GVI Kenya

Category: Community Conservation, Eco-tourism, Environmental Education, Wasini Locally Managed Marine Area | Date: Aug 18 2009 | By: gvikenya

Thursday was a slightly different day for the marine team, as we headed to the other side of Wasini Island to give a series of lectures to the Wasini Locally Managed Marine Area (WLMMA) group. We headed out from Mkwiro in two groups; one on foot along the path of the mangroves on the north side of Wasini Island and the other in Squirrel, our boat, travelling west along the channel to reach our destination, Wasini Village.

On our arrival we were ushered to the local football club building by Feisal, one of the committee members of the WLMMA, the group we would be giving lectures to for the day. We waited patiently for the rest of the villagers and members to arrive. The day began with a prayer by one of the village elders, a man of eminent presence, dressed from head to toe in flowing white with a kofia, but also with a touch of the modern day with a hearing aid and flashy sunglasses. Before the presentations kicked off everyone introduced themselves, and we learnt that amongst the members present there were several fishermen and elders of the village.

 Sergi giving a presentation

The Wasini LMMA committee began in 2003, when PACT Kenya visited several villages around the Shimoni peninsula area of the south coast. Their aim was to educate the people of these areas on the value of the environment around them and ways to conserve it, as well as highlighting particular marine areas near the villages that were susceptible to the negative impacts of tourism and over-fishing. The locally managed marine area of Wasini runs from the west tip of the island around the coast finishing mid-way along the north side of the island, encompassing several areas of mangroves and also the reef in front of the village. The group have already introduced and enforced the use of mooring buoys due to the devastating impact of the anchors of the many dolphin dhows that stop to have lunch in Wasini village. They also have daily boat patrols to apprehend anyone using illegal fishing techniques that damage the reef, including spear-gun and dynamite fishing.

 Emma mid-presentation

The group’s main project at present is to take tourists out to a section of the reef for snorkelling trips. So our job was to give lectures and educate the group on several aspects of the marine environment. The lectures included conservation, mangroves, marine mammal biology, whale and dolphin species, sea turtles, reef fish, marketing and company etiquette. The presentations went brilliantly with the students being extremely involved, asking many questions whilst also teaching our volunteers; Kiswahili names and some local traditions.

However we did not spend the whole day in lectures and there was time to have a chai and cake break, lunch in a new eco-friendly restaurant with a delicacy of sea grass on the menu, and a game of football with some of the local children. We were also taken out to the snorkelling area which was an amazing experience. The guys had warned us that we would not see fish any where near the size of the fish found in Kisite-Mpunguti MPA, but this did not damper the experience at all, it just meant everything was miniature! Amongst the many fish species observed we saw anemonefish, an Indian lionfish (Pterois muricata) lurking beneath an over hanging rock, Black-saddled tobies Canthigaster valentine, juvenile Black snappers (Macolor niger) and an Emperor angelfish (Pomacanthus imperator) elegantly gliding around the reef. All in all a very rewarding day for everyone involved!

Tags: anemonefish, black snapper, cake, chai, Community Conservation, emporer angelfish, indian lionfish, lectures, local traditions, marine environment, marine mammal, Wasini Locally Managed Marine Area, workshop

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Category: Coastal Forest, Environmental Education, Shimoni Forest | Date: Jun 11 2009 | By: gvikenya

These last few weeks have seen an exciting new development for GVI’s forest team here in Kenya. For one day a week we’ve decided to swap our boots and compasses for chalk and lesson plans! 

Over the last few months, GVI has started working more and more with the Shimoni Base Academy, a new school tucked away in Shimoni village. It is part funded by private donations, which allows the fees for children from poorer families to be subsidised. One thing that shocked us was the revelation that the children at Base Academy were not being taught science at school.  It seemed like such a shame that these children were living right on the edge of one of the most important habitats for biodiversity and endemism in the world – Shimoni’s Coastal Forest. 

 And as we are conducting research in the forest, and know it rather well, we thought that dedicating an hour a week to environmental education based around the forest they live next to, could have a massive impact on the children and in turn could help to protect the forest in the future.   

We spoke to a few of the children and discovered they knew very little about the forest, and didn’t even know what animals lived there. So we created a short-term syllabus to kick things off, starting with a basic introduction to forests in general, and the important roles they play in things such as the water cycle and preventing soil erosion. 

