NOTES FROM THE FIELD
Welcome to our newsletter! The USAID Kenya and East Africa mission is partnering with intrepid organizations to improve responsible management of natural resources and to ensure a sustainable development pathway for current and future generations.
Each month, we'll share stories of impact, partner highlights, technical resources and the latest environment news from our bilateral environment program in Kenya, and from our regional activities. We hope this newsletter will create opportunities for learning and partnership, whether you are reading this newsletter someplace here in East Africa, across the continent, in Asia or Latin America, or in the United States.
We know the issues we are tackling here in East Africa are not unique, but they are critical. For example, the community conservation movement in Kenya has grown substantially over the past five years resulting in impressive reductions in elephant and rhino poaching, while advancing community governance, security and economic opportunity. USAID is the largest bilateral partner to that effort and our activities cover critical ecosystems nationwide. On a regional scale, we support trans-border collaboration for improved management of the Mara River Basin, ensuring sound ecosystem services for wildlife, agriculture, fisheries and fresh drinking water supply for communities in Kenya and Tanzania, and the broader Lake Victoria basin.
Read more about what we and our partners are achieving by scrolling down.
We welcome feedback! We would love to hear about your work and help make important partnership connections. We would also like to highlight your technical resources and news in future monthly newsletters. Drop us a line
environmentEA@gmail.com
.
We hope you enjoy the newsletter and we look forward to engaging with you!
Juniper Neill
Environment Office Chief
USAID KENYA and EAST AFRICA
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CONSERVATION EFFORTS PAY OFF IN KENYA FOR WORLD’S RAREST ZEBRA SPECIES -
Grevy’s zebra population increases following decades-long decline
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Grevy’s zebras have been on the endangered list for the past 30 years; but thanks to a partnership between the U.S. Government, the Northern Rangelands Trust and the Kenya Wildlife Service, the largest of the zebra species are making a comeback.
A January 2018 census of the Grevy’s zebra confirmed that there has been an increase of 462 zebras since 2016, from 2,350 to a current population of 2,812. This is especially impressive given the recent droughts in the region that spurred increased competition from livestock for diminishing food sources.
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Grevy zebra photo credit: Suzi Eszterhas/USAID
The U.S. Government partners with the Kenyan public and private sector to protect and conserve Kenya’s globally important natural resources and wildlife. Kenya’s economy and people’s livelihoods are highly dependent on these natural resources and on nature-based tourism.
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KENYA WILDLIFE SERVICE COMBATS POACHING AND WILDLIFE TRACKING WITH NEW USAID VEHICLES
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USAID Kenya and East Africa recently donated 26 vehicles to
Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS)
, an organization that USAID has been supporting since its establishment in 1989.
KWS manages approximately 8% of the total land mass in Kenya, helping to keep 23 national parks, 31 national reserves, 6 national sanctuaries, 4 marine national parks, and 6 marine reserves free from poaching and wildlife tracking.
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“
The United States is pleased to work with the Government of Kenya and partner to strengthen Kenya’s capacity to combat poaching and wildlife trafficking and help ensure that communities and wildlife can in fact live together,”
said U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Robert F. Godec during the vehicle handover.
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Congratulations to Dickson Kaelo on being a 2018 Tusk Award for Conservation in Africa finalist!
Dickson leads the
Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association
(KWCA), a national umbrella body dedicated to uniting the dynamic and diverse voices of wildlife conservancies and
hel
ping landowners and communities to sustainably manage and benefit from wildlife conservation.
With USAID funding, KWCA and The Nature Conservancy implement the Community Policy Support and Implementation Program. The program addresses policy barriers inhibiting development of conservancies by promoting a supportive legal environment that encourages sustainable and beneficial conservation.
Find out more about the USAID Community Policy Support and Implementation Program
here
.
The Tusk Conservation Awards "celebrate extraordinary people, whose work and lives might otherwise go unnoticed outside their fields. Their work with wildlife and communities in Africa safeguards the future for us all." Find out more about the Tusk Award
here
.
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Photo credit
: Sarah Marshall
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The 2018 Tusk Awards ceremony will take place on November 18 in London.
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INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
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The USAID Kenya and East Africa mission is implementing a five-year inter-agency partnership with the U.S. Department of Interior's International Technical Assistance Program (ITAP) to combat wildlife trafficking and poaching in East Africa, as well as advance innovative science and technology to improve wildlife management in critical habitats. Key activities include partnerships with the Northern Rangelands Trust and the Kenya Wildlife Service to bolster scientific capacity in rangeland management, sustainable tourism and wildlife forensic science.
In July, ITAP sent two remote sensing scientists to work with NRT to develop appropriate technology and management plans to detect changing rangelands conditions in the region remotely. Having the ability to rapidly detect changing rangelands conditions will allow NRT to work with conservancies to implement planned grazing and other grassland management actions, thus improving resilience in a region prone to severe drought.
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How does ITAP analyze our changing environment?
See the above diagram to understand how ITAP merges ranger observations with environmental information to create a statistical model that identifies habitat preferences across landscapes.
