Luis is twelve years old and lives in a village near Limpopo National Park in Mozambique. “Many boys in the village who are my age aren’t going to school. Instead, they go poaching. They commit crimes when they kill the wild animals, just to make money”.

”I think that these boys’ rights are violated when their parents tell them to shoot animals instead of going to school”, Luis continues. “It’s very dangerous. They could be shot or get caught and go to prison. And all children have the right to education”.

Luis says that many children, especially those who aren’t in school, don’t understand the importance of protecting wild animals and nature. “One day, all the rhinos will be gone, and poachers won’t be able to make any more money from hunting”, Luis adds. “We need to spread that knowledge to everybody”.

From school to crime

One of the boys Luis is talking about is Paulo. He left school early to help his family survive through hunting. “I quit school at the age of 13 and started hunting full-time. It felt pointless to carry on at school because there aren't any jobs here anyway," Paulo says. “But I’ve had enough now. Lots of people are getting killed, both poachers and park rangers. Poaching has to stop.”

Paulo says that his people have always hunted to survive. It's a way of life; they're hunters. "I think that's why many of us continue to hunt even though it's illegal now," he continues. "That's how it is for me. Both my father and my grandfather are hunters. I'm just doing what they do."

Paulo has been hunting with his dogs in the National Park since he was 10. W"That’s our traditional way of hunting. I get up early, get my eleven dogs and head out with my friends. We hunt impala and other smaller animals, always keeping an eye out for rangers guarding the park."

“I’ll never forget one early morning when I was 14”, Paulo says. “We’d been tracking an impala, and I sent the dogs after it. I was hiding in the brush when the dogs were suddenly surrounded by park rangers.”

“They shot and killed three of my dogs to protect the impala. I ran away as fast as I could. Several other dogs were injured and had rubber bullets in their bodies. But that’s far from the only time the rangers scared us out of the park. Once, a friend of mine was arrested and spent ten months in prison."

“But hunting isn’t just about tradition”, Paulo says. “Many poach for money because the lack of jobs here. My dad and his friends also go poaching in the park, but for rhino. They’re after the rhino horn, which can be sold for a lot of money. Now, they have to cross the border into South Africa because the rhinos here in Mozambique have been hunted to near extinction.”

“All the nice houses and cars in our village come from killing rhinos. Parents tell their children that it’s the only way, if they don’t want to live in poverty.”

"When my dogs were shot by rangers, I was angry and sad," Paulo continues. "Of the ones that survived, I had to try and remove the rubber bullets from their bodies... it was terrible. But now I understand that the park rangers were only doing their job—– and they were doing it well too. They wanted to protect the wild animals and get me to stop poaching”.

"Before, the plan was for me to go to South Africa and hunt rhinos with my dad. But I've changed my mind. My dad has too, because he's afraid I'll be killed or end up in prison. It's really dangerous."

Paulo says that park rangers have increased security, and many people from my village have been killed. "Many rangers have died as well—it's like a war. It doesn't feel good; poaching is a crime, and it's wrong. It needs to end."

Paulo, now 16, says he doesn't want to be a poacher anymore: "I've learned that we must protect the wild animals," Paulo asserts. "Otherwise, they'll become extinct, like the rhinos did here in Mozambique. I think people who are doing the right thing, like the park rangers, are very cool. I want to be like them, not a poaching criminal. Being a ranger is an important job."

However, Paulo worries about not being able to work as a park ranger, because he left school so early. "My greatest wish is to return to school and do something sensible with my life."