This program, run by the Security, Programs and Projects, and Conservation departments, uses various strategies to prevent, detour, prosecute, and give poachers alternatives to poaching. Some plans are twofold with our nature cameras, and some with structuring the environment in a cultural control methodology via fencing, terracing, landscaping of specific plants, and some with physical control methods such as nonlethal expulsion of poachers from Team Cerro Nara protected areas. Drone surveillance will be used in both high definition and infra-red spectrum to track poachers’ movements in restricted areas.
This is a high-risk project, however, it is one of the main the focal points of Team Cerro Nara, as it will allow for one of the most effective methods of environmental protection and restoration.
Volunteers and Program Members of the Poacher Prevention Project are required to:
- Pass the program/project-specific Team Cerro Nara Standards of Conduct Assessment (TCN SCA).
- Be diplomatic with potential threats, such as poachers.
- Keep good manner and presentation.
- Carry supplies to designated locations.
- Work in a rugged environment.
- Wear designated gear for presentation and safety purposes, and wear body cameras.
- Potentially camp in the wilderness.
- Construct structures with various materials such as conventional, organic, and earthen materials.
- Dig trenches, cut plants, and move earth, sometimes only with a machete.
- Potentially learn and operate drones for surveillance, and deploy nature cameras.
- Fully read and sign a contract and waver that binds them to a specific task(s) and sign a waiver liability.
(See the ‘Poacher Prevention Policies and Operations’ document)