Catching Butterflies with Shimoni School Children
Category: Butterflies, Coastal Forest, Environmental Education, Shimoni Forest | Date: Sep 14 2008 | By: gvikenya
It took a few weeks to get our Saturday morning forest education off the ground, but we know now not to try starting new programmes in the school holidays. However many of the children from last Saturday where back again yesterday for part 2 of our children’s environmental awareness on behalf of our local partner Friends of Shimoni Forest.
To be honest we were expecting a different set of children and therefore to run the same lesson. But some quick thinking by myself and Tess and we picked up form where we left off last week. Our topic was ‘Biodiversity’, something the coastal forests of East Africa are globally recognised for. After a presentation of how different animals such as the Colobus and the Syke’s monkeys use forest resources differently and so share the habitat, we took a walk to the forest edge and played a game.
The three teams of children, the Baboons, Spiders and Swifts had half an hour with our butterfly sweep nets, to catch as many butterflies as they could… and as many different species. We have been doing this daily as part of our research programme, so were somewhat put to shame when the children came back with species we hadn’t yet recorded! But after a tie-breaker, the Swifts won with 11 butterflies from 9 different species.
Earlier this week I was emailed a couple of letters from the children of the Olive Rehabilitation Centre in Mombasa - an inspirational project where a small team of dedicated volunteer with very little resources achieve very big results with underprivileged children of the slums, giving them a genuine shot at a decent education… and the only reliable meal of their day:
Tags: , Environmental Education, olive rehabilitation centre
KWS Training Institute Students Visit Mkwiro & GVI
Category: Community Conservation, Kenya Wildlife Service, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, National Scholarship Programme | Date: Sep 12 2008 | By: gvikenya
Over the last two years we have been very happy to host Kenya Wildlife Service Training Institute students for their field attachments and so support both our partner KWS and the new generation of conservationists in Kenya. As part of our National Scholarship Programme they have always impressed us, and even been recruited for our internship.
Yesterday we were very excited to host the class of Wildlife Management students having travelled all the way from Naivasha on a field trip to the South coast and Shimoni.
I had spent time this week working with Fadhili, chairman of Mkwiro Youth Conservation Group, to prepare a lecture for the students on the community’s use of natural resources, perceptions of the Kisite Mpunguti MPA and relationship with KWS, as well the challenges they face in their dependence on the marine environment’s resources. Despite the late-running schedule, Fadhili did a fantastic job in enlightening the students on the issues and roles associated with local communities when it comes to natural resource and wildlife management.
I then took my turn to talk about the role of our research programmes in supporting governmental agencies, NGOs and community-based organisations in managing natural resources and conservation, illustrating how scientific data can be applied to target awareness and management strategies. It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to raise awareness and reach new audiences with the issues and achievements associated with our work here, and the interest from the students in the National Scholarship Programme and field attachments was very encouraging. KWS TI have already allocated 3 students to join us in October, but I hope that we will have the chance to support some of the other students in the future, building capacity for research and conservation management within Kenya.
Tags: , environmental awareness, kenya wildlife service training institute
Mkwiro Fishermen’s Fears Over Local Resource Exploitation
Category: Community Conservation, Dolphins, Fisheries, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, Uncategorized | Date: Sep 10 2008 | By: gvikenya
At the end of last week I was asked by the Mkwiro community to sit in on a ‘baraza’, or village meeting, where the fishermen expressed their concerns about the commercial exploitation of their local marine resources by people from outside of the community. They estimate that 98% of the men in the community depend on fishing as a primary livelihood, all carried out using traditional methods such as traps and long lines from dug-out canoes. In addition, harvesting of octopus and collection of cowrie shells are two principal sources of additional household income, carried out by the women. With a long tradition and dependence on fishing, it is perhaps not surprising that the community has a keen sense of sustainability when it comes to their most important natural resource.
However they perceive their catches to be in decline; when I asked if they could quantify this, they pointed out that 5 years ago the community as a whole would harvest 90 - 150 kg of octopus per day. Today it is closer to 35 kg. Or as one elder put it “fish traps used to bring a daily income, now it is a pleasant surprise if we catch anything at all… they are more of a hobby than an income”.
