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EditorsDec 11, 2007
Buy a necklace, save an elephant
With the help of a New York-based organization, Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO), a project that turns weapons into jewelry has raised $300,000 to support rural Zambian communities and preserve wildlife. A total of 750 confiscated firearms and 40,000 wire...
With the help of a New York-based organization, Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO), a project that turns weapons into jewelry has raised $300,000 to support rural Zambian communities and preserve wildlife. A total of 750 confiscated firearms and 40,000 wire snares previously used to capture endangered wildlife in Luangwa Valley are now necklaces, bracelets, anklets and earrings.
Zambian jeweler Misozi Kadewele and a group of local women created the collection, called Snarewear. The pieces are made of wild fruit beads and steel wire from the snares and range from $15 to $30.
Director of the project Dale Lewis told Voice of America News that the jewelry is popular with Zambian tourists and sells internationally on COMACO's Web site It's Wild.
The weaponry used to make the jewelry came from farmers living in remote areas who turned to poaching as a means of survival when they were unable to find food or market products to produce. The project, which is under the auspices of Wildlife Conservation Society International, teaches the farmers other ways to make money too.
Armed with skills such as organic and fish farming, bee keeping and carpentry, these one-time poachers can redirect their energies to the preservation of Zambia's Luangwa Valley. In Africa's greatest wildlife ecosystem, the black rhino has become extinct and the elephant population is down by half.
In related news, jewelry and wildlife enthusiasts interested in protecting the Asian Elephant and the Giant Panda had their pick of jewelry recently at Sotheby's Amsterdam. Funds from the sale benefited the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), a global conservation organization. The anonymous consigner created a special fund that focuses on preservation of those particular species.
A gold tree set with gemstone ornaments, a diamond "Ram's Head" necklace by Cartier (pictured) and a small Buccellati seated-monkey figurine were among the items up for sale.
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