Baraza

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 08 2009 | By: admin

Today three of the ten new white rhino’s of Nairobi National Park did a runner and escaped in to the nearby gorges.

Concerned for their safety, KWS caught them by darting from a helicopter. One of them nearly fell down a cliff but was saved at the last minute. I was able to get a few photos of the recapture and return of this particular rhino.

Drugged, Bound in ropes and with his eyes covered he probably wasn’t aware of the commotion around him.

Once inside the box it was lifted onto the vehicle and he was driven away, back to the National Park where hopefuly, he and the other two will stay this time!

Tags: endangered species, Kenya Wildlife Service, Paula Kahumbu, rhino, rhino rescue, white rhino, wildlifedirect

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Category: Climate change, Emergencies, Kenya, Lions, Poisoning wildlife, drought, national parks, poaching, wildlifedirect | Date: Aug 17 2009 | By: paula

A race against time

Published in the East African Standard

By Dauti Kahura

Conservationists and wildlife experts have sounded alarm bells over declining numbers of wildlife, which contributes 70 per cent of the country’s tourism earnings.

“What is happening with the wildlife is worse than the degradation of the Mau complex,” says Dr Joseph Ogutu, an ecologist with the International Livestock Research Institute (Ilri) based in Nairobi. “The decline of wildlife is real and frightening and we need to act fast,” he says.

Ogutu says the decline is in the protected and non-protected areas. Protected areas are the national parks and game reserves while the non-protected ones are pastoral lands and group ranches that surround parks and reserves. Two weeks ago, a conference in Beijing, China heard that the number of wildlife in East Africa is being depleted.

Dr Paula Kahumbu of Wildlife Direct, who attended the conference, says Kenya’s wildlife is at greater risk of eradication.

The country loses between four and five per cent of its wildlife annually. The Department of Remote Sensing and Resource Surveys (DRSRS), a Government department formerly known as Kenya Rangeland Ecological Monitoring Unit, says wildlife has declined by more than a third over the last 25 years.

Kenya has 23 parks, which fall directly under the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and 26 national reserves, which are under the district administration.

The country also has the largest bio-diversity of large animals in the world. Masai Mara has the largest concentration of wildlife and hosts 25 per cent of the national total, underscoring its importance.

With this resource under threat, conservationists say the Government should use all means to preserve it. Ogutu, who has been doing research in the Mara ecosystem since 1989, says drought, changing land use, climate change and poaching are a threat to the resource.

“KWS is in denial of what’s happening,” says Ogutu.

KWS’ TAKE

He says the organisation is only present in the national parks and the game reserves but absent at the group and private ranches. The unprotected areas hold about 65 per cent of the total wildlife and hence hold the key to the future. KWS has refuted claims of wildlife decline. Corporate Communications Manager Paul Udoto says KWS cannot conclusively say whether the animals are decreasing or increasingly generally. Udoto says one could only talk of specific species.

Ogutu lists the most affected parks as Masai Mara Game Reserve, an area that covers 5,600sq km, Tsavo East and West, Meru National Park, Nairobi National Park, which includes the Athi Kaputiei ecosystem. Lake Nakuru National Park has also been affected. The Athi Kaputiei, for instance, had one of the most spectacular migrations of wildebeest after Mara but the migration has all but fizzled. At the height of the migration, the animals ranged between 10,000-15,000 in the early 1990s.

“Today, it would be a spectacle if you spotted 300 wildebeests,” says Ogutu.

The situation at the Nairobi National Park, the only park within a 10km radius of a metropolis in the world, is severe. This is because of the drying up of its only permanent river, Athi River.

“Many crocodiles, hippos and fish have died,” says Ogutu. Poaching has also been cited as one of greatest factors leading to the decline. Richard Leakey, who is the founding director of KWS, says poaching could be on an unprecedented scale perhaps not experienced since the days of Wildlife Conservation and Management Department, the KWS predecessor.

“When former President Moi asked me 1989 to redirect the conservation of wildlife, poaching was rampant,” recalls Leakey.

