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Category: Africa, WildlifeDirect news, conservation, wildlifedirect | Date: Nov 17 2009 | By: Maina

Paula was one of the speakers in a recently held Technology conference in Nairobi. Mark Kaigwa (aka mkaigwa), one of the friends of WildlifeDirect, who was attending the conference on 8 August 2009, wrote the great entry about Paula’s presentation reproduced below. Thank you Bwana Kaigwa.

Engaging Conversation on Conservation in Africa
Posted on Tuesday, 17 November 2009 by mkaigwa

Paula at TEDx Nairobi (Photo via mkaigwa)

A self-confessed tree hugger, Paula Kahumbu opened by reminding us how extraordinarily privileged Kenya is as a country as far as diversity is concerned, and how most times, it’s taken for granted by Kenyans themselves. By demonstration when she asked to see those in the crowd who had been to a National Park in the last month, only a handful inferred to the affirmative. It brought life to her statement!

She shared on how Kenya has one of the world’s largest diversities of bees – over 1500 species. We assume the Maasai Migration is going to be around for generations (for those who’ve not seen it already.)

Her second confession was that she didn’t have a television. Her veranda is her television from her home on the edge of the Nairobi National Park and you can always follow her amazing tweets and extraordinary wildlife pictures.

Paula elaborated her reason why she’s a wildlife conservationist and set out to make a case. “We’ve often been told that wildlife is crucial to the economy and our economic development. However, we’ve been misled to believe that it is important for tourism alone.”

“The world’s current population is 6.9 Billion people. We’re far too many people for the planet…,” as Paula showed and while we’re now aware of our carbon footprint, we shouldn’t forget our ecological footprint. We’re using the earth, our forests, our seas and changing the landscape faster than it can regenerate itself.

“Over 1000 species are disappearing every year,” she stated. Adding that two-thirds of these species have named, they’re yet to be classified and already disappear off the face of the earth. 25% of our mammals are facing extinction. A sad reality to come to terms with.

Paula went on to share information from a recent study done in the United States where scientists conducted research and studied how valuable insects were to the economy. As insects performed basic services for human beings and the value in a year is $57 Billion and that’s a service that is free; remarkable.

The US is facing a major crisis with their bees, having lost around 80% of their bees. Bees contribute about $15 Billion a year to the US economy and that brought home a stark reality of the situation, given that Kenya has one of the largest biodiversities of bees.

She went on to elaborate on the current drought in Kenya (which has since turned into rains, and occasionally floods in some provinces). The reason why this drought is hurting, Paula said, was because we have degraded our landscapes to such an extent and silt is filling up our dams and the water is unable to penetrate the soil and replenish the reservoirs.

The global cost of saving our protected areas is $45 Billion a year for the whole world. The estimated value of these protected areas in terms of ecological services is actually $5 Trillion. She jokingly asked Aly Khan Satchu what the return on investment was.She brought the point back to order that we’re losing the race with our environment and examined the situation in Kenya with the Kenya Government and she frankly admitted that we’re losing the race to conserve our wildlife.

She also told the amazing story behind Owen and Mzee, her award-winning children’s book about a hippopotamus and a tortoise. Paula was working for Bamburi Cement in the coast running a small sanctuary, using a rehabilitated quarry where they kept hippopotamus after the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami that hit the coast just outside of Malindi.

The story, involves a hippopotamus calf that was orphaned during the tsunami and had to be taken care of. The 1 year-old hippo mistook a Seychellois tortoise for its mother, and not longer after the first pictures were taken, they quickly became viral and were abuzz all over the internet.

People were soon calling, texting and emailing asking how the tortoise and baby hippopotamus were. By this time, they had both been named, the hippo; Owen, after the man who caught him and the tortoise; Mzee – a respectful Swahili word for elderly person.