The community has no hesitation in identifying the cause of their declining catches. Spear-gun fishing was made an illegal practice in Kenya and yet the community see around 40 men armed with spear-guns and increasingly with scuba gear, on a daily basis. To make matters worse they report that illegal spear-gun fishing is regularly seen within the Mpunguti Marine Reserve itself, which should be protected against all but non-commercial artisanal fishing practices. The local fishermen have even found fish caught in their traps to have been wounded by spear-guns, the people from outside of their community targeting the fish that are already within their traps. They are also convinced that the constant presence of spear-gun fishermen under the water interferes with their traditional methods, scaring away the fish from their nets, traps and hooks.
Equally alarming is the prevalence of commercial aquarium fisheries in the area, the waters around Shimoni and Wasini island now being targeted for the ornamental fish that are exported for the pet trade, now that stocks have been exhausted elsewhere along the coast. Again, the perpetrators are from outside of the local communities, exploiting natural resources without bringing any benefit to the communities that are dependent on a healthy marine environment. The alarming fact in all of this is that there are apparently no legal quotas for aquarium fisheries and hence no management to regulate the activity. Corals can even be seen carried off in Shimoni, which the community understand to be illegal.
The community were keen to air their grievances in order to get guidance on how they can address these issues that are critical to their livelihoods. They perceive local authorities to have been unresponsive in the past to the same complaints that they have raised and have witnessed no enforcement of the law. They even have a deep mistrust of their local Beach Management Unit (BMU), a local authority that is intended to empower local community members and other marine-resource stakeholders to enact locally relevant management and regulation of natural resource use. The community suspect a conflict of interest has meant that the BMU is reluctant to represent their concerns, given that the authority funds itself by a form of taxation on all fish traded through Shimoni, including those caught by spear-guns.
Fortunately, this time around the community is being listened to at least. The Kenya Wildlife Service Deputy Warden at Shimoni travelled over to Mkwiro to hear the fishermen’s views first hand and wants to work in partnership with the community to enforce the regulations governing fishing activities within the marine reserve. A meeting on Friday will give the community the same opportunity to put their case to the Fisheries Department.
For our part, I hope that we can support the community through capacity building and raising awareness, to empower them to enact community-based management of their resources and ultimately conservation of their marine environment. After all, if the fishermen’s catches are declining it raises concerns over the future of other wildlife that depend on fish… including the dolphins, a vital natural resource themselves, earning tourism revenue in the local area.
Tags: aquarium fisheries, Community Conservation, Fisheries, marine resources, spear-gun fishing, sustainable resource use
Humpback whales return in numbers
Category: Cetacean research, Humpback whales | Date: Sep 08 2008 | By: gvikenya
It must be fate after my final comments on the last blog… the humpback whales returned today and ironically it was the coastal forest research team and not the marine research boat that recorded them! I got a call at around 10am from our team in the forest who had trekked out to the very end of our transect 1, where the forest meets the ocean, to be presented with 3 humpback whales entering the Wasini channel, just 500m from our base on the island. I jumped on board our small wooden dinghy, ‘Squirrel’, with our marine staff Sergi, Ines and Shafii, and the necessary survey forms, and we headed out as fast as our 25hp would allow us in the direction the whales had gone. Sightings of a couple of blows on the horizon as the whales surfaced to breathe, and a splash as one of them breached, indicated that we were at least heading in the right direction although not necessarily catching them.
Beyond Nyuli reef and out to sea we stopped the engine and drifted looking out for signs of these huge mammals, which become very difficult to locate in the open ocean. And then a couple more tell-tale blows on the horizon pointed us in the right direction. Unfortunately they were too far and moving to fast to get close to, but through binoculars I had a perfect view of four large tails emerge from the water’s surface and slip back down again in perfect synchrony. Another blow behind them indicated that there were at least five animals in total.
The only time I’d seen humpback whales was about 8 years ago, between Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, so it was fantastic to see them again, right on my doorstep… and another reminder of just how lucky I am to be involved in our project here in Kenya.