   We then led onto why Shimoni Forest in particular was so important, touching on its role as a international biodiversity hotspot, how it protects the in-shore coral reefs and its capacity as a vital natural resource. After that we moved onto the animals of Shimoni forest (the lesson we think they enjoyed the most!) including the threatened population of the sub-species of Angolan black and white colobus, and the rare Zanj elephant shrew.   The lesson planned for this week will be based on the consequences of Shimon Forest disappearing. Hopefully this will highlight to the kids the importance of the forest in every aspect of their lives, now they are more aware of what it gives them! The overlying theme for our environmental education lessons is going to be instilling a sense of pride in Shimoni Forest, which is actually their forest, so that they will go away with a better understanding of its role in their lives, and their role in its safe keeping. 

Tags: coastal forests, Environmental Education, shimoni

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Category: Community Conservation, Eco-tourism, Environmental Education, Human-Wildlife Conflict | Date: May 25 2009 | By: gvikenya

Every few months our team rides the rough, red dusty road through Tsavo West National Park, to the village of Kidong, a small but significant dot on the vast landscape that stretches between Tsavo West National Park across the border to Mt Kilimanjaro. We are aiming to support this community-based organisation for former poachers convert conflict with wildlife in to conservation.

The Kidong Education and Cultural centre is already teaching local farmers to protect their crops from elephants using chili peppers but they aspire to make the centre substitute income from poaching with a livelihood from hosting… tourists! On our most recent visit we worked with members of the community to bring together two of the skills we helped teach them previously; making soap from neem trees and paper from elephant dung. With one eye on the potential tourists we have been helping them develop their new found cottage industry of soap making in to a marketable product for tourists, experimenting with moulds and packaging made from recycled paper using elephant dung. With ex-poachers turning elephants from pests in to products, we hope the story behind the packaging will be enough to spark the interest of new customers!

The other side of the equation of course is bringing tourists to the centre in the first place and having already facilitated the collation of the people’s history, culture and evolving relationship with wildlife, we spent time developing a 15 minute presentation to kick off their cultural experience for the eco-toursits we will be targetting. There is still work to be done at the centre to get it ready for eco-tourism but we are also working behind the scenes on ways to get their restaurant built by the end of August.

Our new introduction to their ever-expanding repertoire of environmental sustainability was a workshop on the wonders of vetiver grass… this humble horticultural tool is being viewed as something of a miracle plant by those in the know. Tolerant of arid conditions, but able to cope with high rainfall, it is being used worldwide to stabilise soils against erosion, slow waterflow with its deep root system to ensure rains drain downwards rather than run-off and can be used as almost anything from livestock fodder to weaving mats and baskets. Using a strain that is infertile but propogates readily ensures its use can be controlled but easily expanded. So convinced were we by the benefits of the grass, that before leaving we planted 100 of them to get the community started!

And just to remind ourselves of why tourists should choose to visit Kidong on their safari stop off, the magnificent Mt Kilimanjaro appeared from behind a curtain of clouds and we found time to cool off in its refreshing (some might read ‘freezing’!) meltwaters at the idyllic Njoro springs.

 I look forward to reporting progress in a few months time,

 Corti

Tags: bush meat trade, capacity building, Eco-tourism, Elephants, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Kidong, Kilimanjaro, poachers, soil erosion, sustainabe development, tsavo west national park, vetiver grass, water conservation, wildlife

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Category: Community Conservation, Environmental Education, Uncategorized | Date: Apr 29 2009 | By: gvikenya

Saturday morning wasn’t a promising start… pouring rain in which I had to drive Squirrel, our little wooden dinghy, between Shimoni  and Mkwiro… I jumped overboard just to keep warm in the sea!

The next stage of the journey was more comfortable; after drying off and dressing up, our small party of staff and volunteers climbed in to the car and headed south, to the coastal village of Vanga on the border with Tanzania. Leaving the car behind for fear of getting stuck in the mud, we walked the final leg, at times bare foot through the mud, to the smaller village of Jimbo. The reason for our little odyssey was an invitation to a traditional Swahili wedding. A niece of Athumani, our friend from Shimoni, was marrying the son of Mchasa, boat captain with Paradise Divers, our neighbours in Mkwiro.

The rain came down once more as we joined the procession of men escorting the groom from the mosque where he had been married, to the house where he would be united with his new wife, but the excitement running through the jostling crowd clearly wasn’t about to be dampened by the weather.

Meanwhile, the ladies in our party had taken up their positions, along with the other women, beautifully wrapped in bright, bold kanga patterns, at the bride’s house, to witness the union. In contrast to weddings back home, this is not meant to be a time for beaming brides – tradition expects her to appear sad as she prepares to leave her family behind. As a result, photos of the ‘happy couple’ can appear anything but… however it was reassuring to see that this particular bride was clearly struggling to keep a smile from her face, even if it did go against protocol!

