GVI Kenya

Category: Coastal Forest, Colobus, Primate Research, Primate census, Shimoni Forest | Date: Aug 24 2009 | By: gvikenya

About two weeks ago I wrote a few blogs about the colobus census we conducted in Shimoni east forest, for a masters dissertation.  Marta, who has been with us for almost 10 weeks, is doing a masters degree in environmental modeling, monitoring and reconstruction.  The aim of her dissertation is to assess the effects of forest fragmentation on the distribution of the rare subspecies of Angolan black and white colobus.

The main bulk of her practical work was the census, which we successfully conducted a few weeks ago.  To go hand in hand with that, and to provide the information she will need to utilise GIS mapping systems, we needed to get the GPS coordinates of the entire circumference of the forest.  It turned out to be a far more challenging task than we imagined…

Myself and Marta spent two days traversing the perimeter of the forest on foot, with out hand-held GPS recording coordinates every 10 seconds.  We started at the southern most point, and walked (vaguely) north-east, following the edge that borders Shimoni village, and ended at the very top of the forest, beyond the village of Anziwani.  It was enormously challenging!  The main reasons were because the edge of the forest is marked by very thick, very dense new growth, shrubs, thorns and thickets!  We were very glad to have a sharp panga (machete) with us.  The other main reason was because we are just coming out of the main rainy season, everything was green, thick and overgrown, and actually distinguishing between the technical forest edge, and the new growth and sporadic pockets of trees, was nearly impossible.

One of the easier sections… There was actually a path! 

It was an adventure though, and we both got back at the end of each day with scratches and bruises galore and very tired legs, but content in the knowledge that once her dissertation is complete, it will be an invaluable source and tool, in the fight to highlight the damage being done to this beautiful coastal forest, and home to these charismatic primates. 

Tags: anziwani, Colobus, dissertation, forest edge, masters, modelling, monitoring, reconstruction, shimoni, Shimoni Forest, university

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Category: Coastal Forest, Colobus, Primate Research, Primate census, Shimoni Forest | Date: Aug 05 2009 | By: gvikenya

Hello again,

Today was a continuation of the colobus survey we started yesterday in Shimoni forest. Yesterday we tackled transects 1, 2 and 3, plus two routes that fell between the main transects. Yesterday saw some tricky traveling, especially on the routes between the transects as they are not cut or marked. We were navigating through very dense bush and thicket using nothing but a compass (our GPS’s don’t work in the forest!), and keeping five groups at the same pace by literally counting paces. We worked out each one of the nominated pacers counted 21,000 of their paces!

 Having a quick rest…

So today we embarked on the top half of the forest; surveying transects 4 and 5, including the unmarked transects between 3, 4, 5 and 6. We thought we would be able to do transect 6 and one above it today as well, but unfortunately due to numbers we are going to have to finish it off tomorrow.

 Walking the transect (past an amazing tree!)

Today saw more sightings than yesterday, with nine groups of colobus! There were also nine groups of sykes recorded, unfortunately no baboons today though. The causal observations kept coming throughout the day, with a plethora of creatures great and small. There were multiple suni sightings (very small antelope), four zanj elephant shrews, red-capped robin chats, sunbirds and black kites. Having so many eyes in the forest at once is awesome!

 One of the many sykes monkeys

So I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait until tomorrow for any results, but as soon as we’ve processed the data we’ll get straight back to you.

Until tomorrow…

Tags: , census, Colobus, Primate Research, Shimoni Forest, Suni, sykes, transect, znaj elephant shrew

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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, Friends of Shimoni Forest, Kaya, Logging, Primate Research, Shimoni Forest, Uncategorized | Date: Feb 03 2009 | By: gvikenya

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.

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

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Category: Cetacean research, Dolphins, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, Turtles | Date: Jan 29 2009 | By: gvikenya

It doesn’t happen as often as I’d like with so much else going on but yesterday I joined the marine research team, 6.30am departure aboard our research vessel ‘Lampard’, on calm waters with the rising sun to warm us…

I take the tiller, captaining the boat east out of the Wasini channel, the rest of the team assume positions for dedicated watch. Passing the coastal forest of Shimoni I spot a colobus in the canopy and an African Fish Eagle… but today is the marine research programme, and it’s dolphins and turtles that we search for.

Rounding the south-east corner of Shimoni peninsula we enter Funzi bay, hoping to spot Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins that favour these near-shore habitats. No sign of them today. We pass a green turtle, but sadly a recently dead one floating at the water’s surface. No obvious cause of death, but this time of the year, during the kaskazi winds (the NE monsoon winds), seems to bring a peak of turtle mortalities each year.  Much of Funzi bay is shallow and doesn’t leave us much room to manouvre so we turn the boat around and head south, towards the continental shelf and open water. A flock of terns dives persistently at the water’s surface but the fish shoal they target has gone unoticed by any dolphin.

A more distant splash and a suspected dolphin sigthing, something dark and rounded surfacing. Half-way there before it becomes evident it’s another dead turtle bobbing at the surface. A huge one this time, a hawksbill, it’s been dead for longer and given the size it reached, somehow a sadder loss as we circle around it and continue our route south.