So they started a diary, written by a man who had been working at the sanctuary for 25 years, Steven Twaid. He would show what was happening with Owen and Mzee as they played, swam and grew closer together. Soon, they had over 500,000 people reading and keeping up with the life of Owen and Mzee every month. From this, they developed the children’s book – Owen and Mzee.

The book has since sold over 1 million copies and is in 24 languages across the world. From this, her meeting with Dr. Richard Leakey lead to her running Wildlife Direct which has grown from 7 blogs to over 115 different blogs, each with its own set of bloggers, volunteers and fundraisers. They’ve since raised over $1,000,000 since 2007 and now, enable people all over the world to donate and adopt projects and conservancies as they support them.

An example she raised was in the Maasai Mara where, after the post-election violence, the Maasai Mara needed funds to sustain its conservation efforts to cover the shortfall due to the nosedive in tourist revenues. They raised $280,000 towards this effort.

She spoke of the Lion Guardians project with Anthony Kasanga, a 23 year old Maasai man who is a poacher turned Lion protector. The Maasai people, as a rite of passage, have their young men kill a lion. Anthony, together with the Lion Guardians, has been able to raise $28,000 and develop a strong international following as he educates Maasai in the region on how and why to protect lions.

Paula shared on a trend that Wildlife Direct began noticing – lions were being poisoned with a cheap over-the-counter pesticide called Furadan. Kenya’s already lost 85% of lions as a result of poisoning. The impact on tourism, if this trend continues would be devastating. Luckily, Wildlife Direct rallied support and was even contacted by the US-based manufacturer of the pesticide, who agreed to take it off the market in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

The challenges for Wildlife Direct include raising support, especially in this period of the recession and developing the technology from their base in Kenya. Changing perceptions from a reliance on governments to bring environmental change is something Wildlife Direct is set on developing in Africa

A key strength of Wildlife Direct is its transparency, where all support is accounted for and results are documented by the bloggers and every action is shown and shared. The tangible impact shown to the world, shows the potential of the model behind Wildlife Direct which can be replicated and applied to different fields such as poverty alleviation and education.

Tags: biodiversity, conservation, environment, extinction, furadan, Masai Mara, Paula Kahumbu, poisoning, population, species, TEDx Nairobi, wildlife, wildlifedirect

2 responses so far

Category: Africa, Poisoning wildlife, big cats, poaching, wildlifedirect | Date: Nov 10 2009 | By: paula

Dear all,

After the death of a child in Kenya from ingesting Furadan, and with the US Environmental Protection Agency banning carbofuran in America, we feel that there is no justification for delaying banning it in Kenya.

Watch this video and share with your friends. Please support our campaign to save lions.

Thank you

Tags: FMC, furadan, Kenya, KWS, Lion, lion poisoning, Lions, Paula Kahumbu, richard leakey, Tanzania, wildlife poisoning, wildlifedirect, wildlifepoisoning

12 responses so far

Category: Africa, conservation | Date: Oct 21 2009 | By: paula

The PopTech Fellows  program is sadly over - it was amazing! Now we are in for a rollercoaster with  the Pop!Tech Conference. It brings together World changing people, projects and ideas. The conference officially starts today and I’m on the line up today! I’m so thrilled to have been invited to be part of our special Wednesday session “Conservation 2.0.”  I’ll be talking about using social networking to bring out the inner conservationist in all of us save wild animals. I’ll do it by telling some stories about extraordinary bloggers on WildlifeDirect like Antony Kasanga of Lion guardians’

If you are at PopTech please consider coming to this super session

The New Edge of Conservation with Katy Payne, Healy Hamilton, and Paula Kahumbu
New tools are improving ecological conservation efforts like never before. Hear from three leading practitioners as they describe how advanced technologies are helping us amplify, protect, and support efforts to preserve biodiversity around the world. Guest presenters toiling on the front-line of conservation work will share insights, stories about elephants and whales and seahorses, and lessons learned on everything from incorporating emerging technologies to communicating the principles of conservation to children.

