GVI Kenya

As most of you may know, we have been working with the community-based organization Friends of Shimoni Forest (FSF) for the best part of three years now, pushing towards community conservation and protection of the stunning and vitally important coastal forest we have here on the south coast. 
One of the main aims of FSF at present is the setting up of a tourist trail or “Shimoni Safari” which will take tourists on a guided walk through the forest to see the ‘Kaya’ shrines, and to see the amazing flora and fauna that this forest has to offer.  The areas that FSF want to direct the money that is earned from this (and other) endeavors include conservation initiatives such as planting of indigenous and endemic trees in areas of clearance, purchasing of land to be conserved, the production of alternative charcoal, and then a slightly more far sighted conservation and community development initiative – sponsoring local children through secondary school.

 One of the charasmatic Angolan black and white colobus monkeys
 

Primary school is free here in Kenya, but if a child wants to further their education, they have to pay yearly fees.  Unfortunately in places like Shimoni, there are so many families unable to afford to send their children to secondary school.  The way FSF see it, if a child goes to secondary school they gain a superior education and gain a far better understanding of the wider world; conservation being a part of that.  They will also be far more likely to be able to earn a living without having to resort to desperate, illegal and destructive methods of making money such as logging and charcoal burning. 

FSF are making steady progress with the construction of the tourist trail (with the help of some eager GVI folk with pangas…or machetes!), but is not yet up and running.  So to kick things off, a donations page on the justgiving website was set up.  So far we have had some amazing donations from people, and I would like to take a second to thank them:

• Katherine Blackwood donated £10
• Rick Hill donated £10
• Becky Law donated £15
• Jennifer LeClair donated £15
• And two anonymous donations totaling £115

These donations have allowed the birth of the Friends of Shimoni Forest Scholarship Fund!  What I think is particularly inspired about the FSF-SF is the way they are planning on operating it.  There are already a couple of organizations in and around Shimoni that sponsor the highest achievers from the local schools, so FSF wanted to do something slightly different, something that supported their mission.

 One of the massive trees in Shimoni forest, with the distinctive horizontal root system due to the ‘coral rag’ substrate that doesn’t allow deep roots.  For trees to get this large, it takes hundreds of years and a battle against the elements.  However, it can be felled in mere mintes with a power saw.
 

There are going to be an equal number of boys and girls sponsored, and for a child to be selected they must a high achiever, gaining above a certain grade.  They must then demonstrate an active interest in conservation or wildlife, perhaps based on past merits or on a written statement or interview.  Furthermore, for as long as they are being sponsored, either the child, or the parents, will be required to assist FSF in some way, on a regular basis e.g. during school holidays. 

I think this is a brilliant idea, as it will instill a sense of responsibility in the child and the family, and will also introduce them to conservation, the work of FSF and the importance of the forest.  With this sponsorship scheme, FSF hope to nurture the areas next generation of conservationists, who will already have a vested interest in Shimoni forest, and will be acutely aware of the threats facing it.

If you would like more information about Friends of Shimoni Forest, the work they do or the scholarship fund, or if you would like to join the fight to save this beautiful and internationally important coastal forest, please visit www.justgiving.co.uk/shimoni

As you can see from the donations listed above, it doesn’t take much to send two kids to school, and change their world.         

Yesterday I sat down for a chat with Athumani Fadhili Ali, the secretary of Friends of Shimoni Forest (FSF), and some absolutely incredible and momentous news was revealed to me!  He had spent the last five hours in discussions with the Permanent Secretary to the Minister of Forests and Wildlife, concerning the plight of Shimoni forest! 

I was speechless and massively excited, because as it turns out, the Permanent Secretary had come all the way down to Shimoni specifically to talk to Athumani about the issues concerning the communities, and community conservation, of which the forest is a major part.

 A hotel being built on a coastal plot

Athumani had described to him all of the damage being done in the forest, and the alarming rate at which it was happening.  He talked about the issues of illegal loggers and their power saws, the charcoal burning, and the huge development occurring on the coastal plots.  He also discussed the efforts of Friends of Shimoni Forest and other community members, who are doing their best to raise awareness amongst the communities, and halt the irreversible damage being done. 

 Barbed wire fences that now surround many plots that are being levelled
 

The Permanent Secretary was shocked and concerned by what he heard, and offered to raise the issue with the relevant authorities, and even the Minister himself!  This is such an incredible turn out, and we couldn’t really have asked for a better  audience to discuss these issues with, and the assistance he could provide could potentially change the tides of this ongoing battle.

