Protect Our Trees.. Painting a Way to Conservation

Nkiloriti Primary Class One got their work off to a great start for the September art exhibition  ‘What Conservation Means to Me’ at Nanyuki's  Lily Pond Arts Centre.

 

After two initial lessons on ‘Conservation’ and some drawing work they chose to work on Trees  . The reasons given for the importance of trees in their initial drawings ranged from ‘We need trees to live’....'guests come to see trees and animals not cars’ to 'the wild animals need trees’.

So on ‘Painting and Creating’ Day it should not have been surprising, but was nevertheless inspiring, to have the 6-9 year olds rattling off their 8 most important reasons for protecting trees with no input from the teacher:

• Trees protect our grassland
• Trees bring rain
• Trees give shelter
• Trees give firewood
• Trees give fruit for us to eat
• Trees give us herbal remedies
• Trees give leaves and fruit for our animals
• Trees help us with fencing and house-building

Much hand-painting resulted in trees taking root  around the classroom and much cutting, sticking and drawing resulted in a great montage for the art exhibition: the first finished product...(Well, almost...)

Each of the Kenyan schools will choose a different focus and a variety of media for the exhibition: conservation of elephants being an important theme for some with Africa’s huge rise in poaching . Conservation of water, grassland, wild animals, rivers, and  Maasai and Samburu culture being other areas.

Our friends in Ireland and England are also preparing to join us in this display see  Becomeafriend.net  and we aim to create an exciting juxtaposition of European and African ideas of conservation. Watch this space as we paint/make/create  our conservation ideas...

What Europe Can Learn from Africa....

Enormous thanks to Jakonjn Wijk and Wageningen University, Maastricht School of Management at Utrecht, in The Netherlands, for hosting Timothy Mosiany to their conference on Conservation Enterprise "What Europe can Learn from Africa". Along with Daudi Sumba, who presented on the work of the  African Wildlife Foundation in Africa, Timothy was one of the two key speakers with his presentation on "Conservation Enterprise from The Sanctuary at Ol Lentille ;  The Rationale". With Princess Laurentien as the moderator, Daudi and Timothy presented to a mixed group  of Professors, Businessmen, Conservation organisations,  Ambassadors and Travel Agents:  they were both very well received.

Timothy’s presentation included a background to the Ol Lentille project outlining the initial conservation goals, the community partnership and governance model and the conservation development reached so far, together with the economic and social improvements and the challenges faced by both the business and community along the road. The lessons we have all learnt along the way are, inevitably, that communication is the key to all, with participatory methods being essential, and ownership of the project being given to the community. In addition there is a need to involve the local administration and government authorities at all times and where possible  future ownership of facilities to be transferred to the government and the community for a long term sustainable future.  In addition, a wider community involvement to decrease dependency on the small lodge area. Room must be made for mistakes and experimentation along the way, to allow for innovation. The areas we are learning to avoid are: never to dictate ideas and projects and not to impose changes that may negatively change lifestyle and culture. Importantly to avoid involvement in politics at all levels  but to  allow the community to take control of their right to take part in political life and political decision making through - democratically. Above all- do not underestimate the locals- they know more than most of us think they do... and frequently more than we do.

Building on his success at the IUCN conference in Barcelona, Timothy is gaining experience in public speaking and spreading  the message of conservation on behalf of the whole Ol lentille team.

Whilst the conference was greatly enjoyed by Timothy the highlights of his trip have to be his light- aircraft flight to Bremerhaven – Germany; and the  Ajax v RKC Waalwijk  football match, where he was delighted to see Ajax move up two places in the Dutch premiership to second place with their win of 3-0; making this his most memorable trip to date! With thanks to all for their excellent pre- trip planning and communication  and the very smooth trip organisation; and  to all the friends of Ol Lentille  involved for their generosity  in hosting to make Timothy’s  trip such a success for him and for all concerned!

Saw these African Wild Dogs this morning...

Saw these beautiful painted dogs out hunting this morning. Part of a pack of 24, one of four packs of these endangered Wild Dogs that hunt across the conservancy. This  pack here is collared so they can be tracked more easily by the two Wild Dog Rangers at Lentille who have radio antennae which can track up to 3kilometres, although in this very rugged terrain it can be very  tricky. 

