WEN Performance

Empower Wildlife Guardian Communities is about enabling and equipping local communities to take an active role in wildlife crime prevention and broader wildlife management. Activities may include developing open-access educational resources, teaching community-based participatory action research methods, building civil society networks, launching citizen science programmes for monitoring and reporting, and establishing community training hubs for sustainable wildlife protection practices. By fostering skills, awareness, and ownership, these initiatives empower communities to become proactive partners in wildlife enforcement and conservation.

The CAR-WEN Strategic Plan presents Empower Wildlife Guardian Communities as an external support strategy—one that the CAR-WEN can facilitate and help coordinate, but which ultimately depends on leadership and implementation from external partners. The Plan envisions collaborations with NGOs, academic institutions, civil society groups, and other Wildlife Enforcement Networks to co-create resources, deliver training, and build long-term community capacity. These activities would generate practical tools and shared knowledge that strengthen wildlife enforcement at the community level while enhancing global WEN collaboration.

Looking ahead, empowering communities to serve as wildlife guardians offers one of the most direct and sustainable ways to reduce wildlife crime. By engaging diverse partners worldwide, this strategy can expand local capacity, create stronger links between enforcement agencies and the public, and foster a culture of stewardship that extends across borders. Over time, empowered communities will be better equipped to deter, detect, and report wildlife crime, making them vital allies in the global fight to protect biodiversity.