Final report of the PROTEGE N°2 project on trapping training and monitoring activities

Abstract

The objectives are to implement participatory trapping of enslaved pigs in priority areas, particularly in cultivated fields close to tribes, by training local volunteers in two trapping techniques (trap-cage and snare-rope), providing traps and carrying out monthly monitoring of trap beneficiaries. In addition, trapping training and the mobilization of trappers living in the intervention zones of the project and its social acceptance. During the training course, trappers are shown the equipment, techniques, tips and advice needed to trap wild pigs. The theoretical part is followed by a practical part involving the assembly of rope snares and a cage trap. Technical flyers specific to these two trapping methods published by ANCB in 2015 are also distributed to participants. At the end of the trapping course, each participant leaves with one or more self-prepared snares. One or more participants are identified for the provision of a cage trap. For each of the first training courses, a meal is shared with all participants at the host tribe (on the initiative of the ANCB-PROTEGE team and financed by SPREP). These meals are prepared by tribal associations, mostly women's associations. Participatory trapping monitoring was carried out monthly by the field supervisors and the ANCB-PROTEGE team, and was completed at the end of the project by a survey of volunteer cage-trap holders. The monthly monitoring involved only the monitoring of cage traps. On an opportunistic and minimalist basis, some information on snare trapping was passed on to the ANCB-PROTEGE team.