GVI Kenya

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: 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: Community Conservation, Environmental Education | Date: Feb 03 2009 | By: gvikenya

Welcome back to GVI Kenya on tour! So cotton, bats and Njukini Women’s Group, what do they have in common? The truth is not much except that they all featured in our work here at Mahandakini today. Oh, and so did Kilimanjaro, treating us to some truly awe-inspiring views!

Cotton was one of our main themes with the community group we are working with here in Mahandakini. The WSPA community group, Mahandakini Youth Network for Animal Rights and Welfare
Have identified value added cotton production as a route to alternative liveloods that could guard against their 32 members returning to wildlife poaching and the bush meat trade. Cotton was widely grown here when there was a ready government market, being a hardy reliable cash crop in the semi arid strip between Tsavo West and Tanzania. But when the market disappeared, many farmers sought alternatives such as maize that is easy to sell, but more prone to the often failing rains.

Under a government initiative to revive cotton production, Dishon, the community group chairman has received training on spinning and weaving raw cotton as well as fabric dyeing, and is able to transfer those skills to his group and the wider community. Being able to source, spin, weave and sell the products of cotton locally would offer a realistic sustainable opportunity to provide a ready market to farmers and employment to the community. Profits from the enterprise would then feed in to their food security plans. At its most basic, food security for the community here means buying maize at harvest time when the price is low, storing it and selling back to the community at the same price at tougher times of year when the market price puts it out of financial reach for many families. This is not a profit making enterprise but a genuine community support process ensuring their neighbours don’t go hungry when traders force up the price of basic food stuffs.

Our morning with the community group was spent exploring both these initiatives, the planning, organisation and costs as a precursor to developing a fully fledged proposal, that could source the necessary funding to get them started.

The afternoon took us to neighbouring Chumvini village, where we have visited the bat caves at the primary school. Such wondeful animals it is always a thrill to see them up close and personal. On our last visit however we were dismayed to see that the school children didn’t share our respect and affection for the bats. After seeing them take out a number of bats with sticks we vowed to return and try to change attitudes. So with the gracious cooperation of the teachers, we took standard 8 - all 70 children! - for an hour’s lesson of games and bat facts, pressing home the benefit of bats, not least their remarkable ability to reduce mosquito populations! The ‘bat moth’ game at the end was designed to illustrate the concept of echolocation with a blindfolded ‘bat’ calling out and listening for the replying ‘moth’ until the bat catches the moth. Not sure how well they understood echolocation but they certainly enjoyed getting out of the classroom!

Finally we ended the day at the next village, Njukini where the women’s group gave us a tour of their grain store, sharing valuable information to take back to Mahandakini for their food security plans. This admiral group of local women that have been working as a cooperative for over 30 years were welcoming, gracious and as inspiring as their Kilimanjaro back drop! We were welcomed back to see them on our next visit to Mahandakini and personally I can’t wait to share an hour or two with this collection of women (and men - gender equality is alive and kicking even in dusty rural Kenya!) rich in shared experience, wisdom and sense of community.

Tags: bats, community development, cotton production, Environmental Education, food security, Kilimanjaro, Mahandakini, tsavo west, world society for the protection of animals

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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: Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Community Conservation, Environmental Education, Friends of Shimoni Forest, Kaya, Kenya Wildlife Service, Logging, Shimoni Forest, Uncategorized | Date: Jan 26 2009 | By: gvikenya

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.

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

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Category: Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Community Conservation, Environmental Education, Friends of Shimoni Forest, Shimoni Forest, Uncategorized | Date: Jan 21 2009 | By: gvikenya

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.  

Tags: Charcoal Burning, Coastal Forest, Community group, conservation, Environmental Education, Friends of Shimoni Forest, Shimoni Forest

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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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Category: Butterflies, Coastal Forest, Environmental Education, Shimoni Forest | Date: Sep 14 2008 | By: gvikenya

It took a few weeks to get our Saturday morning forest education off the ground, but we know now not to try starting new programmes in the school holidays. However many of the children from last Saturday where back again yesterday for part 2 of our children’s environmental awareness on behalf of our local partner Friends of Shimoni Forest.

To be honest we were expecting a different set of children and therefore to run the same lesson. But some quick thinking by myself and Tess and we picked up form where we left off last week. Our topic was ‘Biodiversity’, something the coastal forests of East Africa are globally recognised for. After a presentation of how different animals such as the Colobus and the Syke’s monkeys use forest resources differently and so share the habitat, we took a walk to the forest edge and played a game.

The three teams of children, the Baboons, Spiders and Swifts had half an hour with our butterfly sweep nets, to catch as many butterflies as they could… and as many different species. We have been doing this daily as part of our research programme, so were somewhat put to shame when the children came back with species we hadn’t yet recorded! But after a tie-breaker, the Swifts won with 11 butterflies from 9 different species.

Earlier this week I was emailed a couple of letters from the children of the Olive Rehabilitation Centre in Mombasa - an inspirational project where a small team of dedicated volunteer with very little resources achieve very big results with underprivileged children of the slums, giving them a genuine shot at a decent education… and the only reliable meal of their day:

Tags: , Environmental Education, olive rehabilitation centre

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Category: Coastal Forest, Colobus, Community Conservation, Environmental Education, Shimoni Forest | Date: Sep 06 2008 | By: gvikenya

Back in November of last year GVI Kenya helped found the community-based organisation ‘Friends of Shimoni Forest’, our research having raised awareness amongst members of the Shimoni community that their forest was simply too valuable to lose. Friends of Shimoni Forest set out with the aims of conserving the indigenous forest and its biodiversity, supporting further research and raising awareness amongst surrounding communities. It’s been a slow process at times, but with our coastal forest research back up and running and a petition for the gazettement of Shimoni forest’s Kayas ready to be submitted to National Museums of Kenya it was very satisfying today to have the awareness underway with Shimoni’s school children.

19 Shimoni Primary School students drawn from standards 6, 7 and 8 gave up their Saturday morning to join us and learn about the biodiversity on their doorstep, play some educational games, take a walk in to the forest to understand more about the colobus and the array of other wildlife and finally watch a video that presented the diversity of tropical forests in an unforgettable way.

As important as the messages on biodiversity, the morning was exceptionally fun for everyone involved and engaged the children in wildlife that is often overlooked. We plan to run this every Saturday morning and reveal the secrets of Shimoni’s forest to many more of Shimoni’s children.

Tags: coastal forests, colobus monkeys, Community Conservation, Environmental Education

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