 An earth-mound kiln charcoal pit
 

What the Permanent Secretary asked for ASAP, were all of the reports that FSF and GVI have ever written and submitted, so he could get a better understanding of the issues and have some hard data with which to argue our case. 

 The results of a power saw.  Trees are often cut down badly, and therefore simply left.
 

We are rushing to compile all of this information and get it to Athumani, so he can pass it on.  We’re all very excited by this, and we will let you know as soon as we hear anything!

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

 To help support Friends of Shimoni Forest and the work they are doing, please visit www.justgiving/shimoni

So everyone knows about the problems related to unregulated, inefficient and illegal charcoal burning.  It’s very easy for one to sit back and point the finger at the people conducting these activities, labeling them criminals.  The real issue however, is slightly more complex than that.

We have been conducting research in Shimoni forest for over three years, and have been working with the community group Friends of Shimoni Forest for two and a half years.  Through all of this we have had a lot of experience with the issue of charcoal burning, and have countless meetings (both organized and impromptu) with the charcoal burners themselves.  What we’ve found in the majority of cases, is that these people do not want to be charcoal burning any more than we do.  The difference being, we have the luxury of choice.

The result of a charcoal pit 

The vast majority of people in this area are living below the poverty line, and are desperately poor.  They have families to feed and school fees to pay for, and they don’t have any choice.  They know charcoal burning is illegal, and they know it does huge damage to the forest.  Most of them would muc rather be doing something else, but if it comes down to feeding their families – it’s not even a choice.  We have been asked by so may of them to find them alternatives, to offer them a choice.  And if a choice was offered, they would happily give it up.

An earth-mound kiln ready to light 

So that’s our mission.  The solution to the problem is clear: find an alternative to charcoal burning.  One thing we need to remember is that everyone in the entire area (and most of the country) use charcoal to cook.  So not only do we need to find an alternative income for the burners themselves, but we need to find a charcoal replacement otherwise we will have only solved half of the problem.
The obvious way around this is combine the alternative livelihoods with the production of alternative, forest friendly charcoal!

To the internet!  I will be back in the next day or two with what I’ve found…  

I write to you all today with very tired legs, blistered hands and an aching arm, but with good news!  Today we headed out into Shimoni east to help the members of Friends of Shimoni Forest (the community based organisation we work with) plan, cut and tag the trail through the forest that they will soon be taking tourists on!

Friends of Shimoni Forest have been planning these guided tours though the forest for a while now, and are finally almost ready to go.  The idea is to take tourists on walks through the forest to visit the sacred Kaya’s (traditional religious sites), and to experience the amazing wildlife that exists.

 A view of the mangroves from the trail

There were times of sadness and frustration, as we confirmed our fears that it simply was not possible to get up to the Kaya’s (which are a couple of kilometers past our normal survey transects) without passing through vast swathes of destruction.  The areas of pristine, mature forest are becoming more and more fragmented and patchy.  This was expected though, and maneuvering the tourists through only untouched forest would have been a falsehood (as well as difficult!).  This way they will see both sides – the results of overexploitation and illegal activities, and the amazing coastal forest as it should be.

Some of the stunning forest the trail passes through

Raising awareness of this forest, and the issues that it faces is the single most important thing we can do.  Not only will these guided walks show tourists what is happening, we believe it will raise awareness amongst the local community as well.  Not only this, but it will bring Friends of Shimoni Forest valuable revenue which it can use to fund activities like forest patrols, tree planting, school scholarships, and perhaps will aide in finding alternative livelihoods for some of the people charcoal burning and logging. 

 A charcoal pit ready to burn

The main issue with ideas such as forest patrols, is that the people of these communities simply cannot afford to sacrifice a day earning money for their families, for patrolling as volunteers.  And many of the charcoal burners we have spoken to said they would happily give it up if they could earn money in other ways.  These problems are not easily solved, but there are many avenues to explore.

Well hello again folks!

Apologies for not getting this blog up yesterday, we had issues with our elecricity…by which we mean we had none! But we’re back on line this morning so I can fill you all in.

So yesterday saw the conclusion to our colobus census in Shimoni forest! It has taken three days of long, hard transect traversing. We’ve tackled thorn bushes, impenetrable thickets and swarms of safari ants, but have come out at the end with some awesome data. Everyone is tired and covered in scratches, but we all had an absolute blast and got to see some fantastic sightings.

 A colobus on the move

It was quite sad for a portion of yesterday however, as the destruction that has happened and is still going on up on the northern edge of the forest is awful. There are huge sections that can hardly be called forest anymore. And both teams observed charcoal pits in various stages of completion. My team actually stumbled across two men that were in the process of digging one, but they bolted as soon as they heard us coming.

