NOTES FROM THE FIELD - ENVIRONMENT EDUCATION
Greetings from Nairobi!
This month, we focus on the importance and impact of environmental education.
East Africa’s remarkable biodiversity and natural resources fuel national economies and improve the lives of local communities. Yet, many people are unaware of its positive impact or of the steps they can take to conserve and protect their natural capital.
USAID is partnering with local communities, conservation groups, media groups, and government entities to help spread awareness of the need for and the benefits of conservation.
Read about it below.
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Aurelia Micko
Environment Office Chief
USAID Kenya and East Africa
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EDUCATING JOURNALISTS THEN READERS
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Internews’ Earth Journalism Network recently wrapped up a week-long media workshop with 17 journalists from across East Africa. The USAID-supported workshop introduced journalists to wildlife and conservation issues and led field trips to collect first-hand stories of conservation.
The journalists visited Kaya Kauma Forest in Kilifi on the Kenyan coast to learn how a small community has preserved a forest purely through culture.
Also on the Kenyan coast, just North of Mombasa City, journalists spoke with Mzee Gereza, the project manager of Kuruwitu Conservation and Welfare Association (KCWA). KCWA is a 200-person community group that instituted guidelines to protect its ocean ecosystem and preserve its marine life. The group has become a model of how communities living along endangered marine zones can be involved in protection and conservation of marine environment and in return secure their livelihoods. Data by World Conservation Society shows fish population in the Marine Protected Area is booming with fish biomass estimated to grow by a whopping 400 per cent since 2005 when KWCA formed.
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East Africa Workshop Explores Solutions and Community...
Along Kenya's coast lie several sacred forests, home to fortified villages occupied by elders who protect what are now some of the country's only remaining coastal lowland groves. These elders belong to the Mijikenda people...By Sara Schonhardt
Read more
internews.org
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Looking for stories outside of Kenya?
Listen
to how dogs are proving successful in the fight against wildlife trade in East Africa.
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PREPARING WOMEN AND YOUTH TO BECOME LEADERS IN CONSERVATION
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In southwestern Kenya, the Maasai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association (MMWCA) is engaging women and youth in the community-based conservation movement. The Maasai Mara Ecosystem depends on their future leadership and all members of a community have much to gain from conservation. MMWCA estimates that community conservancies in Maasai Mara benefit an estimated 100,000 people.
With funding from USAID, MMWCA supports women's forums and gender workshops to raise awareness regarding women's rights -- such as their right to own land and inherit land -- and encourage them to take leadership roles in their communities. MMWCA also conducts vocational training in conservation and encourages women and youth to explore nature-based businesses to generate revenue, including
bee keeping, culinary arts, bead works, and tourism.
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USAID/MMWCA supported women's forums have helped women take more active roles in their communities. Meet Raene ene Karbolo (above) from the Olderkesi Community Conservancy. Raene recently made history by becoming the first Board Chair of Ositeti Primary School. She is also a committee member in Olderkesi land adjudication -- which helps settle lands disputes and make decisions on boundaries -- and a land owners’ committee member. The leadership roles are hugely important as the segmentation and use of land remains one of the most contentious issues in the Maasai Mara ecosystem.
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WILDLIFE DIRECT CREATES GENERATION OF WILDLIFE WARRIORS
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We recently profiled Chief Executive Officer of WildlifeDirect, Paula Kahumbu, and her work to cultivate wildlife warriors through her conservation awareness documentary series. Read it
here
or by clicking to the right.
The program takes children between eight and twelve years old to the national parks and reserves throughout Kenya. It also hosts camping trips and field trips each year for a select number of children where they learn about the environment, critically endangered species inhabiting the parks and the conservation efforts of scientists and communities in and around wildlife.
"Many children in Kenya, especially those in informal settlements, have never seen wildlife or been to any of our national parks and reserves.
We want to create a generation of Wildlife Warriors -- young advocates and champions of conservation who work within their communities to find sustainable and responsible solutions to matters affecting the environment, conservation and human wildlife conflict,"
said CEO Paula Kahumbu.
The first phase of the program was funded by
Safaricom
.
WildlifeDirect is implementing the program in partnership with
Storymoja Publishers
.
USAID supports Paula's Wildlife Warriors show and
supported her previous wildlife series
“NTV Wild.”
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Cultivating Wildlife Warriors
Historically, most African wildlife films have been produced by Westerners for Western audiences. Paula Kahumbu, a Kenyan wildlife conservationist, is working to change that. She is the CEO of the nonprofit WildlifeDirect, which produces a...
Read more
medium.com
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In August 2019, WildlifeDirect took 116 children to the Mpala Research Centre in Laikipia. (Photo above). For the children and and their teachers, it was an unforgettable and exceptional six days of exploration, discovery, and fun. The children went on game drives, hiked, and collected wildlife specimens, such as dung, feathers, bones, plants, and insects. They created art, took photographs, told stories, and met scientists and experts including rangers.
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EDUCATIONAL TEASERS SPOTLIGHT WILDLIFE AND THE BENEFITS OF CONSERVATION
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Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has 423,000 followers on Twitter and 186,000 followers on Facebook. If you scan KWS' social media newsfeeds, you'll find stunning images of Kenya wildlife and fun facts about the animals pictured. You'll also find engagement -- 140 comments on the bush baby, 22 shares of the crocodile "did you know" (right), and hundreds of likes on every post.
