A large number of anti-poaching, conservation and management measures have been implemented to protect rhinos. None of these responses has achieved tangible results in lowering unnatural rhino deaths through illegal hunting in southern Africa.

Existing scholarship on rhino poaching proffers a simplistic concurrence of interlinked drivers, including the entry of transnational organised crime into wildlife crime, opportunity structures and the endemic poverty facing people living close to protected areas.

In 2016, the Nepalese government announced its fourth year of zero rhino poaching as well as increases in the population. Two primary factors are said to have led to this achievement:

1. Institutional and legislative changes allowing strict law enforcement

In 1992, the non-governmental organisation Conservation International do Brasil (CI-Brasil) began a conservation and development project with the Kayapó community of A’Ukre with the objective of providing economic alternatives to logging so to protect a population of mahogany trees.

This paper explores how local people, who are often part of the problem of wildlife decline in Southeast Asia, can also be part of the solution. The authors offer practical methodologies to initiate and develop collaborative wildlife conservation at the local level, illustrating these ideas with