters have been hired for conservation work is at REGUA in Brasil.
Around 94% of the Mata Atlantica forest in Brasil (a wonderful bio-diverse area) has been cleared and REGUA is helping to protect what is left. I have visited REGUA several times and am very impressed with what they are doing. Apart from buying up land, undertaking conservation work, reforestation, research and education they have recruited ex-local hunters as wardens/rangers specifically to successfully prevent illegal hunting. The ex-hunters also act as bird guides and one of them, Adielei, is fantastic at imitating bird calls – you definitely don’t need an mp3 player containing the local bird calls when you are with him.
You can read more at www.regua.co.uk or www.regua.org.br if your Portuguese is OK. If anyone is interested I can send them the latest REGUA newsletter, in English, which I recently received.
Cheers, Bob Sothman, Adelaide
Some years ago my Aboriginal relatives in western Arnhem Land reserved their best hunting lagoon for birdwatchers. The elders forbade anyone to shoot there. Unfortunately they received little encouragement.
For example a Scandinavian bird tour operator offered to donate $2000 towards training them as guides. But I couldn’t find an organisation, including Birds Australia, who thought it worth their while to handle “such a small amount of money” for us.