by Rod Hackney
Of all the people we met during our three-week trip to Cameroon, probably none was more memorable than a former poacher recruited to the cause of conservation named Moussa Maliki.
We met Moussa at Benoue National Park during our efforts to install a satellite tracking collar on an elephant there. He had been brought in by our host, Dr. Martin Tchamba, head of the World Wide Fund for Nature's elephant conservation programs in Cameroon, to help us find the elephants. And he was excellent at the job.
According to Dr. Tchamba, Moussa's skills as a tracker and poacher were nothing short of "legendary" in the villages around Benoue. During 1997 he had single-handedly killed 12 elephants. Not an enviable record, to be sure. But certainly a testament to his hunting prowess.
A thin, wiry man about 5-7 in height, Moussa looked at least 10 years younger than his true age of 42. During two different efforts in Benoue, Moussa served as the lead tracker. His ability to spot tracks or other signs of elephants off the road from a moving vehicle were nothing short of amazing. And once on the ground, he could follow the coldest trail to the animals.
Moussa's success as a poacher had finally landed him in jail. After 10 years of tracking and killing animals, which he sold in Cameroon's bush meat trade, the 12-elephant season had brought Benoue's "conservator," or chief game warden, down on Moussa's head.
"The conservator caught me because that was just too much," Moussa said in his native French during an interview interpreted by Dr. Tchamba. "He took me to Garoua (the nearest large town) and put me in jail."
Dr. Tchamba recalled being told about Moussa by the conservator, who suggested that Moussa's skills as a tracker would be an asset to the elephant collaring project.
"I spoke with Moussa in jail and realized he was not only a legendary tracker, but that he knew our project area better than anyone else," Tchamba recalled. "He told me things about Benoue I had never heard from our researchers or even other local people. We asked if he would help us with our research and he agreed."
It was an easy choice, Moussa admitted of the decision to join Tchamba's project--either stay in jail for several more weeks or help in the effort to save the very animals he had hunted for so many years.
"I became a poacher because I didn't have any money or land to plant on," Moussa explained. "I have a family-a wife and kids-and they have health problems and educational needs. I had to get money somehow.
"Now I'm very happy to be protecting the animals, because I'm getting something in return," he continued. "The money is not enough yet. But I can bring home something to help solve the basic problems of my family."
According to Dr. Tchamba, his successful experience with Moussa could serve to help convert other poachers to the conservation cause. Moussa, who completed elementary school, was able to collect and record needed data in the field even without WWF researchers.
"I think Moussa is serving as a good example," Tchamba observed. "The people in his village are talking about it. And I'm sure we could use more (former poachers). The problem, of course, will be funding. We may be able to hire 10 or so, but there are so many more poachers still out there."
Before we left Benoue, Dr. Tchamba and Moussa had struck an agreement that would keep Moussa working on similar projects through the fall.
"I think it's a very good idea," Moussa said of bringing poachers into the conservation fold. "It's a lack of means that puts people in the bush to poach."
About the author:
Rod Hackney is the Public Relations Manager at the North Carolina Zoological Park.
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