Sergi, our marine research officer takes over from me at the stern as I join the rotation of observers up front, each with our 45 degree field of view to patrol. Tom calls out a potential dolphin far ahead, an apparent leap and splash, Sergi steers us toward the point on the horizon and we keep scanning the surface. We rotate positions, both Tom and I looking forward, he sees something again, but is disappointed when there’s no following dorsal fins or repeat splashes.

Still we head further south, further from the shore and are rewarded 15 minutes later by 4 dorsal fins breaking the water’s surface ahead. They approach the boat to ride the bow and a further 3 dorsal fins join them. We expect them to be Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphins out here, but the small triangular fins, the smaller torpedo-like bodies and the long narrow beaks all point to something different. Three tone body colouration as they surface confirms we have found a small group of spinner dolphins.

Sergi hands me the camera, I try to get photos of the dorsal fins of each one as they sruface to breathe. It’s not as easy as it seems it should be. Unpredicatable quite where and when they will surface as they dart across the bow just below the surface, the angle has to be right, the sun behind, sharp focus… and you have to be quick. Sergi uses the time to talk the team of observers through the dolphins’ behaviour. Close to the surface, regular slow shallow surfacing, no obvious directional travel; they were probably resting. We leave the small group and within minutes an apparent lone individual further away leaps from the water, an acrobatic spin that gives them their name. Then 10 dorsal fins surface to our right. We barely get through counting them when at least 20 fins appear on the right. Our group of 7 was actually part of a larger group, in the end we estimate 40 to 50 individuals.

Spinner dolphins are thought to be seasonal visitors to this part of the Kenyan coast, possibly crossing the channel from Pemba, following the food with the kaskazi. In previous years we have recorded them between mid-February to mid-March, in large active groups (up to and over 200) off the shelf, south of the MPA. This kaskazi we had one sighting in December, and then last week. We do not think that this season represents any ‘break from the routine’ but more likely that our new research vessel gives us a higher, clearer viewing platform, and survey routes take us further from shore so we simply see more. The real exctitement is that we are now understanding more about these seasonal visitors; their ’season’ is longer than we first thoguht, and they are using habitats east of the MPA for resting suggesting they may be here for more than just quick foraging forays. Ironically, the fact that they are consistenly recorded outside of the marine protected area is not of too great concern. They are free from disturbance by the dolphin-watching tourist boats and in the absence of commercial fishing activities are not threatened here by high levels of accidental deaths from by-catch that plague some of their open-ocean counter-parts through industries such as tuna fisheries which are yet to be quite as ‘dolphin-friendly’ as we might be lead to believe.

I’ll keep you posted throughout our ’spinner season’…

Tags: African Fish Eagle, Colobus, dolphin research, green turtle, hawksbill turtle, Kisite Mpunguti MPA, spinner dolphin

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Category: Birds, Coastal Forest, Colobus, Elephant Shrew, Shimoni Forest, Small mammals, Uncategorized, bush baby, chameleon | Date: Jan 21 2009 | By: gvikenya

It was only a matter of days after the arrival of our expedition members, before we were back in Shimoni’s coastal forest and underway with our research programme. The beginning of 2009 did not disappoint… within just the first week it felt like we’d seen an expedition’s worth of biodiversity. Heading out at 5.30am on bird surveys was made more than worthwhile with groups of colobus seemingly in every tree above. With the onset of the dry season, the leaves are falling and we were treated to clear views of colobus crashing through the branches and Syke’s monkeys scampering below.

The bird surveys delivered a hatrick of hornbills - crowned, silvery-cheeked and trumpeter. Elephant shrews were in evidence every day, hurtling over the leaf litter as were the small suni antelope. The night walk provided everyone with a clear view of a suni as it stood in our torchlight for a minute before disappearing in to the bush and bush babies too, their bright orange reflective eyes giving them away. However the most exciting ‘cameo’ of the week was a little chap that we hadn’t recorded since our first sighting nearly three years ago… an impressively cryptic species in the dry leaf litter, it seems remarkable that we should see it at all, and very satisfying to have a short-tailed (or bearded) pygmy chameleon make a reappearance on our casual observations database.

However, it seems that we didn’t need to go to all the effort of 5.30am departures and hot sweaty treks to the furthest reaches of our transects to enjoy Shimoni’s rich wildlife… we didn’t even need to leave the kitchen. Having quietly cursed rats for leaving half chewed bananas on the kitchen floor, I was proven wrong when two brown bundles of fur climbed through the window. The short-eared bush babies have returned every night since, and I can happily report that mangoes make for a suitable alternative to bananas for our uninvited dinner guests. And just when we thought our forest week was over, and we could relax with a cold beer at Smugglers, the biggest surprise of them all dropped by… a bush pig behind the bar!

Tags: biodiversity, bush baby, bush pig, chameleon, coastal forests, Colobus, Elephant Shrew, galago, hornbill, primate, sengi

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