With our party reunited, we were ushered in to one of the family homes, sat on colourful hand-woven mats, and presented with vast plates of lemon-coloured rice and richly flavoured beef dishes. With no disrespect to the bride and groom intended, our traditional Swahili wedding lunch was probably the highlight of the day, and we all ate our fill. Then down to the beach to wave off the bride and groom, as their dhow set sail for the bride’s new life on Wasini island.

But conservation in Kenya is found even in the remotest villages and before setting off home ourselves, I was  privileged to spend time talking to Hassan and Mwichambi of Jimbo Environmental Group. With support from Kenyan organisations including East Africa Wildlife Society and Kenya Sea Turtle Conservation Committee (KESCOM), the group of nearly 50 have been busy these last few years restoring mangroves, protecting turtle nests, planting trees and keeping bees.

It was obvious that this was a team of bright, environmentally aware and dedicated community conservationists that had already achieved great things for their small community. One more group of unsung heroes, conserving Kenya simply because they understand it’s the right thing to do. We talked about the possibility of GVI Kenya returning in the future to share some of our knowledge with them, and they were eager to learn about the dolphins they see there… it made the journey incredibly worthwhile and one I hope to repeat in the not too distant future. Watch this space!

Corti

Tags: bee keeping, Community-Based Conservation, environmental awareness, jimbo, mangrove restoration, tree planting, turtle conservation, vanga

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Category: Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Colobus, Community Conservation, Environmental Education, Friends of Shimoni Forest, Kaya, Kenya Wildlife Service, Logging, Shimoni Forest | Date: Apr 22 2009 | By: gvikenya

What is the best way to have your voice herd? How do you convince the people in charge that your cause is important? When it’s the health of our rare coastal forest, how to you get the politicians on your side? Answer: Take it to their door step. And that’s what Friends of Shimoni Forest is doing. Last week we told you guys about our meeting with the Area Chief and the four Assistant Area Chiefs. This meeting really encouraged us to keep moving our cause forward with the local administration. The area chief recommended that we speak with the District commissioner and Chairman of the County Counsel. These two men are very influential here in Shimoni and the surrounding area. We immediately scheduled the two meetings for the begging of this week. The meetings were a great success and could be a huge turning point for our group and local conservation in general.
Our first meeting was with the Chairman of county counsel. The county counsel is in charge of the three major districts in the area. They are also in charge of allocating government land. We wanted to discus land ownership and the possibility of allocating a large plot of the forest to our group. We feared this may have been kind of a long shot so we took all necessary measures before raising the subject. We explained that we had the support from our Village Chairmen, Area chiefs and Kenya Wildlife Services. We talked about all the previous work we had done with youth education, patrolling of the forest, and creating sustainable alternative sources of income for the community. This last point really struck a chord with the Chairman. It is part of their mission to help communities grow and create jobs to raise the standard of living within their area. We explained that it was our goal to create sustainable work within the community to deter people from illegal and unsustainable practices such as logging and charcoal burning. Creating jobs and conservation are two very important issues to the counsel and the Chairman assured us we had his full support. He recommended that our group write a proposal for the land and that there is a high probability of placing a large piece of the forest under our protection.  Amazing!!!

Our meeting with the District Commissioner was just as rewarding. Our goal for these meetings was to bring our groups intentions to the higher authorities. We want support from the authorities in obtaining this land. Getting the forest protected is a long term goal and will not happen overnight. We realized that as a CBO (community based organization) it can sometimes be difficult to move our projects forward. If this land is allocated to Friends of Shimoni Forest and placed in our protection it will make our group a major share holder and give us a lot more influence in policies written. This will be a huge step towards protecting the entire forest. We are very excited! This will not solve all our problems, illegal practices will not just stop, nor will we.  This will show everyone that our community is ready to take major actions to protect this beautiful coastal forest and the animals that live there. We will continue fight for our causes and the further we look the more we realize that we can build the support and make this work.  We appreciate everyone’s support and can’t wait to tell you what happens next.
Until then this is Drew and thanks for your support and time.             

