How we helped a partner reduce their snaring problem by 85%

The LEAD team is proud to highlight innovative snaring prevention work done by Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry and Environment and their partner WCS-Indonesia for which they won the 2024 Herman Goldstein Award for Excellence in Problem Solving. Their problem-oriented project targeting snaring in Way Kambas National Park was able to reduce snaring by more than 80% by speaking to hunters, learning about their motivations, and developing an appropriate intervention.

Hunting of mammals with snares in Way Kambas had been entrenched for many years, and patrol was the standard response to make it go away. In 2020, Dr. Andrew Lemieux was invited to provide problem analysis training to the WCS team, as they were looking for different ways to reduce wildlife crime problems using data and analysis. After the training, the team decided to trial a problem-oriented approach in Way Kambas because the evidence shows this approach helps law enforcement better tackle the root causes of a problem and is a proven method for reducing crime and disorder. This required the team to start a new way of working as problem solving involves analysing problems in depth, finding tailored solutions based on analysis, and evaluating impact.

By combining multiple sources of information in Way Kambas, as well as the vast experience of people working on different conservation initiatives in the landscape, the team was able to piece together the snaring puzzle. They found hunting was driven by a need for income and with a targeted alternative livelihood program, in this case small duck farms, the people involved would be able to abandon hunting and develop new ways to meet their daily needs. After rolling out the program, snaring in the landscape reduced dramatically, by more than 80%, and remains low today, reducing risk to tigers and their prey. On the community front, the individuals that abandoned hunting found more stable streams of income and reintegrated into the social fabric of their community as they shifted to legitimate sources of income. The ex-hunters indicated this social benefit was extremely important to their personal lives.

LEAD is very proud to have provided training and mentorship to the WCS team during their innovative work with the Ministry. The problem-oriented approach requires organisational commitment and a shift in mindset, but when you put in the hard work, you get results like this. We look forward to seeing the team continue solving other problems across the landscapes in which they work with the Ministry.

To read the full case study, you can read the Herman Goldstein Award application here.