What's behind the outreach? The communications theory that
awareness precedes action and that engagement with and empathy toward others, including animals, can spur beh
avior change. In the realm of conservation, that might mean more park visits and the shaming and/or cessation of poaching, trafficking and environmentally detrimental behavior.
The Kenyan tourism sector recently published its
2019 performance report
.
International tourism is up 1.1%, based on international arrivals, with the greatest numbers of visitors hailing from the U.S. U.S. tourism to Kenya grew by 9% from 2018 to 2019.
Domestic tourism also grew substantially in 2019, up 10% from 2018 based on "bed nights". Is KWS social media engagement driving Kenyans to visit parks? Probably. The tourism report cites numerous PR campaigns as driving factors for the increase in domestic tourism, including the campaign “TembeaKenyaNaMimi,” which KWS regularly tagged.
USAID supports KWS to conserve and manage wildlife, primarily through a community conservancy model. For that model to work, communities need to be aware of conservation and understand how it affects their lives. KWS social media campaigns is one aspect of their effort to educate and engage with communities about conservation.
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Kenya Wildlife Service
#DidYouKnow that crocodile eyes are uniquely suited for long-term lurking? In a research published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, crocodile eyes have a horizontal streak of tightly packed receptors called fovea which gives them...
Read more
www.facebook.com
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THE CENTER FOR BIODIVERSITY OUTCOMES
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The USAID-supported
Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association
is planning a Conservation Solutions Lab Summit with co-host
Chemonics
. The summit will gather participants from conservation-based organizations in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. They will discuss the need for further strengthening of community engagement.
The Conservation Solutions Lab employs an evidence-driven interdisciplinary approach to bring knowledge of what works to conservation and development practitioners to advance effective and equitable engagement of communities in conservation programs. Find out more
here
.
Visit their education center by clicking to the right.
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Education - Center for Biodiversity Outcomes
The Center for Biodiversity Outcomes provides a platform of exemplary training and research experiences for students at all levels of learning. CBO draws on a critical mass of intellectual firepower and is a shining example of the kind of problem ...
Read more
sustainability.asu.edu
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COMBATING WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING THROUGH BEHAVIOR CHANGE, COMMUNITY ACTION AND ENFORCEMENT
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Reduce Consumer Demand through Behavior Change Methodologies:
The use of social marketing and other methodologies to raise awareness and change the behaviors of target audiences, especially consumer choices and reporting of illegal products and markets.
Combating Wildlife Trafficking Enforcement Capacity Building:
The provision of financial or technical assistance to improve the capacity of governments and agencies to enforce wildlife laws and prosecute wildlife criminals.
Increase Community Conservation Action and Support to Combat Poaching and Trafficking:
Efforts to build community support and action to decrease poaching and illegal activity.
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Combating Wildlife Trafficking Learning Agenda
Cross-Mission Learning Agenda for Combating Wildlife Trafficking Learning Questions Envisioned Learning Activities Proposed Learning Products Use/Value of Learning Products Strategic Approach 1: Reduce Consumer Demand Through Behavior Change...
Read more
rmportal.net
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS AND OPINION ROUNDUP
(Articles and headlines are taken directly from the sources cited)
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Large swarms of desert locusts are spreading through Kenya, after wreaking havoc in Somalia and Ethiopia, posing a significant threat to food security, the agriculture minister says. “The first swarm (of locusts) crossed the border in to Kenya from Somalia on 28th December 2019. Other swarms (of locusts) continued coming in from Ethiopia, with additional ones from Somalia,” said Mwangi Kiunjuri, Kenya Minister of Agriculture. Source: Africa News.
Read more.
KABALE DISTRICT, Uganda — Ten years ago, grey crowned cranes had become a rare sight along the highway connecting the Ugandan capital, Kampala, to Rwanda. Across the birds’ entire range in East and Southern Africa, the cranes’ populations had declined steeply. But efforts to restore their wetland habitats in Uganda are succeeding, and birds and local communities alike are benefiting. Source: Mongabay.
Read more.
The United States Government, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has rallied with East Africa Community (EAC) partner States to safeguard wild animals against poachers as well as the landscape.
That was said yesterday by USAID Kenya and East Africa Environment Office Director, Ms Aurelia Micko, adding that success of the programme dubbed 'Conservation and Management of Natural Capital in East Africa' would mean improved collaborative management and conservation of the trans-boundary natural resources, reduced wildlife poaching, trafficking, and increased citizens' perception on the value of living with wildlife harmoniously in their communities. Source: Tanzania Daily News.
Read more.
AMBOSELI, Kenya, 16th December 2019—the 9th National Judicial Dialogue on Wildlife and Environment Enforcement and Conservation took place last week in Amboseli on the theme of Wildlife crime as a transnational economic and organized crime: inter-agency co-operation in managing emerging challenges and frontiers. Source: TRAFFIC.
Read more.
At
least 15%
of the world's surface is governed by laws to protect its living species, including plants and animals. But this is not enough. The most recent estimates
suggest that
an additional 30% of the planet's surface needs further conservation attention. Without this additional protection the world will
continue to
lose large numbers of species. Source: Phys Org.
Read more.
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USAID Kenya and East Africa Environment | www.usaid.gov/east-africa-regional/environment
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