Laikipia lost its Wild Dog population in the seventies and 80s and it was generally thought then  that they had vanished from the area. Happily they have made a huge comeback- Laikipia is unique in that the population is now thriving again and is now a globally important number  of well over 300. It is also unique in that Laikipia has no protected game park or properly gazetted reserve land, and, whilst much of the area is privately owned ranch-land, a large area of Laikipia is Group Ranch land so that the Wild Dogs are having to coexist with the pastoralist nomadic Maasai and Samburu people and their cattle, goats and sheep. Since Wild Dogs are very efficient and fierce hunters this is not always easy.

Pastoralists and ranchers have reason to fear most wild predators including lions, hyenas, leopards, cheetah and Wild Dogs. As a result of this they have frequently killed Wild Dogs in large numbers and it was this extermination that was a prime cause of the population falling to less than 5,000 throughout Africa. Another danger is the threat of rabies. and other canine diseases, spread largely by local domestic cattle herding dogs. 

Studying Wild Dogs is made difficult by their behaviour-they can travel more than twenty five miles in a day over very difficult terrain. In addition, in order to protect their young, they den in the most rugged terrain, impossible for researchers to get to by vehicle and often very difficult even by foot... we have one pack that generally dens half way down a near vertical cliff face. Trying to humanely trap and collar them is therefore a lengthy and hazardous process.

Conservation Matters..... Check Out This Greater Kudu baby...

Head Ranger Kimorgo is seen here untangling a Greater Kudu calf which had lost its mother and become caught up in undergrowth yesterday, following an unlikely battle between the mother and a large Kudu bull. Happily mother and baby were united some hours later.

The Greater Kudu Bull pictured here with his magnificent horns.  Some months back we watched him fighting for half a day with another bull of equal size, finally breaking one of his opponent’s horns completely off. This one horned lop sided bull stayed around for a while but has not been sighted recently. This bull has horns near the maximum recorded size of five feet -  in 2 and a half spirals.

  

Maasai and Samburu morani use these horns as musical instruments  prized for their deep resonant sound.

Elephant Poaching- Stop the Ivory Market!!

It was a very sad day last week when a lone young male elephant was killed by poachers nearby.

The market price of ivory is at an all time high of over $700 per pound in China and Vietnam, the demand being fueled by the newly rich middle classes desiring ivory carvings. Kenya’s elephant population is estimated at between 32,000 and 35,000, but estimates for Africa remain vague  - between 400,000- 650,000. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) considers that as many as 100 elephants a day are being slaughtered across Africa - even if this number is exaggerated the problem is still massive.

Kenya banned hunting in 1977 and banned the selling of ivory, symbolically burning all its old ivory stock in 1989 and again last year, but the problem of poaching in neighbouring Tanzania where ‘controlled’ hunting is still legal is far greater, and it is from Tanzania and Zambia that most of the illegal ivory is shipped.

Until all ivory trading, legal and illegal, is stopped, there will continue to be an incentive for the poorest Africans to risk their lives shooting elephants to fuel  demand.  Priority now is to convince the older Chinese that they no longer want to buy ivory. Engaging constructively with Chinese people, who currently number over a million resident in Africa, with numbers fast rising, is clearly key.

Back to the dead elephant. The tracker dogs (bloodhounds) did a first class job of tracking the Samburu poachers to a distant village, but from here they are able to melt away. Even when this investigation is concluded and if they are apprehended, so long as there is a market and an order, there will be other poverty stricken Maasai and Samburu warriors ready to take their chances for the few dollars they can receive for two tusks. This time our Rangers were able to drive off the poachers and recover the tusks. These were passed to the Kenya Wildlife Service with a good deal of formal paper-work. They are then indelibly tattooed - taking them forever out of the market place.

So the radio network gets busy as security is increased across the whole area and the location of all herds and lone individual elephants is monitored ever more closely.

Meanwhile we treated this as a learning opportunity for all the local schools: environmental clubs and teachers from Ngabolo and Kimanjo Primary plus all the Kimanjo secondary students came to look at the now putrid carcass.  Vultures, tawny eagles, martial eagles and ravens are fast assisting the hyenas and jackals to dismember the carcass carcass. These Maasai kids have all been brought up to live alongside elephants. Despite their daily life being made hazardous by elephants they all value them as part of their landscape and heritage and they know that shooting elephants is not only illegal and dangerous but morally very out of kilter with their culture. They are taken back to school to consider how they can help to ensure the survival of elephants for their own children. 

Secondary Students on Safari

Only by stopping the market will these tusks be totally saved