He says black and white rhinos have been lost in large numbers in the protected and unprotected areas and KWS does not know the exact number of the species so it cannot quantify the loss. Leakey believes rangers could be abetting poaching. KWS senior wardens who sought anonymity concurred.

“Our rangers have become demoralised and demotivated, it is true they are abetting the wildlife poaching especially the big mammals like elephants and the rhino, said a senior warden at the KWS headquarters.

Human Intrusion

Tsavo East and West national parks have one third of the total number of all the elephants in the country. There are currently 38,000 elephants. Although the numbers have been on the increase, about 400 elephants are lost yearly, says Leakey.

Another major crisis that is threatening the existence of wildlife is the cattle incursion in the parks. Udoto concedes KWS is aware livestock owners are encroaching on the parks to the detriment of wildlife.

In the Nairobi National Park, it is estimated about 20,000 cows graze there at night.

Some livestock owners claim to pay Sh10 per cow to the rangers to be allowed into the park. Besides depleting food resources, livestock could carry diseases that are harmful to the wildlife.

Technorati : East African Standard, KWS, Kenya wildlife service, drought, kenya, lion, poaching, wildlife

Tags: drought, East African Standard, Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Service, KWS, Lion, poaching, wildlife

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Category: Africa, Appeals, Lions, Pride of Kenya, big cats, furadan, wildlifedirect | Date: Jul 28 2009 | By: Maina

We are bringing the Pride of Kenya to life!

The making of the Pride: lion statues at Kuona Trust, Nairobi

We have partnered with the Born Free Foundation in Kenya to raise funds for lion conservation. Our campaign will focus on ending lion poisoning using Furadan. The centrepiece for this campaign will be a life-sized lion statue made of fibre glass. But it is much more exciting than that!

There shall be fifty such lions in different locations in Kenya forming the campaign which has been named the Pride of Kenya. Each a plain canvas for artists to create their masterpieces on. Our lion will be at our office in Nairobi, Kenya, where it will be in display before and after it gets its beautiful artwork.

Then, in November, all the lions will come out of their dens and prowl the streets of Nairobi followed by an auction in which each lion will be sold to the highest bidder. Proceeds from the sale of each statue will go directly to lion conservation work. The Pride of Kenya will be all in the same place at the same time. I can’t wait for that! But, first things first: we need to make our lion the best looking lion of them all. We need artwork.

This is where you come in. We need ideas for the art we shall create on this ‘canvas’.  I know you have lots of ideas. Send them to us. We are thinking that it would be great if we could send a global message about lion conservation with our lion. You can be as creative as you want. You can even suggest modification of the lion – as long as it still looks like a lion. But we cannot put advertising. No logos.

You can start sending your suggestions now. We have to ‘pimp’ our lion by the end of August.

A few lines about lions

The lion is the fabled kings of the jungle. But lions are losing their kingdom. Lions are virtually extinct outside of Africa except for the 80 or so ‘Gir’ lions that remain in India. Kenya has lost 90% of its lion population most of which has been lost in the last 20 years. There are now only 2100 lions left in Kenya.

Recently, Kenya lost an estimated 75 lions to poisoning – mostly by Furadan. The Kenya wildlife Service estimates that more than 200 lions have been killed in this recent period due to intolerance followed by killings through poisoning and spearing. Lion habitat is also shrinking. Human-lion conflict is also quite high due to human invasion into lion territory.

The Maasai community are best known for their warrior skills. They are also famous for co-existing with wildlife for millennia. They however have never tolerated lions mostly because - I believe - the lions prey on their cattle. To become a moran (warrior) the young Maasai man has been required to kill a lion. A group of progressive morans have refused to kill lions and have become Lion Guardians. This is one of the groups we support and they are now preaching the message of tolerance and value of lions. We also have the Stop Wildlife Poisoning Campaign against Furadan and other poisons.

Some lions of the Tara Pride monitored by Lion Guardians

Lions are the most valuable species for Kenya’s tourism – the number one foreign income generator for the country. Kenya cannot afford to lose the lion.

Who’s involved?

