The Road To Destruction
Category: Coastal Forest, Colobus, Friends of Shimoni Forest, Shimoni Forest | Date: Nov 16 2009 | By: gvikenya
Today saw our forest teams heading back into the forest after a nice weekend off, and heading down to transect 2 and 4. However the optimism of the start of a new week was dampened somewhat by the devastating progress being made by the private developers who have their hands on the coastal plots that run along the southern and eastern edge of Shimoni east forest.
It was almost 9 months ago now when we first saw the plots being fenced off and cleared, and the appearance of several large roads that connected all of the plots. Since then all of the plots are getting destroyed slowly but surely, and one of the sites that was mere foundations a few months ago is almost a fully fledged hotel that can be seen by our marine teams out on the boat when they head north up to Funzi Bay.
One of the most shocking things our team noticed today though, was the progress that has been made on the roads. The original ones have become larger, wider and more cleared, and more such roads have sprung up forming large intersections and leading to new locations. If this continues at this rate then fairly soon the whole area near the coast will be flattened. And our surveys have shown that this area is widely used by colobus monkeys, yellow baboons, suni’s, Harvey’s duikers, Zanj elephant shrews and countless other species.
A section of the new road. In the distance you can see the smoke from the burning of cut vegetation
It is so sad that the people doing this cannot see what irreversible damage they are doing. I cannot believe that one can use ignorance as an excuse, as my 4 year old nephew could guess that what they are doing is ruthlessly destructive. We are going to attempt to get in contact with the owners of these plots as soon as possible. We are not going to lecture them or demand that they stop – it is their land after all. We will try and meet with them with our close partners Friends of Shimoni Forest, who can ask on behalf of the community that they at least try and do things more eco-friendly and try to minimise their impact.
There are simple measures they can take to reduce their impact, such as leaving some of the large trees standing so as to allow a consistent canopy or “corridors” of canopy over the plots. This will allow primate species to get across from one side of the plot to the other without having to go onto the ground.
We’ll let you know how it goes!
Tags: , cleared, coastal plots, colobus monkey, community, consistent canopy, corridors, eastern edge, eco-friendly, excuse, fenced off, foundations, Friends of Shimoni Forest, funzi bay, harvey's duiker, hotel, ignorance, irreversible damage, large intersections, large roads, large trees, lecture, Marine team, minimise impact, nephew, new locations, north, other species, owners, primate species, private developers, ruthlessly destructive, Shimoni east forest, southern edge, Suni, transect, yellow baboon, zanj elephant shrew
The Dangers Of Composting…
Category: Colobus, Primate Research, yellow baboon | Date: Nov 03 2009 | By: gvikenya
Greetings all
Just a quickie tonight I’m afraid as things are all go here and time is a precious commodity at the moment!
Us GVI folk here in Shimoni have had a busy weekend – we’ve moved into a new house! This is good news for several reasons…
Firstly, we are now slap bang in the middle of the community, whereas before we were somewhat isolated in the grounds of a hotel. We feel this is going to have big impacts on the way we are viewed by the community, and hopefully this will help with the many community projects we are currently working on. It will also help us feel more part of Shimoni, help us to get to know people better, and will strengthen our existing relationships.
Secondly, we are right on the edge of the forest! From our back yard, we can look out into the canopy, and just today, Adam (our community officer) was taking out the compost only to be confronted by a very large, male yellow baboon! We are now considering moving our compost pile slightly further away from the house…
We have also seen colobus monkeys hanging out in the trees – we could do behavioural surveys from our back garden!
It’s a very exciting move, and despite the inevitable teething problems associated with moving house, things are looking up. Today we got a new water pump fitted, so we can now shower! Happy days.
I will be back tomorrow with some more exciting blog action from the south coast of Kenya!
Best wishes
Tags: behavioural survey, canopy, colobus monkey, community projects, compost, Kenyan coast, shimoni, south coast, yellow baboon
Cutting Our Way To Shimoni West
Category: Coastal Forest, Colobus, Primate Research, Shimoni Forest | Date: Oct 22 2009 | By: gvikenya
Well my arms are aching and my hands are blistered, yet I feel the need to let everyone know about why…
We have been doing primate and biodiversity research on Shimoni east forest for almost 4 years now, and are getting some robust data. Yet just across the road on the other side of Shimoni village lies the uncharted, and mysterious realm of Shimoni west, ever beckoning us to it. We have been planning to expand our research into Shimoni west for a while now, and have finally begun the adventure.
The girls ready for the day
The western forest is almost twice the size of its counterpart, and teaming with flora and fauna that are crying out for recognition. There is definitely a viable population of our beloved colobus monkey, as highlighted by the censuses conducted in 2001 by Julie Anderson and in 2007 by GVI. That is the only time GVI have officially done research in West, and Anderson’s census is the only other event.
We have on occasion, ventured into Shimoni west on fact finding missions and with the intention of making preliminary assessments into the possibility of starting research in there, and one thing we have noticed is the high level of disturbance ranging from charcoal pits, pit saws and snares. This only increased our sense of urgency.
Katie getting stuck in
So as of last week, we have officially begun our preparations. By preparations, we mean donning work gloves, sharpening our pangas (machetes) and practicing our angry faces and heading into West to begin the long and tiresome process of cutting transects. Transects are an essential part of research (specifically for distance sampling – the method of survey we use for the primates), which involves cutting paths in a grid system that allow us to pass relatively easily through the research area. We do try and minimize the damage we cause, so there is always plenty of crawling and climbing!