Tags: , Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Colobus, Community Conservation, Environmental Education, Friends of Shimoni Forest, Kaya, Kenyan Wildlife Service, Logging, Shimoni Forest

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Category: Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Colobus, Community Conservation, Environmental Education, Forest fire, Friends of Shimoni Forest, Kaya, Kenya Wildlife Service, Logging, Primate Research, Shimoni Forest | Date: Apr 14 2009 | By: gvikenya

Drew here with more information on the fire and what’s happening with Friends of Shimoni Forest. Recently a meeting was held with community members and government officials about the destruction in Shimoni forest. This meeting was lead by KWS and involved many members of the community including Friends of Shimoni Forest. We had a major victory when the community decided to ban all power saws from the Shimoni area. And for a while we were seeing a real decline in logging which showed promise.
Unfortunately the recent fire which burned a large portion of the coastal forest reminds us that there is still a lot of work to be done. Matt, working with GVI who discovered the fire, recently wrote about the fire in our blog. Yesterday Matt and I were called to have a meeting with the Area Chief Rashid Kassim Mklinynyihti and assistant Area Chiefs from the surrounding Kawle district. They were very concerned when word reached them about the fire and they had people soon on the scene. It is known that the fire was started by illegal charcoal pits and logging practices. During the meeting we discussed ways in which we could work together more efficiently to prevent these crimes. GVI and Friends of Shimoni Forest have always worked very closely with local community members and officials. The officers present at this meeting represent a greater area and have more influence in creating polices. Conservation starts at grass root levels and Friends of Shimoni forest is a perfect example of this.
We were very excited when the Mr. Kassim invited us to attend the weekly meeting held at the chief office is in Pongikie/ kidimu. He would like us to report to him personally anytime we have a concern or new plan of action. This is a great sign that the importance of conserving the forest is shared by both the community and elected officials from the greater area. Plans have been made to begin involving more influential politicians in our organization and this is a great step. We are setting an appointment with the district commissioner to discuss our concerns and raise money for saplings. FSF would like to sponsor a forest day festival. The Mr. Kassim is already on board and promises a lot of support. With the district commissioner’s help we think this event could be a huge success. We plan to invite local schools and other community groups and members to come and plant trees and learn more about the forest.
This just one more step towards reaching our goals. Every victory is important to our cause. Conservation is everyone’s responsibility. When communities join together to battle issues like global warming and protection of their environment amazing things can happen. We realize that the task at hand is immense and appreciate every step made forward. With the help of GVI and government officials, Friends of Shimoni forest and the community at large remain determined to put an end to the destruction of our coastal forest.

Tags: Charcoal Pit, Coastal Forest, Community Conservation, conservation, Enviornmental Education, Friends of Shimoni Forest

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Category: Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Colobus, Community Conservation, Environmental Education, Friends of Shimoni Forest, Kenya Wildlife Service, Logging | Date: Mar 02 2009 | By: gvikenya

Jambo!

Drew here back again and there’s more great news happening with Friends of Shimoni Forest. One thing that we as a group have strived for is support from both governmental and NGO in the area. We have been very successful in making friends with many local community based organizations who have been willing to support our causes, including Anzwani Women Group and Shimoni Mkwiro Dhow Tours. We are very proud to announce our support now from Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS). We have always worked with KWS and they have been willing to help us from day one, coming to meetings and supporting our projects, but now they have made the next step in helping us protect our coastal forest. Until recently KWS concern was for the welfare of the animals and not protecting the forest itself. This was largely due to the fact they had little authority in matters of conversation of our costal forest. They always helped us any way possible but, fortunately, there is little to no poaching happening in Shimoni forest so there was not much for them to do.

We have no forestry department in Shimoni and the local police station has limited man power making them unable to accomplish what needs to be done in order stop illegal charcoal burning and logging. KWS has always been very busy managing the Kisiti Mpunguti National marine park, located about one kilometer from Shimoni, and has had limited resources to do much else. This has really left no one able to apply pressure on the people committing these crimes and one of the reasons our group was established in 2007. Fortunately, with the growing support from not just our village, Shimoni, but others now as well including Anzwani things are starting to change. We are very proud of the local communities who have been increasing their support for protecting their forest. We have talked about the local area assistant chief who has started his own patrol group brining in charcoal burners. Community members have been putting pressure on police to prosecute criminals to the full extent of the law. And village elders and chairmen have been encouraging the community to no longer allow these people access through their villages in order to reach the forest to begin with. KWS has seen the support for conservation and are now stepping up their game. They are really not responsible for controlling destruction, however they do realize that the wildlife they protect depend on the forest. Yesterday, for the first time, KWS could here power saws coming from the forest and decided it was their turn. Two rangers headed off into the forest in search of the source. They came upon two men logging without permits and immediately made arrests. The men knew they were in trouble, being arrested by KWS; they would not get a slap on the wrist for this one, they will be in court today. We are very happy to have KWS making a stance with us today. The community sees that their voices are being herd and that large government offices are listing to their concerns. Illegal charcoal burners and loggers will think twice about their next move, knowing that KWS is on the case as well. We will be keeping you informed on all upcoming events and as always thanks for your time. See you soon. Friends of Shimoni Forest