Kenya was home to Elsa - the star of the Born Free movie series written by Joy Adamson and acted by Virginia McKenna. Virginia’s son Will runs the Born Free Foundation. It’s their 25th year anniversary in November hence the timing of this event. Virginia will come to Kenya for the auction.

The Kenyan business community is quite excited about the idea and some have taken up their own fibre glass lions. With your help, ours will still be the best.

Get involved

You want to get involved? You can send us a design suggestion for the artwork that will be interpreted by a Nairobi-based artist on the lion ‘canvas’. But we also need to raise funds. So you can donate here (look out for the Pride of Kenya donation item). We need to raise at least US$25,000 for this particular lion. If you suggest a design, you can support it with your donation of any amount. The higher the donation the better the lion will like you.

Here is more excitement: We need to name our lion. Do you have a name for him? Suggest a name and support your name suggestion with a donation. Who says you can’t have fun while saving lions?

Tags: Africa, Born Free, furadan, Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Service, Lion, wildlifedirect

5 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 26 2009 | By: paula

As WildlifeDirect we often find ourselves receiving and sharing information that authorities do not want to hear. This has happened recently over the poisoning of wildlife using Furadan as well as over the deepening bushmeat crisis facing – both issues affecting wildlife in Kenya.

I guess we should expect questions and concerns, to verify our data etc, but to be outright dismissed? That was not what we expected.

I ignored all those who said ‘watch your back’. After all, we live in a democratic country with excellent freedom of press in Kenya.

Nevertheless, I can now report that despite our communications with some government regulators, we are not getting any positive constructive response, indeed we are being told to lay off. In the last few days I have even been personally harassed and threatened which makes me think one of two things.

1. We are on the right track to have upset some people so badly

2. It is even more important that we stay the course as a member of a large community of conservationists who are witnessing threats to wildlife and are willing to raise concerns and do something about it. But, we need to be very careful. It’s not uncommon for ‘accidents’ to affect people who stick their necks out in this country

Needless to say last night I went to bed feeling rather angry at the short sightedness of our government authorities, and frightened for the first time. I didn’t want to make this statement on the blog, but feel that I should make are record of it though I will not name the institution or individuals involved.

But I will reiterate what I’ve been saying all along, we need open and constructive dialogue between the conservation community and government agencies, after all, we are all on the same side and have the same objectives, that is to save wildlife and wild places.I’m happy to say that at least FMC, the manufacturers of Furadan did come to us to discuss our concerns even if we disagreed on some points. That dialogue helped us to understand each others concerns.

Tags: bushmeat, conservation, FMC, furadan, Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Service, KWS, wildlife, wildlifedirect

7 responses so far

Category: National Parks and protected areas | Date: Apr 20 2009 | By: admin

Hi everyone, this is Paula. Last Thursday I attended a breakfast meeting at KWS, the Director, Julius Kipngetich revealed that the post election violence hit hard and deep.  Within the first 3 months of 2008, revenues declined by 90%.  They haven’t fully recovered and currently revenues are still only at 60% of 2007. He warned that if anything happened and revenues slipped lower than 50% it would spell a disaster for KWS.

He also mentioned that the financial environment is further complicated by the current global economic crisis and the ongoing drought which he believes is the worst in Kenyan history. He admitted that there were huge herds of livestock in Samburu, Tsavo (over 100,000) and other protected areas.

However, he noted on a cheerful note that the Rhino population is up by 5 – 7% and we now have 800 individuals in Kenya. 15 were released into an intensive protection zone in Tsavo West recently where they are protected by 40 rangers. Each rhino has a chip in the horn and so can be tracked.

Elephants are also up by more than 4% in Tsavo, as well as Isiolo, Samburu and Marsabit. So are Greys zebra.

However he noted with some concern that  Kenya’s lion population has stagnated at 2,100. Threats to lions include lack of space, in Mara, wheat production and livestock. Being the national symbol, and one of the big 5, KWS is committed to protecting lions and will be starting a large carnivore program – recruitment soon.

Wildlife is under unprecedented threat from bushmeat poaching especially in Kajiado, between Naivasha to Nakuru, and along the Mombasa highway.