Matt’s panga face
We’ve started cutting our north / south spine, which will run approximately 1 – 1.2 km through the centre of the forest, off which our research transects (that run east-west) can cross. We have done two days so far, and have gone approximately 600 metres! That may not sound like much, but trust me on this – it’s not bad! This endeavor will take many months to complete (as we still have to carry on our surveys in East), but we’ll keep you updated on our progress.
Once more into the breach dear friends!
Tags: , adventure, angolan black and white colobus, biodiversity research, census, Charcoal Pit, climbing, colobus monkey, crawling, distance sampling, disturbance, fauna, flora, grid system, Julie Anderson, machete, panga, pitsaws, preparations, Primate Research, research area, Shimoni east forest, Shimoni village, Shimoni west forest, snare, snese of urgency, transects, western forest, work gloves
Census - The Finale
Category: Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Colobus, Primate Research, Primate census, Shimoni Forest | Date: Aug 07 2009 | By: gvikenya
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!
Tags: , Charcoal Burning, charcoal pits, colobus census, colobus monkey, Primate Research, Suni, sykes monkey
Colobus Census of Shimoni Forest
Category: African Fish Eagle, Coastal Forest, Colobus, Primate Research, Primate census, Shimoni Forest | Date: Aug 04 2009 | By: gvikenya
Today will be the first of a two part update on some exciting research going on in Shimoni Forest. We are attempting to build on work previously done in 2001 by Julie Anderson and then in 2007 by GVI. We are doing a colobus census of the whole forest!
Marta is a volunteer here with us for three months and is currently working towards her masters in environmental modeling, monitoring and reconstruction. She contacted us asking if she could use her time here to do the field-work for her project in the forest, consisting mainly of a colobus census – we welcomed her with open arms!
Preparing to synchronise watches
We timed the census for when we had the most number of people on the mainland, and managed to get a keen group of 15 people fired up and ready. To do the census we require groups to conduct what is essentially a primate community survey along all of our regular transects, plus groups moving through the forest in between the transects following compass bearings, so a group every 100 metres. Unfortunately our GPS’s do not work in the forest due to poor satellite coverage, so we had to devise a cunning system of counting paces and regular check points coordinated using mobile phones (on silent of course!), to ensure we were all moving through the forest at a similar pace.
The team heading in
In an ideal world, you would have enough people to do the entire forest in a single day, leaving you with a ‘snapshot’ population count. We don’t have enough people so are having to do it over two days. For those groups traveling between our regular marked and cut transects, it was pretty rough going – there was plenty of crawling through thickets and fighting through thorns. However our sense of adventure and the belief in the value of the work prevailed, and lots of smiling faces headed back to base.
Getting through one of the many thickets!
During the day five groups of colobus, ten groups of sykes and one group of yellow baboon were sighted. Some of the other casual observations included a pair of zanj elephant shrews, hornbills, African fish eagles and lots of red bellied coastal squirrels!
One of the sighted colobus
We’re all tired, but looking forward a second day out in the forest. We really can’t wait to see the results and compare them with the previous years. I’ll hopefully get a post out letting you all know how it went!
Tags: African Fish Eagle, colobus monkey, hornbill, Primate census, Primate Research, sykes monkey, yellow baboon, zanj elephant shrew
Friends of Shimoni Forest back to work in the Kenyan Coastal Forest!!!
Category: Birds, Butterflies, Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Colobus, Community Conservation, Elephant Shrew, Environmental Education, Friends of Shimoni Forest, Logging, Primate Research, Shimoni Forest, Uncategorized | Date: Jan 19 2009 | By: gvikenya
Greetings from Kenya!My name is Drew; I’m an American from California currently living in Shimoni, a small village on the south coast of Kenya. Shimoni is home to a very important coastal forest and is believed to house the second largest population of Angolan Black and White Colobus monkey in Kenya. Kenyan coastal forests have a number of endemic species, including 10 birds, 34 reptiles, 75 butterflies. We also have the rare zanj elephant shrew in Shimoni an animal in which very little data has been collected.
I work with a local community group called “Friends of Shimoni Forest” dedicated to conserving the forest and educating the community on its importance. Our group was created near the end of 2007 when local community members began to realize that the destruction of the forest was no longer sustainable. The forest had always been used for its natural resources, but in recent years the amount of charcoal and timber being removed has increased nearly 300%, much of which was not being consumed by local people. This inspired the community to take action in conservation to insure that the forest would be available for generations to come.
2009 marks a new beginning and our group has big plans for the year to come. In January a new Area Sub Chief, Adini Miongo Mgenti, was designated to Shimoni sub location. He has shown himself to be dedicated to conservation and is committed to working with us towards our goals. His support will be critical and we are very fortunate to have him with us. With the new school year starting, we will move forward with our community education. Lesson plans are being created and soon we will be in classrooms working with the youth and creating our Friends of Shimoni Forest youth group, very exciting. Alternative livelihoods for community members is always a priority so things like bee-keeping and creating a forest walk for tourist are also in the works. It’s amazing to see our members’ dedication and determination to protecting this beautiful environment. We invite you to come along for the ride this year and share in this incredible experience.
Talk to you soon,
Drew.
Tags: Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, colobus monkey, Community Conservation, Environmental Education, Forest, Logging, Shimoni Forest
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