The YAO Crochet Project, a women-empowered knitting venture that trains the community in the Niassa Special Reserve in Mozambique to crochet and create toys and crafts, has recently created a life-sized, metal elephant sculpture to heighten awareness and stir emotions about anti-poaching efforts in the reserve.

The project is supported by the Metis Fund, an initiative by Agence Française de Développement, which finances projects that bring together artists, development operators, and the broader public concerned about one or more sustainable development issues.

Niassa Special Reserve has experienced difficult periods of poaching and insurrection. As a result, the elephant population dropped from 12 000 to fewer than 4 000 between 2013 and 2018.

However, in 2022, the reserve celebrated five years without a single elephant being killed by poaching, thanks to the anti-poaching efforts deployed by the authorities with the support of international co-operation.

The elephant sculpture was built by the people living in the Luwire Conservancy in the reserve with the support of professional artists. Once the frame for the sculpture was complete, it was covered in a skin of crochet created by the women of the YAO Crochet Project.

The sculpture is currently on a national tour of Mozambique to highlight the scourge of poaching and the goal of sustainable living.

The tour will culminate in Maputo, following which the team will look to find a suitable, permanent home for the elephant with one possible option being opposite the Museu De História Natural de Maputo.

Paula Ferro, Founder of the YAO Crochet Project, said: “Inhabitants of the remote Niassa Special Reserve have to survive with few employment prospects and significant social disadvantages, so we’re really pleased to have been able to start teaching metal-working skills in an area where about 2% of the population has a formal job.

“In a true instance of art meeting conservation, the metal for the sculpture comes from hundreds of snares confiscated from poachers in the reserve. Building capacity and access to legitimate livelihoods provide economic alternatives to the unsustainable illegal activities, such as poaching and illegal mining.

“Not only do the crochet skills sessions promote training, skills development, and employment opportunities for women living in the community, but they teach conservation and biology to the knitters to improve their knowledge about their environment and the importance of living sustainably within the Niassa Reserve.”