GVI Kenya

This past Wednesday found the GVI marine team travelling from Wasini Island to Funzi Island for two days of training with the Funzi Bay Turtle Club, a local community effort to save endangered sea turtles.  Currently there are about 30 members in the club, 20 of which, including the chair, are females from this traditional Muslim community on the island.

Since we usually spend our days on the water monitoring local and migratory marine species, to have two full days on dry land was quite a change of routine.

 Douglas explaining the importance of sea turtle conservation

Upon arrival, we were met by one of the club members and taken to our house, where we met up with KESCOM volunteers Sonya and Avidad from Sweden, here for three months.  KESCOM (Kenya Sea Turtle Conservation Committee) currently supports many grass-root turtle conservation efforts along the Kenyan coastline.  This support comes in the form of monetary donations, grant writing, providing volunteers, management and contacts with other local organizations.  Douglas is the KESCOM Funzi Island representative.

 Jennifer LeClair giving the presentatoin about whales and dolphins

After our introductions we proceeded to the village for a tour and to the mangrove forest for a planting session.  Since mangroves are among the fastest disappearing ecosystems in the world, each tree really counts!  The turtle club also runs a shop with some very unique gifts made by local community members, and we all spend some time and money there.

Following a fabulous meal cooked by the ladies of the turtle club (one of many such delicious meals) we began our training with the group.  Our goal was to help the club members learn to interact with tourists and to give them information that tourists would like to hear, in addition to giving them important information about habitat conservation.  We showed a number of PowerPoint presentations to the group and with the help of Douglas on the Swahili translation, gave them information about ocean conservation, sea turtle identification and morphology, and local whale and dolphin species.  Club members were extremely interested in learning and asked a number of thought provoking questions following each presentation.

 Mangroves

One of the most common questions asked by the community members was how to explain to the other islanders (100% of which are fishermen) topics regarding conservation of the ocean environment.  We were able to provide some examples, but in the end had to explain that changing people’s minds is a very slow process.  Since entanglement in discarded fishing nets is one of the biggest threats to marine animals, we suggested that this was a good issue to start with in the community.  We were very impressed with the concern of the club members about the welfare of the ocean habitats and animals, especially in an area of the country where ecosystem destruction and human disturbance is prevalent.

Overall, both sides seemed very pleased with the progress made during the first day of training.  The volunteers of GVI would like to thank KESCOM and the Funzi Bay Turtle Club for there generous hospitality and delicious traditional food.

Mangroves of Funzi Island