On a better note, both teams had great sightings of primates. Between us, we saw 5 colobus troops and 6 sykes troops, plus the usual collection of beautiful birds, sunis, eagles and the back end of a very large snake! So in total over the three days, we have seen 19 groups of colobus and 24 groups of sykes!

We have also come to the conclusion that we shouldn’t really be calling what we’e done a census. Because a census is when you do a total sweep of the area in one day, so the number of primates you see is, in theory, all the primates in the area. But because we’ve had to do it over three days (due to man power), we will still be using distance sampling techniques to get population density estimates.

Some of the victorious team members

Unfortunately due to the power situation, we have not had a chance to run the data through the distance sampling program so don’t have any results for you yet, but as soon as we do I shall let you all know!

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.             

Hello again everyone,

Today I’m going to write the first of what I hope will be an ongoing story about a particular troop of Colobus that inhabit Shimoni Forest (east).  It’s a troop that we at GVI are beginning to know quite well, and are becoming rather fond of. 

 One member of the Angola troop

There is an area of forest, where our north / south spine runs through our third transect.  The area is made up mainly of a fairly large clearing, which is surrounded on two sides by tall, mature forest.  To the west of the clearing (the negative sections of our transect) the forest becomes dense with lots of thickets and low canopy, whereas to the east the clearing continues for a fair distance.

We’d always noticed there were a high number of Colobus sightings in and around that area, but because of the distances between the sightings (often up to 400 metres) it was assumed they were different troops.  But recently, we have been attempting to conduct behaviour surveys in the late afternoon and early evening (the times in which our data set is falling behind in). 

What we’ve noticed is that all the smaller groups we’d been seeing scattered around during the day, are actually subgroups of a much larger troop that come together in the early evening, and presumably sleep together as a large group.  Colobus troops are known to do this; sleep together in larger groups, and then separate during the day to feed in smaller subgroups. 

We’ve named the troop the ‘Angola’ troop.  So far, we have conducted 4 hours and 10 minutes worth of behaviour surveys on different individuals in the Angola troop, but still haven’t got a complete set of demographics.  The largest count we have is 14 individuals, with 3 males, 2 females, 1 sub-adult and 1 infant.  I have no doubt there are others hiding away in the canopy that we haven’t seen, and that our total count isn’t spot on yet, but I intend on making it a goal in the coming weeks to try and identify every individual in the troop and successfully age and sex all of them.

This troop is becoming special to us, firstly because of the hours we’ve spent quietly observing them in the canopy , and secondly because the spot they inhabit is a man-made clearing, and illegal logging and charcoal burning continues to plague the entire area.  All it would take would be for a few of the larger, key trees to be felled, and that entire troop would be displaced.

I will continue to keep you all updated on the Angola troop, and we will hopefully have a much more detailed picture of all the individuals for you all soon.

Take care, and I shall be back soon
Matt

Friends of Shimoni Forest held a meeting this week, and were beginning to put a lot of our plans into action. With the help of Mr. Adini Mgeni, Assistant area chief, our forest patrols are on their way to being a regular scheduled event. One of the problems we have been facing has been a lack of man power. Our members are committed to conserving the forest; however, they also have their own well beings and those of their families to be concerned with. We are unable to compensate them for the day’s work they miss while patrolling. We are working currently on a schedule that will work with member’s availabilities and still leave sufficient time to patrol until we can find funding to help pay them.

 Some of our members.

Another topic we discussed, which is really exciting, is the training classes we have set up for some of our members and locals from the community. With the help of Corti, GVI country director and Friends of Shimoni Forest secretary, and Rachel, a previous GVI expedition manger, who raised the money, we will be sending people learn how to make soap from the Neem tree. Out of the people being trained some of them are charcoal burners so we are really excited to be getting them into a new sustainable field of work. Those who are being trained have also agreed to bring the skills they learn back and train more community members. This is going to be a great way to get the community involved in conserving the forest where these trees grow.

 Chairman Matta on patrol.

Our guided nature walks are also well on their way starting, which is another way we plan to help people into sustainable work. Training started this week and the guys are really anxious to get started. Mr. Athumani Omari and Madme Mwanamkuu saidi are our fist to tourist guides, their knowledge of the local communities uses and history with the forest is going to be a great asset. I started teaching them a little more about the wildlife in our forest, particularly about the Colobus monkey. They already knew a lot of the animals in the forest and were really interested in learning more about them. As a group we are always trying to stay busy. Coming up on Saturday we have a meeting with the local village elders. They’re going to speak with us about using the Kayas, sacred areas, in our forest walks. We are still looking for funding to get some people training in bee keeping, the woman of Anzwani are ready to go. Soon Mr. Corti, Athumani, and Matta, Friends of Shimoni Forest Chairman, will be heading to a bank in Ukunda. We are going set up a bank account in our groups name. This is going to be a great help with our fundraising. Other meetings with the district commissioner, local teachers, and village chairmen are being planned as well and proposal for community toilets and conservation are being written left and right. I’m really pleased with all the hard work these guys are doing and were going to be making some big changes soon. I’ll let you all know how it goes. See you later. Drew.

