Visiting the Ex-poachers of Mahandakini

Category: Community Conservation | Date: Feb 02 2009 | By: gvikenya

Hello from Mahandakini!

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology I’m blogging this week without even needing my laptop! The only drawback is that I can’t show you the wonderful photos that we’re getting along the way but if you bear with me I’ll illustrate our little safari when I’m back in the office.

So where am I this week? Well 2 years ago we begun a collaboration with the World Society for the Protection of Animals on their project to tackle the bush meat trade of Tsavo West national park. Recognising that the poachers of villages such as Mahandakini, Kidong and Kassani, near the town of Taveta were only hunting wildlife because they struggled to make a living from farming, the focus of their work is to work with community groups of reformed poachers and the women that helped sell the meat of wild animals to find alternative livelihoods.

Although a long way from our coastal home, we recognised the potential to help change people’s lives and the future of Tsavo’s wildlife.

This week I have brought our team back to Mahandakini, a beautiful rural village that lies between Tsavo West and the Tanzanian border, quite literally in the shadow of Mt Kilimanjaro - yes we really are that close to what must be one of the continents most iconic images and in my mind one the world’s most stunning vistas.

Our long bumpy journey yesterday took us through Tsavo West national park, past elephants with young, ostrich and hartebeest and with the sun setting a brief view of Kili’s twin peaks.

This morning we were guided by our ex-poacher hosts through their shamba, or farms, to see how irrigation can make all the difference in the world to these communities. During this week we will be supporting them in their plans to bring food security to their community, sadly a very poignant topic in Kenya right now, as well as plans to turn locally grown cotton in to value-added finished products.

I’ll let you know how the week goes as often as I can check in… And as long as my phone battery lasts!

Bye for now…

Tags: bush meat trade, Kilimanjaro, Mahandakini, taveta, tsavo west national park, wiliflife' poachers