In many parts of the world, procuring dinner can be a daily struggle. A nose for business is not just for the savvy鈥攊t鈥檚 a survival skill. Ask Dale Lewis, founder of the Zambian It鈥檚 Wild! brand of eco-friendly products, where he got his business acumen and he鈥檒l modestly insist, 鈥淚鈥檓 not clever, just a hard-headed, dogged kind of person.鈥�

In rural Luangwa Valley, where Lewis directs the Zambia Program of the 菊花视频 (WCS), hunger and grinding poverty have long been facts of life. With few options available to feed their families, many residents turn to logging and illegal hunting. But exploitation often outstrips the rates of renewal.

Some people might dismiss such a place as hopeless, but Lewis never has. Under his guidance, subsistence farmers and hunters have transferred their labors to new, more sustainable trades. They have become organic farmers, beekeepers, gardeners, carpenters, and in the newest business endeavor from this remote corner of East Africa, jewelry-makers. In the workshop of local designer Misozi Kadewele, the same snare wire once used to trap elephants, lions, and leopards is being crafted into one-of-a-kind bracelets, necklaces, and earrings called 鈥淪narewear.鈥� Kadewele handpicks her raw material from large bags of the tangled metal, then strings it with seeds from local plants and trees for a truly 鈥済reen鈥� design.

The tradesmen and women who produce Snarewear and other It鈥檚 Wild! products are part of a farming co-op known as Community Markets for Conservation, COMACO for short. Lewis initially designed the co-op to encourage poachers to turn in firearms and snares and receive job training. Hoping for a better life, many of Luangwa鈥檚 former hunters have embraced the program, collectively exchanging 40,000 snares and 800 firearms for new skills since COMACO鈥檚 inception in 2002.

鈥淐OMACO participants are significantly empowered because the markets are right at their doorstep,鈥� says Lewis. 鈥淲e have an 80 to 90 percent batting average. There鈥檚 something about this program that makes people want to take part鈥攖hey know it鈥檚 good for their country.鈥�

Today Lewis counts 30,000 registered members among his guilds. The eco-friendly products and services they sell range from rice and peanut butter cultivated without pesticides or fertilizers to the increasingly trendy Snarewear recycled jewelry to fully catered eco-tours for visitors who come to see the wildlife of South Luangwa National Park. These tourists can find It鈥檚 Wild! products at the regional Mfuwe Airport, and customers can also shop for the organic goods at supermarkets in Zambia鈥檚 capital, Lusaka, and outlying towns. The high-quality goods, wrapped in colorful packaging and stamped with an elephant logo, stand out among the usual cheap imports for sale. To target consumers who want to support local producers as well as better farming methods and land-use practices that sustain wildlife, COMACO-branded products also bear detailed descriptions of the associated social and environmental benefits. Business is humming. In 2006, the co-op grossed more than $350,000 in sales. The profits were ploughed right back into the program with a goal that it be self-sustaining by 2012.

Though Lewis credits the specialists he鈥檚 hired in organic farming, poacher transformation, beekeeping, and other areas to develop the producer guilds of Luangwa, he attributes most of COMACO鈥檚 success to the participants. Finding uses for discarded materials such as snare wire is second nature to most Zambians. As Lewis says, 鈥淚f it鈥檚 not nailed down or in concrete, it鈥檚 usable鈥攑articularly if it鈥檚 metal.鈥� Ingenuity springs in part from necessity.