The outlook is bleak Kenya’s human population is still growth faster than the GDP which means that poverty is worsening and this problem will get worse. The availability of weapons in the north of the country means that every man, as well as some woman and children has a fire arm that is often turned against wildlife.  Poaching is more sophisticated than ever as poachers are simply herdsmen who turn to poaching when they get an order placed by someone in Nairobi via phone. Money is also transferred using cell phones.

To address these new challenges, KWS is about to launch new strategic plan (6th May).

The strategy will examine climate change concerns and opportunities for funding.

It includes the introduction of a new Wildlife Bill and Policy which has been sent to the Minister. He also noted that we should expect tariff adjustment – that means park fees will continue to increase. He mentioned specifically Nakuru and Amboseli National Parks as well as  Mt Kenya where new fees will more than double from $20 per person per day today, to $50 per day, but tickets must also be purchased in a block of 3 days. This he felt competes with Tanzania where it costs $100 per day to climb Mt Kilimanjaro.

Mr Kipngetich was proud to report on the activities that KWS has been upto over the last year.

Last yea he recruited 36 new management trainees. He also created an emergency Management team has been created to deal with emergencies like fire.

KWS armed forces toook over the management of the Mau Forest which is Kenya’s most important water tower. This forest is supposed to be under the management of the Kenya Forest Service, a new unit that he declared is not disciplined. The Mau is patrolled daily from Nakuru by the KWS air wing.  He said that he has proposed a new ‘sustainable’ model for the Mau complex of forests and that these have submitted something to the Prime Minister.

In dealing with wildlife populations, KWS has handled two important translocations – the move of 2,000 ungulates moved from Lake Nakuru Park to Meru National Park.

Several hundred ungulates have been moved from Tsavo to Shimba Hills, as well as from Solio Ranch to Ruma National Park after 15,000acres was hived off Solio for resettlement of poor commnities. A rare antelope, the Lelwell Hartebeest was moved to Ruma.

A major donor, the Rhino Ark is now completing the fencing of the Aberdares forest and concentrating on raising funds for the maintenance of the fence.

KWS has been working with the African Wildlife Foundation on the Kenya Land Conservation Trust – a Land bank that purchases critical conservation lands for conservation. Already bought Eland Downs in Laikipia. Formerly owned by former president Daniel Arap Moi and originally earmarked for resettlement of people now on Solio Ranch in Laikipia.

Although we did not see the new KWS strategic plan, we were told that it is to be launched on May 6^th  to re energise conservation efforts.

In brief he spoke of 6 key strategies in the new strategic plan

1. Force modernization, technology to monitor troop movements
2. Infrastructure to strengthen customer service, staff housing and roads
3. Ecological integrity  more scientists, labs, equipment and collaboration in science
4. Customer service, rangers removed from gates to be manned by civilians, changing old smart card to Safaricard
5. Community mobilization, community enterprises, no more hand outs
6. Resource mobilization – lobbying for more funds from GOK.
   1. Pricing study to be done and  new fee structures 
   2. Create Wildlife Endowent Fund targeting Euros 100m
   3. Donations

Kipmgetich spoke about the creation of a private sector Association to get Kenyans to participate in Kenya lobbying on behalf of KWS especially on negotiation of budgets. I.e wildlife industry lobby group.

 An number of Questions were raised  –

1. What climate change coping mechanisms have you in place for climate change

Ans – we need to get skills and knowledge  to advice policy makers – we need to do research in order to know what adaptations are required.

2. How will independent researchers collaborate?

Ans. Everything must be science based

3. How will you enlist Kenyan supporters when park fees our out of price range for the masses?

Ans. Pricing study will get to the sensitivity  - prices are currently affordable for Kenyans

4. New bill proposes KWS breaks up into 3 unites, what will be the relationship between the three bodies

Ans. KWS currently does regulation, policy, operations, research, security and  training. Split will create the Directorate of Conservation in the ministry to define policy.

A regulatory body will handle licensing

Research will be a semi autonomous body within KWS to help KWS attract funds from treasury.