Tags: , Charcoal burnung, Coastal Forest, Friends of Shimoni Forest, Kenya Wildlife Service, Logging

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Category: Community Conservation, Environmental Education, Human-Wildlife Conflict | Date: Feb 25 2009 | By: gvikenya

“Elephants!” shouted the group of women huddled under the shade of a lone tree by the border of Tsavo West National Park.  Clad in colorful kangas with babies strapped to their backs, the women are not the least bit surprised to see elephants wandering down the main road of their village of Kidong, they are simply excited to point them out to me.  Although elephants are a common sight in this region of Kenya, I still get excited when I see them passing serenely by oblivious to our presence.

Elephants were in fact one of the main reasons that GVI began working with the community of Kidong in 2006, and remain one of the key focal points for GVI’s community development work in this village.  So what to elephants have to do with community development you might ask?  Lots! 

Firstly, many of the community members in Kidong village historically relied upon poaching animals, including elephants, in Tsavo West National Park for subsistence purposes.  In 2006, Kidong and two other villages in this region – Kasaani and Mahandkini – elected to give up poaching in favor of sustainable alternative livelihoods.  This is where GVI in conjunction with the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) stepped in and offered to provide assistance in developing sustainable alternative means of income generation in these villages. 

Secondly, the elephant population has created its own problem… human-elephant conflict! In the area surrounding Kidong agricultural pursuits are one alternative livelihood which is commonly pursued; crop raiding by elephants, however, has a significant negative impact upon the viability of this income generation option as whole shambas (farming plots) are often decimated by elephant incursions.

Constructing chili-oil fences at a local shamba

Not to be deterred from fully embracing their new found sustainable lifestyles, the community of Kidong has managed to put a positive spin on the problem of human-elephant conflict.  With assistance from both GVI and WSPA the community of Kidong has constructed the Kidong Cultural and Education Centre.  The Education Centre provides free educational lessons to communities about sustainable means of deterring elephants from farming land using chili-based deterrents such as chili-oil fences and chili-dung bricks.  The Cultural Centre is currently being developed as a tourism centre where tourists can come and learn about Kidong’s story – ‘From Poachers to Protectors’.

GVI enjoying recent developments at the Kidong Cultural and Education Centre 

On my most recent visit to Kidong, I witnessed the community continuing to take big steps forward in the construction of the tourism related elements of the Centre – in less than two months time a new kitchen, store room, toilets and defined paths around the Centre were all constructed!  Moreover, reports from employees of the Education Centre point to the continued success of chili-based methods of elephant deterrence from farming plots in the Kidong area.  It looks like Kidong’s main road will be marked by the footprints of eco-tourism alongside elephant tracks in the very near future!

Tags: Chili-Oil Fences, community development, Community-Based Conservation, Elephants, Human-Wildlife Conflict, Kidong, Poaching, tsavo west national park

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Category: Coastal Forest, Dolphin Clubs, Environmental Education, Kenya Wildlife Service, Year of the Dolphin | Date: Feb 18 2009 | By: gvikenya

2007 was designated the ‘International Year of the Dolphin’ by UNEP’s Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and GVI Kenya spent the year working closely with Mkwiro Primary School on education and activities that supported awareness of dolphin conservation. So successful was the year, which included the introduction of the dolphin-watching code of conduct by Kenya Wildlife Service, that CMS extended it in to 2008.  Halfway through 2008, ‘Dolphin Clubs’ were launched in 10 local schools in an effort to ensure that the achievements of the initiative continued beyond the two years and resulted in something more long-term. The clubs were supported with a donation by CMS of 10,000 KSh to each one to ensure that awareness and conservation activities could be undertaken. 

