GVI Kenya

Category: Dolphins, Environmental Education | Date: Nov 30 2007 | By: admin

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) declared 2007 the International Year of the Dolphin, an initiative to promote awareness and conservation of Dolphin species around the world. Kenya Wildlife Service took up the challenge, in partnership with corporate sponsors and local tour operators and at around this time last year, the Year of the Dolphin in Kenya was launched here in Shimoni, head quarters for the Kisite Mpunguti Marine Protected Area.

We at GVI, undertaking the only comprehensive research on dolphins in Kenya, soon came on board to support the intiative. Since January we have been coordinating monthly schools competitions with Mkwiro Primary School, tapping in to the children’s creativity and love of sport to raise awareness of the importance of dolphins to their coastal community and to Kenya as a whole. Alongside school children in neighbouring Wasini village on the island, and Shimoni across the channel on the mainland, the children have had a busy year designing t-shirts, drawing dolphins in their natural environment, making models, writing poems, rehearsing songs and taking part in football, volleyball and netball competitions. I think my proudest moment was at Marine Environment Day in Mombasa, when they made an incredible sand model of a Bottlenose dolphin and were able to tell us more about Kenya’s dolphins than any other school - proving to us that they really did care about dolphin conservation.

Of course the children represent the future of conservation but responsible management needs to start now, and so we have also been targetting the boat crews that take the tourists out to see the dolphins each day. One of the early successes of the Year of the Dolphin was the coast-wide implementation by Kenya Wildlife Service of a dolphin watching code of conduct based on advice we put forward. To help the boat operators and crews understand the code and why for example, swimming with the wild dolphins is not permitted, we have been holding a series of workshops. It was hoped that with the education they received about dolphins and their biology, they would be able to then pass it on to their guests. This not only increases the reach of the environmental awareness, but can also help relieve the pressure they can be placed under by tourists to get too close to, spend too long with, or allow them to get in to the water with the dolphins. We received some great feedback by the crews who have been proud to use the new knowledge they have gained about the animals they have already spent many working years with.