Funzi Turtle Club | GVI Kenya

1KM Into Shimoni West!

Category: Coastal Forest, Shimoni Forest, Transect cutting | Date: Nov 12 2009 | By: gvikenya

Hey everyone,

Well I hope you’ve enjoyed the last couple of blogs about our marine team working with the Funzi Turtle Club. I’m rather jealous I wasn’t able to go along with them! I have had my hands full here on the mainland, carrying on with our coastal forest research.

We have been pushing on through the heat and the sweat towards our goal of setting up survey transects in Shimoni west forest. The last time I spoke about this I think we’d got about 600 metres up our future north / south spine.

Andy having a swing

We went in with a GPS a couple of days ago to continue plotting our progress, and to our delight we found that we had gone 1037 metres! We’ve broken the kilometer mark! By our estimations the north / south spine is going to be approximately 1.8 – 2 km long, allowing for up to 10 survey transects!

This highlights how far we have yet to go, as each transect is going to be longer than the spine, but we are not backing down! Our panga (machete) arms are bulging and our hands are blistered, but the future of research in Shimoni’s beautiful and unique coastal forest is in our hands, and every hour we spend in there takes us closer to assessing the conservation status of Shimoni west.

Andy and Chelsea

Once we’ve uploaded the GPS points onto the map, I’ll stick them up on the blog so you can all have a look for yourselves!

Tags: coastal forest research, conservation status, Funzi turtle club, gps, machete, Marine team, north / south spine, panga, Shimoni Forest, Shimoni west forest, survey transects

One response so far

Funzi Island Turtle Conservation

Category: Community Conservation, Eco-tourism, Kaya, Mangroves, Turtles | Date: Aug 17 2009 | By: gvikenya

Howzit!!

My name is Nic. I am a conservation student from South Africa. I have joined Global Vision International (GVI) as a conservation intern to gain experience in the field of marine biology. I have been with GVI for 7 weeks with a further 13 weeks to go.

In accordance with my internship project on the socio-economic impact and tourism strategies of Funzi Island, this involves the establishment of a baseline review of the turtle conservation efforts on the Island. It calls for me to:

• Identify areas that will require further development with direct and indirect benefits for the Turtle Conservation Groups (TCG) and that of the local turtle populations;
• Identify breaches of local laws and legislations that protect the turtles;
• Research alternative conservation strategies;
• Ways in which the GVI can assist the TCG’s in their endeavours;
• Look at ways to increase eco-tourism sustainably and build local awareness of sea turtle conservation;
• Identify environmental impact associated with tourism of the local sea turtle population and hence find the best measures in which to mitigate each impact.

Funzi Island

Sergi (marine science officer for GVI), and I made our way for the weekend to meet up with Douglas, who works for KESCOM and Ali Vuyaa the head of the local turtle conservation group on the Island, Funzi Turtle Club (FTC).

We arrived at Bodo and where transported via the FTC’s boat to the Island. The weekend was peppered with activities which included: a meeting on conservation strategies that are in place and ways to better future endeavours on Funzi, and the local communities involvement in turtle conservation on the island, a walk through the forest where exotic fruits were tasted and tantalised our palates while local monkeys swung freely through the canopy above, a turtle nesting site was visited on a excluded beach cove, a village tour that was undertaken, lunch at a local restaurant had, a visitation of the islands holy kaya’s, meeting with local community involved with the FTC and anti-poaching strategies as well as being shown the local handicrafts made from sandals collected from beach clean ups and a mangrove tour.

One of the sacred Kaya’s

A down side to this visit to this magical place was to see the amount of destruction created by land developers on the forest and mangroves, which the local community are trying to rectify through the TCG’s involvement and the assistance of GVI and KESCOM.

Some of the recent destruction

The island of Funzi is a marvel and the sights and people create a magical ambiance which should be protected, explored and maintained. I look forward to more visits in the near future and working closely with the TCG’s and local communities, in which the partnership between them and GVI will develop their eco-tourism in a sustainable way.
Funzi Island must remain a majestic, tranquil, beautiful island and I will happily be apart of its positive change and development in the future.