Growing the Wealth of the Poor - World Resources Institute

woods for the rare cedar they had used before. They also adoptedthe collective brand “Made in Masaya” to promote a local identity.With improved product quality, design, and pricing, theEcoHamaca group was able to successfully penetrate the exportmarket, eventually shipping more than 3,000 hammocks permonth (Kanungo 2004:1–2).Despite the clear advantages, organizing and sustainingcooperatives and other producer associations is not simple. Forexample, most rural cooperatives start from a base of inexperience,with members who possess low skill levels and little businessexperience. They attempt to organize in the most difficulteconomic circumstances, in rural markets that are highly dispersedand very brand- and price-conscious, making their products thatmuch harder to market. For business consortia, setting asidedistrust and competitiveness among members is often a majorB U I L D I N G O W N E R S H I P, C A P A C I T Y , A N D C O N N E C T I O Nbarrier, and frequently requires an outside catalyst, such as anNGO or government department. In addition, co-ops or consortiaoften require considerable funding from outside sources inorder to get off the ground, and finances remain a challenge evenfor successful associations (Philip 2003:21; Hellin et al. 2007:26;Kanungo 2004:6–7).Promoting Product Standards and Market ResearchProducer associations are an ideal forum in which to developstandards for product quality, harvesting practices, or manufacturingmethods to help producers improve their product positioningand reputation. In northeast Brazil, for example, the Valexportproducer association helps farmers in the Petrolina-Juazeiro areamaintain their melon quality—and export prices—at a high level.CONNECTIONNETWORK PROFILE: COMMUNITY MARKETS FOR CONSERVATION (COMACO), LUANGWA VALLEY, ZAMBIACommunity Markets for Conservation, or COMACO, is a commercial networkwith a conservation mission, working to expand livelihood opportunities forrural communities in eastern Zambia. Every year, thousands of tourists flockto the Luangwa Valley to visit its game parks. But its people are very poor,with average household incomes under US$200 (Lewis 2005:2). Poverty andfood insecurity have encouraged unsustainable agricultural practices and ahigh incidence of game hunting for subsistence and sale in local markets.Hoping to break this destructive poverty-environment linkage, the WildlifeConservation Society, an international NGO, formed the COMACO network in2002 (Middleton 2008).The centerpiece of COMACO’s work is the agricultural extension service itoffers to small producer groups of 10–20 households at regional trainingoffices (WCS 2007). At these bases of operation throughout the valley, paidextension officers and volunteers have taught 30,000 villagers—representingover 2,500 producer groups—about livestock care and basicconservation farming techniques, such as natural composting and landpreparation without burning. With these techniques, farmers grow higherqualityproduce and can provide enough food for their families, even in timesof drought. (WCS 2007; Middleton 2008). Upon receiving training from theextension officers, producer group members sign a contract committingthemselves to the conservation farming practices in return for the additionalbenefits that membership in COMACO offers. Included in these benefits aretraining in other types of farming and access to free and subsidized farminputs provided by COMACO (WCS 2006a:1).The biggest incentive that COMACO offers for joining the network and adheringto the contract is that the organization purchases produce with high valueaddedpotential—such as rice, soybeans, honey, peanuts, and freshvegetables—from network farmers at premium prices. After collecting theproduce at its regional centers, COMACO processes and packages the foods atone of its three major plants and sells them under COMACO’s “It’s Wild” brandthrough its Web site, in tourist lodges, and in urban markets (Lewis 2005:3;WCS 2007). The producer groups own 20 percent of COMACO shares, and thusreceive dividends when the company makes a profit (COMACO 2004:1).COMACO’s extension work and premium payments to farmers are part of alarger strategy to overhaul the incentive structure for Luangwa’s farmers,increasing their farm and non-farm income so that they can become lessreliant on game hunting and environmentally destructive farming practices(Lewis 2005:3). As part of this strategy, citizens who hand over the firearmsthey use for game hunting receive an eight-week training course in goathusbandry, beekeeping, dry-season gardening, fish farming, and carpentry inthe Poacher Transformation Program (WCS 2007). In addition, COMACO offersthose who grow and plant tree seedlings to minimize soil erosion an extraprice premium for their produce (COMACO 2007a). COMACO has also helpedform an ecotourism enterprise of bush camp accommodations and a line ofjewelry made from animal snares that farmers have turned in as part of thePoacher Transformation Program (COMACO 2007b). As it matures and continuesto offer an expanded slate of capacity-building and marketing services,COMACO has taken on many of the characteristics of an intermediary supportorganization, with the goal of geographically scaling its effects throughouteastern Zambia. It has also taken on ISO characteristics in its work with localand national government officials and NGOs at all levels as it expands.While not yet financially self-sufficient, COMACO has produced positiveresults for the communities of the Luangwa Valley during its five-plus yearsof work. One thousand households have begun to grow dry-season gardensand fruit trees using the solar-powered fences COMACO has helped finance.Farmers are now eating more fish, thanks to the 150 fish ponds COMACOhas facilitated. On-farm composting combined with other conservationfarming techniques (skills taught in COMACO’s extension courses) helpedincrease maize yields of participating farmers by over 19 percent between2005 and 2006 (WCS 2006b:4). And hunters that formerly used illegaltechniques to catch wild game have doubled their legal incomes sincejoining the program. In fact, former hunters surrendered 40,000 illegalsnares and 800 firearms between 2001 and 2006. As a consequence, thelocal wildlife population has stabilized and slightly increased in someplaces—a trend that suggests that the network’s commercial and conservationmissions are compatible (WCS 2006; WCS 2007).103