Friends of Shimoni Forest here again and still were working hard on our goals. I mentioned once that the local assistant area chief, Mr. Adini Mgeni, was devoted to helping us in our efforts to conserve the coastal forest. Well, for the first time in history a local politician has personally patrolled the forest in search of charcoal burners and illegal logging.

Athumani and I had a meeting with Mr. Mgeni the other day and talked to him about his efforts and plans for the future. Mr. Mgeni has been into the forest twice since coming into office, this month, and has had a firsthand look at the destruction in the forest. As he is very busy, he created a volunteer community policing group, mostly youth, to do patrols more frequently. Twice now this group has brought in charcoal burners. After talking with the charcoal burners, Mr. Mgeni discovered some interesting things. The charcoal burners are fully aware what they’re doing is wrong and would be happy to stop. The issue is that the unemployment rate in Kenya, especially among youth, is extremely high. This is why finding alternative sources of income are so important, and these guys will be some of the first we train as guides when we begin our forest tours.
The assistant area chief Mr. Mgeni has been very helpful and shared with us his thoughts on some of our plans. He really wants the forest tours to get up and running soon and agrees we should include the local Kayas as well. Kayas are sacred areas of the forest which in the past were used for prayer and worship. These are still used today by local elders, and they are very concerned about the future of the Kayas. The Kayas represent the culture heritage of Shimoni and are at risk of being destroyed, one has already been lost due to destruction. We would like to include the Kayas in our forest tour, so we are arranging a meeting with the village elders to discuss their hopes and concerns.

Active charcoal pit
Mr. Mgeni has been very active in conservation throughout his career, including being chairman of Shimoni Youth Conservation group. He has a few ideas as well which he would like our help with. One of his goals is to raise enough money to plant 5,000 saplings in local schools and public areas. This will be a way Shimoni can support environmental education, as well as the villages own way of fighting global warming. We think this is a great idea and we will help raise as much money as possible.
As always we appreciate you taking the time with us today and on behalf of Friends of Shimoni Forest, and our new partners, this is Drew saying thanks and talk to you soon.

Hey there it’s Drew again back with more from Friends of Shimoni Forest. The amount of destruction in the forest is reaching new and higher levels every day but we’re still pushing for protection. The importance community plays in reaching our goals is not never forgotten. Saying that, we realize that the Shimoni coastal forest does not belong to one community, other villages use the forest as well. It is just as important for these communities to get involved. When I think about it, they’re a part of our community as well. I mean why not? We share water, matatus and other resources. So we’ve decided to extend a hand to these local communities, particularly a women’s group in the nearby village Anzwani.

Yesterday, Athumani, Friends of Shimoni Forest treasurer, and I took a trip up the road to see how we could assist another community group and to ask for support for our cause. We had a meeting with about 15 women from their woman’s group. First we explained to them what are group was about and the importance of protecting the coastal forest. We told them about how there are people from outside their community coming and using their village as a passage into forest to cut down timber and burn charcoal. This really seemed to hit home.  They use the forest to collect firewood for cooking and traditional medicines, but that is for their community and is a sustainable practice. They did not appreciate the idea of others coming and destroying the forest for profit when the community is still struggling. They quickly agreed to work with us. We asked that they help spread the word of conservation. Now there will be a log kept when they see charcoal burners and power saws, and these people will no longer be welcome in Anzwani. They will no longer stand by and let this happen.

Like I was saying before the importance of community is not lost on our group. We have asked for assistance from this local group and we feel it is our responsibility to show our support for them as well. We talked about ideas they have for capacity building and other options for sustainable use of the forest. They really got on board; many of the women are anxious to get involved with bee-keeping and want to be sent for training as soon as possible. We talked about ways to raise the money to get this started and we will be putting our ideas into action soon. We also met with some of the youth from the village. They too had strong feeling about conserving the coastal forest. A few of them will be first on our list when we begin training tourist guides for the forest tour we are creating. Alternative livelihood is the best way we can encourage conservation, and the people of Anzwani village are ready and willing. We made some really great friends today and I can’t wait to start working with them.