ITAP sends world-class technical experts to sixty-plus countries to help in wildlife management, tourism, water management and
more
.
Find out more about ITAP
here
.
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THE VOICE ON THE LIFELINE
A ranger’s contact with the outside world can be tenuous. Cell phone reception is poor or non-existent and often the only connection is a small black box: the radio. If things go wrong, it’s a lifeline.
On the other side of the connection sits Ann Taraiya, one of four Big Life radio operators. Ann is a new and very welcome addition to Big Life, having joined earlier this year. She is from Eselengei, an area in the far north of the Amboseli ecosystem where Big Life has recently established a permanent presence thanks to funding from USAID Kenya and East Africa.
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https://biglife.org/
- Big Life Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Africa’s wildlife and ecosystems.
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MAINTAINING KENYA'S CRITICAL WATER SUPPLIES
Kenya’s forests play a significant role in protecting the country’s water cycle. The forest “water towers” contain the springs and streams that are the sources of major rivers and lakes, and they are critical for maintaining rural and urban water supplies and Kenya’s energy supply. Roughly 70 percent of Kenya’s energy originates from hyrdro-power.
To help Kenya safeguard its important “water towers,” namely: the Mau Forest Complex, Cherangany Hills and Mt. Elgon, USAID Kenya and East Africa and the U.S. Forest Service implement the
Kenya Water Tower Climate Change Resilience
project. The project provides the Kenya
Ministry of Environment and Forestry
with clear, accessible data that helps the Ministry create and implement adaptation strategies for protecting crucial ecosystems from climate change and deforestation.
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Interested in learning more about the value and vulnerability of three of Kenya’s major water towers?
Click on the above image to see how the U.S. Forest Service, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and partners are helping to maintain Kenya's critical water supplies.
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A LINK TO THE JUST RELEASED ANTHONY BOURDAIN PARTS UNKNOWN SEASON 12 EPISODE 1 KENYA
The episode features USAID partners the Northern Rangelands Trust and Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. Click on the screen grab to the right to watch.
Enjoy!
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SECURING WATER ACCESS IN THE MARA RIVER BASIN
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USAID-LED PARTNERSHIP HAS A LOT TO CELEBRATE
The USAID-funded Sustainable Water Partnership (SWP) had a lot to celebrate during World Water Week, August 26 – 31. Its work with Kenyan and Tanzanian stakeholders to develop the first transboundary water allocation plans for the Mara River Basin is helping to secure water access for an estimated 1 million people in Tanzania and Kenya who rely on the basin for their health and livelihoods.
As SWP proudly points out, “Straddling the border between Kenya and Tanzania, the
Mara River Basin
might easily have been a point of international conflict. But instead, with some diplomacy and willingness to cooperate, it’s become an opportunity for unity and collaboration between the two countries.”
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To read more about how USAID’s SWP is helping to safeguard the sustainability of the Mara River Basin, visit the
SWP website
,
or click on the SWP
August 2018 newsletter
above.
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GREATER HORN OF AFRICA CLIMATE OUTLOOK ISSUES STATEMENT FOR THE NEXT RAINY SEASON
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USAID supports the Intergovernmental Authority on Development Climate Predictions and Applications Center to vastly improved the accuracy and timeliness of regional climate forecasting. African leadership uses this improved forecasting to contribute to the Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum, which took place at the end of August in Kigali, Rwanda. Following the regional release, national meteorological agencies and departments produce country forecasts.
The Forum issued a consensus regional climate outlook for the rainfall season of October to December 2018. The outlook, based on climate models and expert opinion, indicates increased likelihood of above to near normal rainfall over much of the equatorial sector. Read the entire outlook
here
.
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Read the complete October-December 2018 outlook by clicking on the above image.
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LOCAL COMMUNITIES: FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE AGAINST ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE
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The role of local communities in combating illegal wildlife trade is central to effective anti-poaching strategies. However, little guidance is available on how to effectively engage communities in practice.
“Local Communities: First Line of Defense against Illegal Wildlife Trade (FloD)” aims to help address this gap.
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Read the FLoD by clicking on the above image.
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Codenamed Thunderstorm and targeting the people and networks behind global wildlife crime, the operation involved police, customs, border, environment, wildlife and forestry agencies from 92 countries and resulted in millions of dollars-worth of seizures. Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda participated in the operation.
Read more
Space science and earth observation are some of the key pillars in the attainment of most of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (
SDGs
), according to experts participating in an international conference, organized by the Regional Centre for Mapping Resources for Development (
RCMRD
) in Kenya's capital city. Source: InDepth News.
Read more
A groundbreaking technique (RASCO) looks set to turn man's best friend into a trafficker's worst nightmare.
The scheme is run jointly by the WWF global conservation group, the wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). It will also allow the dogs to check more of the roughly 2,000 shipping containers which pass through Mombasa port each day. Source: BBC News.
Read more
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USAID Kenya and East Africa Environment Office | www.usaid.gov/east-africa-regional/environment
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