The photograph above shows the ‘blow’ of a humpback whale as it surfaces to breathe, within 500 metres of our base in Mkwiro
The photograph above shows a humpback whale seen last Thursday, closer than we were able to get today
A Close Encounter with Dolphins
Category: Cetacean research, Dolphins, Kisite Mpunguti MPA | Date: Sep 07 2008 | By: gvikenya
Working on a Sunday isn’t always a bad thing… with tourism still recovering, we are taking every opportunity to join the tour boats and collect research data, so I set off at 8 this morning for a day of dolphin surveys. Towards the end of 2007 we expanded our dolphin research to incorporate the tourist boats that take visitors to the Kisite Marine Park. Whilst our core research enables us to assess population size and social associations, studying the interactions of the tour boats with the dolphins is equally important in enabling Kenya Wildlife Service to manage tourism responsibly and ensure that impacts on the dolphin population are regulated.
With their kind co-operation, we boarded the Dolphin Dhow tour, to record data on the location, duration and dolphin individuals encountered. It was a beautiful sunny and relatively calm day… no one was complaining about giving up their Sunday. As we approached Kisite Island, we joined a couple of other tourist dhows that had come across 11 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, including a mother-calf pair and a sub-adult, travelling in a tight formation towards the Kisite reef.
After the launch of the dolphin-watching code of conduct a year ago, and with five tourist boats in total, it was pleasing to see them all drive responsibly, following the group from behind at a distance of about 30m, so as not to disturb their behaviour. This is particularly important when there are young dolphins present. After 15 minutes two more tourist boats joined us with another four adult bottlenose dolphins bow-riding to join the group. The behaviour then changed, with peduncle and tail dives, and more scattered distribution suggesting that they had started foraging at the edge of Kisite reef. It was a fantastic opportunity for tourists and our research team to observe these wild animals with the sub-adult giving us a couple of playful leaps and tail slaps on the water’s surface to keep us all the more enthralled, and a soundtrack of rhythmic gentle blows as they exhaled at the surface.
As the dolphin group reformed and set off travelling again, Dolphin Dhow moored up their boat on the edge of the reef to give us the opportunity to cool off and enjoy the underwater world. After two and a half years working here, today was one of the best snorkeling trips, with exceptionally good visibility and a diversity of colourful reef fish that I hadn’t witnessed before, of all shapes and sizes… including some of the biggest I’ve seen.
Then it got better… we were unexpectedly joined by four of the dolphins, swimming around and beneath us. One of the most valuable regulations in the code of conduct was to prohibit explicit swimming with dolphins. The common anthropomorphic view is that dolphins are ‘friendly and enjoy human company’, and we all too easily forget that we are in the company of wild animals. Pursuing wild dolphins to get close enough to drop people in amongst them has to impact on their natural behaviour and it is believed to cause stress or interfere with their feeding or socialising. It really is comparable to driving off-road in a terrestrial park to get close to lions - something that few responsible tourists would tolerate these days.
However when the dolphins choose to come to you, it is at least a voluntary response to your presence, and an exceptionally rewarding experience. For 5 minutes we had clear views of these beautiful, and surprisingly large, wild animals, swimming with easy grace and precision. And the sound of their echolocation clicks reverberating through the water and seemingly through your body as they approached head-on was astonishing. It is an innate desire to observe and understand behaviour in animals that keeps me endlessly enthralled by the natural world and makes every day in the field a new experience. So to be in the water looking down on the sub-adult as it rolled on to its back for two adults to rub along its belly, was an unparalleled privilege.
After a wonderful swahili lunch on board the boat, bobbing on the Indian Ocean, it was very difficult to feel sorry for myself for having missed out on the Humpback whales a few days ago… today was another one of those “I love my job” days! With special thanks to Dolphin Dhow for making it so.
Tags: code of conduct, dolphin research, dolphin-watching, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins
GVI teach Shimoni’s School Children about their Forest
Category: Coastal Forest, Colobus, Community Conservation, Environmental Education, Shimoni Forest | Date: Sep 06 2008 | By: gvikenya
Back in November of last year GVI Kenya helped found the community-based organisation ‘Friends of Shimoni Forest’, our research having raised awareness amongst members of the Shimoni community that their forest was simply too valuable to lose. Friends of Shimoni Forest set out with the aims of conserving the indigenous forest and its biodiversity, supporting further research and raising awareness amongst surrounding communities. It’s been a slow process at times, but with our coastal forest research back up and running and a petition for the gazettement of Shimoni forest’s Kayas ready to be submitted to National Museums of Kenya it was very satisfying today to have the awareness underway with Shimoni’s school children.