Here’s a sneak peak about the speakers

Cheryl Heller

Cheryl is a writer, designer and communication strategist who helps clients integrate socially responsible behavior into sustainable brand communication and promotional programs. Her firm, Heller Communication Design, has developed a process through which corporations can play a leading role in alleviating the social and environmental issues facing the world, through programs that are both easy and profitable for them.

Cheryl has written articles for Communication Arts, ID Magazine, Graphis Magazine and The Design Management Journal. She wrote a book for the AIGA on the best process for preserving innovation within corporations. Recently she wrote the lead story on creative strategy for Adobe’s online magazine, Proxy.

She has been profiled in articles in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Graphis magazine, Communication Arts, ID magazine, How magazine, Print and PDN.

Dr. Healy Hamilton

Dr. Healy Hamilton is a biodiversity scientist at the California Academy of Sciences, and adjunct professor in the Department of Geography at San Francisco State University. She is the founding director of the Center for Biodiversity Research (CBR), a program that integrates biological and geospatial data for biodiversity research, conservation and education. Dr. Hamilton and the staff at CBR conduct research into species response to climate change and make it available for large landscape conservation planning.

Katy Payne

If anyone can artfully explain how a herd of elephants is like a Quaker meeting, it is animal communication researcher Katy Payne. Payne has been studying the sounds and languages of African elephants and humpback whales—two of the world’s largest animals—for decades, but she’s also been listening to their silences. Her discoveries have led her to fascinating meditations on stillness, cognition, and how acoustic phenomena shape relationships and communities. In 1999 she founded the Elephant Listening Project to help ensure her subjects’ future. Through sound and video clips, her research team aims to monitor elephants’ welfare and movements, as well as track the effectiveness of conservation efforts. Payne is currently affiliated with the Bioacoustics Research Program at Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology.

Paula Kahumbu (Yes, that’s me!)

Paula is an ecologist and a passionate tree hugger. She spent many years studying monkeys and elephants in Kenya and worked for the Kenya Wildlife Service on wildlife policy, trade and park management issues and later managed a quarry restoration company. She is passionate about Africa and conservation, saving wild species and wild places – all for a purely selfish reason, so that she can enjoy them. Her life goal is to revert the people of the world to loving nature, starting with Joshua her son.

Peter Durant will be drawing the entire conference as it happens to capture the stories in pictures. He’s amazing!

Tags: Cheryl Heller, ideas, Katy Payne, Paula Kahumbu, PopTech, technology

2 responses so far

Category: WildlifeDirect news, wildlifedirect | Date: Oct 17 2009 | By: paula

Dear Friends

I just wanted to let you know that I am at PopTech  and it is amazing. I wish my entire team from Nairobi and all our WildlifeDirect bloggers could be here with me!

In the PopTech Fellows program I will be talking about WildlifeDirect and working with a team of professional marketers, strategists, communicators and planners to learn more about what we can do to take WildlifeDirect to the next level.

We are all at Point Lookout Resort and Recreation Center  near Camden and they days are filled with exercises and meetings. It is going to be very intense and I am really looking forward to the results!

Andrew Zolli is an expert in global foresight and innovation, studying the complex trends at the intersection of technology, sustainability and global society that are shaping our future

Andrew Zolli runs PopTech and he told us that we had each one of us 16 fellows had been selected from hundreds of applicants and that his team had investigated each and every one of us to determine if we would be the perfect team. I wasn’t alone in feeling deeply honored that they had selected me. The other poptech fellows are doing earth shattering social innovations in energy and ecological solutions, education, medicine and design. It’s overwhelming. The PopTech team are fantastic - we already have a few nicknames like “Mushroom man” and I’m being called “Kenya”. You can meet all the other PopTech Fellows here

We were blessed with a spectacular sunset after our first day at the PopTech fellows. Wow!