Training is already a semi autonomous body

4. Tanzania’s wildlife policy is talking about taking tourists from Kenya. What are we doing about this?

Ans Regional cooperation was not described in the strategy but is essential for cooperation and collaboration at international meetings like LATF and CITES. We are working in framework of EA community even though TZ has a different approach and is derailing the EA community. E.g a Kenyan registered car cannot take tourists into a Tz park. Hoping for resistance to decline over time. 

5. Training is currently very limiting – rangers need to understand the flora and fauna. Will you introduce specialization in the program. What is happening in the Mau where there are tense situations between FD and KWS

Ans. Mau is an emergency, KFS guard were not disciplined like KWS. The forest has been sectorized.  KFS is in charge of Masai Mau, Trustland is managed by County council, KWS has a sector as does admin police.

Overall command is with KWS warden. There are occasional flare ups due to differences in perception and discipline. Destruction of the Mau is due to the incompetence of FD/KFS.

Recommendations have gone to PM but are not public – to restore Mau on a more sustainable basis. It will severely restrict KFS who will take 10 – 20 years to develop.

Staff transfers are no longer random, now all computers, all staff go for training each 3 years. 92% of staff are men.   

At the end of the meeting, there was a group photo and I chatted to the Director. Later I caught up with him to talk about the problem of poisoning of lions, especially with Furadan. He said that he wanted to see all the facts and figures before he could quantify the scale of the problem.

After the meeting someone asked me if anyone had seen the document  on the Prime Ministers desk regarding the Mau Forest, or the proposed new Wildlife Act- well I haven’t, and nobody I know has either.  I sensed that while the public sector was being asked to lobby on KWS behalf through our political channels, our MP’s etc, we actually don’t really know what the proposals are. I tried to get a copy of the strategic plan but was told it would unfortunately not be available until the 6th May. Since it was prepared in-house, nobody outside of KWS knows what is really in it even though the document refers to communities, stakeholders and partners.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see.  More on that later

Tags: furadan, Kenya Wildlife Service, Kipngetich, Lions, Meru, Nairobi Park, Nakuru, Paula Kahumbu, rhinos, shimba

2 responses so far

Category: National Parks and protected areas | Date: May 29 2008 | By: baraza

For some reason this hasn’t hit the mainstream press, but according to the East African newspaper,  the KWS have given up Amboseli National Park.This story goes back to  2005 when the president in his wisdom gave away the reserve to the local Maasai in what many believe was an attempt to buy support  for constitutional referendum. They accepted the land which overlooks Mt Kilimanjaro, and voted against him anyway.

Local NGO’s Nature Kenyaand Eastern African Environmental Network took the government to court to squash the ministers decision to actually gazette the presidents declaration. The case is still in court. Despite this KWS have apparently given up and the newspaper claim that they have a copy of an agreement to that effect. It seems that the agreement puts KWS in a contracted position to manage the park on behalf of the council who can boot them out if they are not happy.

Why does this matter?

Amboseli is iconic of Kenyas’ wildlife protection and conservation success. It is one of the most important protected areas in Kenya  - and the combined attraction of mountain and elephants generates more revenues than most of the others combined! It is where the elephants and lions have recently been speared. The local council is unlikely to have relevant competence to manage the site and Kenya may lose one of its greatest and most famous wildlife refuges.

It’s not surprising that the locals want the land, KWS has been raking in millions for years, with little to show for its contribution to the local communities. Nevertheless, this decision is likely to see the invasion of the park by pastoralists, the killing of elephant and lions and tourism is unlikely to recover.

I suspect that this is the beginning of something interesting, KWS releasing a stranglehold on parks and reserves especially where communities are ferocious (they are very averse to aggression). They will let go  back down and take on managerial roles only - like the private sector. Can KWS survive this way? I’m curious - it is quite a bloated organization.

I wonder what would happen if we engaged more private sector interest in conservation directly (not just hotels) in Kenya that way Kenyans could invest in wildlife and nature protection and earn dividends.

……perhaps I”m dreaming again.

Tags: Amboseli, Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Service, KWS

15 responses so far