It was a fantastic idea, but sadly fell in to the trap they hoped to avoid… with no follow up or support from the 2008 stakeholders, the schools didn’t quite know what to do with their clubs. When GVI Kenya got back up and running we found the Mkwiro Dolphin Club with it’s student members at something of an impasse, and so in collaboration with the school and its teachers we have adopted Mkwiro’s Dolphin Club.  The next obstacle we came across was something of a misconception amongst the student members of the club… although just primary school children they had developed an acute sense of financial awareness, more so than environmental awareness unfortunately. It seems that the children in the club thought they were entitled to a cut of the 10,000 KSh!  So we decided to take it back to basics and seek out the children that want to actively participate in environmental learning and action, rather than those ‘in it for the money’. We have been hosting the dolphin club on Tuesdays afternoons, in their 3.10 to 4.10 clubs and societies schedule, aiming to work our way through all of the students from standard 8 to 4, giving them a taste of what the club is about, before opening up ‘full-time membership’ to the wannabe dolphin eco-warriors! 

Having worked our way through standards 8, 7 and 6 with treasure hunts at our land-based dolphin research site and turtle lessons in the school, this week we took on standard 5 for an hour, with an ambitious concept - water cycles, mangroves, deforestation and the impact of increased sedimentation on near-shore coral reefs and the animals that depend on them, such as fish and in our specific case the humpback dolphins that favour the reefs fringing Shimoni’s coastal forest as a feeding ground.

It sounds like a lot of information eh? Well, we started with a warmer game, provisionally called ‘monkey’ and a bit like musical chairs… the children race to ‘climb in to a tree’ (a sack on the ground!) and whoever can’t find space is out. Each round, a tree is ‘cut down’ until at the end we were left with just two ‘monkeys’ remaining - a simple but effective introduction to deforestation we thought! The kids loved it, shoving each other out of the ‘trees’ to stay in the game. Then they rotated around three educational activities - a water cycle jigsaw that they had to arrange in order; a ‘true or false’ mangrove facts game that got them running from true to false depending on whether they believed our ‘facts’; and a simple science experiment pouring ‘rain’ on to bowls of ‘forested’ and ‘deforested’ earth to watch the difference in the water quality running down the ‘rivers’ and in to the ’sea’.

The session ended with our water cycle obstacle course, as teams ran relays with cups of water, zig-zagging along our winding ‘river’, ducking underneath our ‘ocean waves’ and jumping from ‘cloud to cloud’ to fill up a jug at the end. As we predicted it soon descended in to mayhem but it was hilarious to watch for both us and the children. Another successful introduction to dolphin club, or as the Tuesday afternoon chant goes… “dol-fin ki-la-bu, dol-fin ki-la-bu…”

Tags: deforestation, Dolphin Clubs, environmental awareness, mkwiro primary school, Year of the Dolphin

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Category: Community Conservation, Environmental Education, Uncategorized | Date: Feb 08 2009 | By: gvikenya

I was updating you last week from the field, thanks to the wonders of mobile phones, and now I’m back in Shimoni, showered and rested, I thought I’d illustrate our little safari for you!Mahandakini is a small rural village sandwiched between Tsavo West national park and Mt Kilimanjaro across the border in Tanzania. We were introduced to a community based organisation, the Mahandakini Youth Network for Animal Welfare and Rights, by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) back in early 2007. WSPA supported the establishment of this group of former wildlife poachers to help tackle the bush meat trade and the illegal and inhumane killing of Tsavo’s wildlife. For their part, the former poachers have been only too willing to leave poaching behind them, a dangerous livelihood that the felt forced in to by socio-economic pressures - quite simply, they didn’t know how else to earn the money to feed their families in an area where unpredictable rains and crop damage by elephants can render subsistence farming ineffective in putting food on the table. Our task in supporting WSPA’s objectives is to help the community find alternative ways to earn a living.

The journey to Mahandakini took us through Tsavo West national park and this time around, past four elephants feeding by the roadside:

On Monday the community members were busy collecting government food aid, making our mission of the week even more important - we were to work with the group in developing a strategy for their own community-based food security. The group want to raise funds to buy maize at low harvest-time prices and store it for tougher times when food scarcity drives the market price up, out of economic reach of many families. This is not for profit; the community group will then sell maize on at the original low price to ensure families can afford to feed themselves throughout the year.On Tuesday we had the community group split in to two project teams, tackling their food security plan and their ideas for income generation - growing and processing cotton, a plant that fares well in the harsh conditions but for which there has been little market value recently. If they can raise funds for a workshop with spinning wheels and looms then with the training that Dishon has already received they can produce their own fabrics which will definitely have a market in the nearby trading town of Taveta.In the afternoon we visited the nearby primary school at Chumvini to teach the standard 8 class - all 70 of them - about the bats in their nearby cave, with the hope that they will treat them with a bit more respect in future. It was a lot of fun and the message certainly got through to the class about how interesting and important bats can be:

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