19 Shimoni Primary School students drawn from standards 6, 7 and 8 gave up their Saturday morning to join us and learn about the biodiversity on their doorstep, play some educational games, take a walk in to the forest to understand more about the colobus and the array of other wildlife and finally watch a video that presented the diversity of tropical forests in an unforgettable way.
As important as the messages on biodiversity, the morning was exceptionally fun for everyone involved and engaged the children in wildlife that is often overlooked. We plan to run this every Saturday morning and reveal the secrets of Shimoni’s forest to many more of Shimoni’s children.
Tags: coastal forests, colobus monkeys, Community Conservation, Environmental Education
Humpback Whale Photos
Category: Cetacean research, Humpback whales, Kisite Mpunguti MPA | Date: Sep 06 2008 | By: gvikenya
In the last blog I wrote about our latest encounter with humpback whales here in the Kisite Mpunugti MPA, so I thought I would share some of the many photos our marine research team on the day managed to get.
The mother-calf pair above visited Kisite Mpunguti MPA on Thursday this week
Humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, can grow up to 15m in length and 30 tonnes in weight. They are a highly migratory species travelling up the East African coast to breed in the warm clear waters off the Arabian peninsula. Sightings of very young calves indicate that they may breed off the Kenyan coast as they will generally wait until their calves are strong enough before attempting the long journey back to the productive feeding grounds of the Antarctic for during the southern hemisphere’s summer months.
Humpback whales are baleen whales, or mysticetes, with baleen plates instead of teeth, for filter-feeding. They are named for their characteristic long hump beneath the somewhat short, stubby dorsal fin. Their pectoral fins are distinctively long, up to one third of their body length and the head is covered in numerous knobs called tubercles.
Humpback whales reappear at Kisite Marine Park
Category: Cetacean research, Humpback whales, Kisite Mpunguti MPA | Date: Sep 04 2008 | By: gvikenya
The exciting news from our marine research programme today was the reappearance of humpback whales in Kisite Marine Park. The mother and calf pair surfaced near to Kisite Island this morning in front of the team aboard our research vessel ‘Bardan’, a traditional local dhow that also goes by the name of ‘Lampard’ thanks to its Chelsea FC supporting owner. Lampard also happens to be the nickname I go by with the children in Mkwiro village so I’m feeling an affinity with our new boat!
Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) photographed close to Kisite-Mpunguti MPA in August 2007
The photo identification survey was attempted this morning, however with these majestic whales, unique identification comes from the pattern of notches on the tail flukes as opposed to the dorsal fins of the dolphins that dominate our cetacean research. Unfortunately this pair did not demonstrate much tail-diving behaviour and so opportunities to photograph their tail flukes for analysis were few and far between.
Mother-calf pair Humpback whales surveyed last year in Kisite-Mpunguti MPA
However it is very exciting still to have the opportunity to record the movements of these infrequent visitors to the Kisite-Mpunugti marine protected area. This is only our second sighting of them on marine surveys this year, the first coming almost a month ago, again a mother-calf pair, although we can’t yet determine if they were the same pair. Humpback whales were also spotted in the Wasini channel at the beginning of July, but not whilst our research vessel was at sea. Taken together this represents valuable data in understanding their migratory movements on the south Kenyan coast which this year covers at least a two month period. In addition it is a remarkable experience for our expedition members that have been conducting our cetacean research on the bottlenose and humpback dolphins, to see their larger relatives close up in the same waters. I hope that I will have more to report in the coming weeks as it is always a privilege to see these kings of the ocean.
