Title 16, ConservationRelease 119-102

§7644 Community Conservation

Title 16 › CHAPTER 95 — ELIMINATE, NEUTRALIZE, AND DISRUPT WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING › SUBCHAPTER IV — PROGRAMS TO ADDRESS THE ESCALATING WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING CRISIS › § 7644

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of State, working with USAID, other U.S. agencies, businesses, NGOs, and development partners, can help certain countries carry out the strategic plan’s recommendations to create, expand, and copy community wildlife conservancies and local conservation programs. The goal is to make rural areas more stable and safer for people and wildlife, help communities manage and benefit from wildlife over the long term, and cut down on poaching and trafficking. Support can include things like promoting conservation businesses (for example, eco-tourism and stewardship farming), creating alternative jobs to reduce poaching, getting private companies to build anti-poaching tools and services, helping communities share information safely with law enforcement, giving technical help for land-use plans, backing local anti-poaching efforts, helping governments set up supportive rules and information-sharing, and making sure national authorities protect and assist communities when they act against poaching.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §7644

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Secretary of State, in collaboration with the United State Agency for International Development, heads of other relevant United States agencies, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, and other development partners, may provide support in focus countries to carry out the recommendations made in the strategic plan required under section 7631(a)(2) of this title as such recommendations relate to the development, scaling, and replication of community wildlife conservancies and community conservation programs in focus countries to assist with rural stability and greater security for people and wildlife, empower and support communities to manage or benefit from their wildlife resources in a long-term biologically viable manner, and reduce the threat of poaching and trafficking, including through—

(1)promoting conservation-based enterprises and incentives, such as eco-tourism and stewardship-oriented agricultural production, that empower communities to manage wildlife, natural resources, and community ventures where appropriate, by ensuring they benefit from well-managed wildlife populations;

(2)helping create alternative livelihoods to poaching by mitigating wildlife trafficking, helping support rural stability, greater security for people and wildlife, responsible economic development, and economic incentives to conserve wildlife populations;

(3)engaging regional businesses and the private sector to develop goods and services to aid in anti-poaching and anti-trafficking measures;

(4)working with communities to develop secure and safe methods of sharing information with enforcement officials;

(5)providing technical assistance to support land use stewardship plans to improve the economic, environmental, and social outcomes in community-owned or -managed lands;

(6)supporting community anti-poaching efforts, including policing and informant networks;

(7)working with community and national governments to develop relevant policy and regulatory frameworks to enable and promote community conservation programs, including supporting law enforcement engagement with wildlife protection authorities to promote information-sharing; and

(8)working with national governments to ensure that communities have timely and effective support from national authorities to mitigate risks that communities may face when engaging in anti-poaching and anti-trafficking activities.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 7644

Title 16, Conservation

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102