I will continue blogging and tweeting about Poptech here and on Twitter at @paulakahumbu. You can follow other Poptech tweeters by searching #poptech and following @poptech

You can also read Erik Hershmans blog here

Before I sign off I want to thank Ollie Wilder (great name) and his parents and family who have taken me under their wing in Camden over the last week. I especially want to say “Thank you” to Trink and Kent for adopting me into your amazing family.

Tags: Kenya, Maine, Paula Kahumbu, Point Look out, PopTech, USA, wildlifedirect

5 responses so far

Category: Africa, Appeals, National Parks and protected areas, conservation | Date: Oct 09 2009 | By: paula

If you haven’t made a donation yet on WildlifeDirect, consider this

There are days when can not sleep because of fears that WildlifeDirect  cannot survive this disastrous economic crisis. Fund raising has not been easy nor fun lately - and it’s affecting or ability to do effective conservation of endangered species.

Because everyone is affected by the economic crisis, many of our donors are telling us that they can’t contribute anymore, and the average donation of those generous donors who have continued to support us have declined by about 50% from an average donation of $100 to $47.

Despite the drop in funding, our bloggers remain convinced. We now have over 80 conservation blogs from the frontlines in Africa, Asia and South America. Half of these bloggers get funds every month and every month more people inquire and ask to join our network. It is so rewarding to know that good conservationists believe in us. This is what keeps us going at WildlifeDirect.

Here are some reasons why you should support projects on WildlifeDirect

1. It’s direct - you can choose the blog, item and place you want your funds to go to
2. It’s accountable – you can see your money working by reading the blogs
3. It’s easy  - we use paypal and you will get a tax receipt
4. It’s quick – you can respond to any wildlife conservation emergency and make ….But what I like most about this is that
5. It’s cost effective – a little money goes a long way in Africa where $100 can pay for a rangers salary for a month! Our bloggers only ask for essential things –rations, petrol for patrols , critical equipment, food for animals and basic field costs. They are working on shoe string budgets – many of them volunteer.

Watch our video and Join us

WildlifeDirect has had a far greater impact on bloggers than we ever imagined. Next I will be interviewing Anthony Kasanga (lionguardians) about how his life changed after he started blogging on WildlifeDirect.

THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO HAS STAYED WITH OR RECENTLY JOINED WILDLIFEDIRECT.   YOU ARE ALL AMAZING PEOPLE:)

Tags: Africa, conservation, endangered species, Gorillas, Lions, Paula Kahumbu, richard leakey, wildlife, wildlifedirect

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 06 2009 | By: paula

While at the Jackson Hole Film Wildlife Festival the winner of this years winner was announced, it’s a film called “Green” by Charlie Hamilton James, Frederic Fouge. I met Frederic who surprised me when I asked for a copy of the film

- it’s available for free download on the interent. Here’s a great opportunity for every single illegal video store in the world to download this film legally for free and to show it to as many people as possible.

I’ve just downloaded it myself from this site

Charlie Hamilton James, Frederic Fougea

Tags: Frederic Fouge, Green, Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, Paula Kahumbu, Wyoming

One response so far

Category: Americas | Date: Oct 05 2009 | By: paula

Dear Friends,

I am in USA attending a fund raiser, participating in the Jackson Hole Film Festival and going to PopTech! I am in New York for our board meeting today but wanted to share the most amazing experiences I had in Jackson Hole Wyoming.

But the thing I will remember most is the sight of cattle being driven from one ranch to another. The Sheriff stopped all the traffic so I had to get out and run to where the cattle were being herded across the road by the cowboys and girls. A fellow motorist stopped me and asked where the photos would be online …these are for you Mary Haworth. The following pictures were taken on the exhilarating morning of 3rd October.

Motorists had to give way to cattle and cowboys for a good half hour

Real cowboys with lasos!

Bringing up the rear were the calves.

This was my first sight of Real American cowboys - Amazing!

The people of Wyoming are amazing, friendly and …well just like us Kenyans. THe countryside is like Kenya too ….full of wildlife, and especially big dangerous mammals! I saw my first Elk, moose and chipmunk

Ok not big or dangerous but chipmunks are adorable!