Power saws and Pouched rats in Shimoni forest
Category: Birds, Coastal Forest, Colobus, Gecko, Logging, Primate Research, Rodents, Shimoni Forest, Small mammals | Date: Sep 03 2008 | By: gvikenya
Today we ventured deep in to Shimoni East forest, to transect 5, to undertake bird point counts - we identified three red-capped robin chats foraging close together in the leaf litter, a silvery-cheeked hornbill flying overhead and a sun bird that was too quick through the vegetation to allow us to identify which species. Numerous other bird songs could be heard but the birds proved elusive through the dense vegetation.
However the peace of the forest morning was shattered during the bird surveys by the revving of a power saw overshadowing the birdsong, about 100m from us. Within 10 minutes the crashing sound of a tree falling through the undergrowth came, followed by chattering and laughter of people and distress calls from nearby Syke’s monkeys. And so once again Shimoni witnesses the loss of more critical coastal forest habitat to illegal and unregulated forest resource exploitation.
About 20 minutes later we recorded two adult Angolan black and white colobus travelling above us through the canopy of one of the tree species targetted by loggers. Their presence at the end of transect 5, close to the edge of the forest where the mangroves begin, is not often seen. It is sad to think that they are still vulnerable to habitat destruction so deep in the forest.
On a happier note, we did also manage to catch a gecko on our way through, which appears to be the flat-headed gecko Hemidactylus platycephalus. The real highlight however was the first capture in the small mammal traps we are trialling on transect 1. On day 2, we have been rewarded with first our rodent capture - the giant pouched rat. It looks to be a Cricetomys emini, a different species to the ones I am used to from Tanzania so particularly exciting for me. We clipped a small patch of her fur to see if we get her returning to the traps over this week…
Kayas of Shimoni Forest Revealed by elders
Category: Coastal Forest, Community Conservation, Kaya, Shimoni Forest | Date: Sep 02 2008 | By: gvikenya
After the suspension of the GVI Kenya expedition due to troubles in Kenya at the beginning of the year, we are exceptionally pleased to be back up and running. However Shimoni forest (locally known as Mbuyu Tundu) has been hit hard in our absence, with much land been cleared for subsistence farming, continued charcoal burning and power saws cutting down the larger trees for furniture. In addition, Coastal plots that have been sold to private developers have begun to be cleared ready for development.
This increase in human disturbance has alarmed the local Shimoni community who are worried their ancient coastal forest will be lost forever. In June and July Friends of Shimoni Forest and the chairmen of the seven surrounding villages came together to discuss the recent issues and solutions to protect this beautiful area, and its endemic species for the future generations.
In addition to the biological value, Shimoni forest holds cultural value to the tribes that live along the coast. The traditional inhabitants of these areas still practice ancient rituals and ceremonies at the Kayas located deep within the forest. These Kayas are ancient burial grounds of their ancestors, and offerings in he form of gifts, prayers and sacrifices are given to continue their animist practices. The Kayas have been passed down through generations and are of huge significance to the indigenous communities.
Many Kayas are located within the Shimoni forest, and local elders of the village want to ensure their protection. Four elders from the surrounding villages accompanied our Terrestrial Science Officer, Emma, into the forest to point out their Kayas and explain the beliefs behind them. After the second day, 15 Kayas had been located and an array of information revealed to us by the elders. The Kayas are as different in form as they are in use. Some were peaceful places, used for prayers only, and gifts were present at the centre of them in the form of glass bottles containing rose and honey water. Others were used to ask for help in times of drought or food shortage. In all cases, the areas were highly thought of by the elders, shoes were removed before entering and each person had to go through a ritualised cleansing to pay respect to the ancestors. It was obvious how revered these places were by the people.
In addition, the elders were asked if the forest was important to them and what it would mean to them if it was lost. Mohammed Burashe, an elder from Anziwani village replied “the forest not only holds our Kayas, but is also essential for our livelihoods. Trees are used to make our dug out canoes for fishing; firewood is collected allowing us to cook food. If the forest was lost, how would we live? Also, many animals have homes in this forest, if the forest was cut down, where would they live?”
The community plans to take this information to National Museums of Kenya, who annex areas of Kaya forests as National Cultural Monuments, empowering local communities to manage them. Hopefully this will provide a firest step in safeguarding both Shimoni’s biodiversity and culture.
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