Elk doe - these guys make a really eery weirdly haunting call all night - kind of sounded like whales singing. Bizarre!

Big daddy moose - check out his beard!

Grand Teton… this mountain looks suspiciously like Mt Kenya doesn’t it? No wonder I felt so at home in Wyoming!

I love America!!

There’s so much to share about what I learned in Wyoming …coming next - stories of human wildlife Conflict that make lions sound like mice!

Tags: Elk, Jackson HOle, Jackson Hole Film Festival, Kenya, Moose, Paula Kahumbu, wildlife, wildlifedirect, Wyoming

5 responses so far

Category: In the News, WildlifeDirect news | Date: Sep 11 2009 | By: Maina

Nairobi, 11 September 2009 - On Wednessday, 9 September 2009, Dr Paula Kahumbu, the WildlifeDirect Executive Director was named one of the 16 fellows of the prestigious PopTech Social Innovation Fellows program of 2009 for her work at WildlifeDirect. In a press release dated September 9, PopTech, ‘a renowned Ideas Summit and innovation Network dedicated to accelerating the positive impact of world-changing people, projects and ideas’, announced that Dr Kahumbu was among the Class of 2009 of the Social Innovation Fellows.

Dr Paula Kahumbu will be taking the WildlifeDirect idea and experience to PopTech to share with the other fellows. The WildlifeDirect idea was developed by Dr Richard Leakey and associates to bring together conservationists working in remote and often dangerous places - mostly in Africa but also in Asia and South America - and supporters of conservation through blogs.

The model enables individual donors throughout the world to communicate directly with the people they are funding. The overall goal of WildlifeDirect is to build a strong online movement capable of responding to emergencies and reverse the catastrophic loss of habitats and wild species. WildlifeDirect pioneered the model of fundraising for wildlife through blogs.

Millions of people read the blogs and tens of thousands have made donations. Almost a million dollars have been raised for conservation emergencies such as saving gorillas in war-torn Virunga in the Democratic Republic of Congo, rescuing the Masai Mara during Kenya’s post-election violence and resultant collapse of tourism at the beginning of 2008, saving lions and many other endangered species. More than 100 different conservation projects in 27 countries tell their daily stories on the WildlifeDirect platform. WildlifeDirect is simply the largest wildlife blogging platform in the world.

Dr Kahumbu and the rest of the 16 fellows, described in the release as ‘a corps of visionary change agents incubating high-impact approaches to some of the world’s most pressing social, economic and environmental challenges, have been invited to a five-day intensive ‘boot camp’ before participating in the PopTech 2009: America Re-imagined in October 21-24, 2009 at Camden, Maine, USA where they will present their ideas on stage to more than 700 conference attendees and thousands who will participate via live stream. This according to the PopTech faculty, will begin their entry into PopTech’s rich network of mentors, influencers, contributors and resources.

Each year, PopTech selects 10-20 high potential change agents from around the world who are working on highly disruptive innovations in areas like health care, energy, development, climate, education, and civic engagement, among many others. Fellows work in both the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds, have a minimum of 3-5 years experience, and are working in organizations that are well positioned for sustainable growth.

The 2009 fellows program - which is the second since inception - attracted more than 200 applicants from more than 30 countries. Of the 16 selected, only three are from Africa, two of whom are Kenyan. Although a number of these fellows deal with climate change and clean energy, only Dr Kahumbu has been selected for her work in using the internet to raise awareness and funds for wildlife conservation - especially in Africa. The 16 fellows represent organizations based in or running projects in USA, UK, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Kenya.

Dr Paula Kahumbu is available and ready to do interviews with all reporters. You can call her on +254 (0)20 386 51 20 in the office (Nairobi, GMT +3) or on her mobile phone +254 0722 685 106

Tags: fellowship, Masai Mara, Paula Kahumbu, PopTech, richard leakey, Virunga, wildlifedirect

11 responses so far

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

4 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