A wee while back we received a wonderfully generous donation pretty much out of the blue to buy a digital camera for David so he can really document the activities he’s seeing in the forest. Well… I managed to get a very neat Canon at Duty Free that is just the job for him. The picture below was David seeing the camera for the first time and VERY happy at the thought of FINALLY having one - he’s been asking for one for about three years!! I’ve actually had to travel so haven’t been able to hold of the photos he’s been taking but will try and have them sent so we can post them for all to see what David (”Professor Notorious” he’s known as by the other bird guides at the forest!! - he’s so notorious for his proactive conservation work and his birding skills…!!).

Once again a big THANK YOU to Theresa for the generous gift to get the camera…

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Well… it has been a loooong time since we were on the net and blogging. David has been “running all over” using his motorbike to do surveys for snares & cut stumps, visiting the elders and other villagers to encourage them to stand up for protecting the forest as well as being involved in bird monitoring surveys and helping with other research projects in and around the forest.

In April David was called to Naivasha - a lake in the Great Rift Valley where the birding is awesome - for a week of training on bird guiding with about 20 other Kenyan bird guides. For this they had input on planning itineraries, marketing as well as further practice in bird identification which took them on a safari down to Tsavo West National Park and to Lake Jipe on the Tanzanian border. One of the typical birds of Tsavo is the Rosy-patched Shrike (pictured here by Simon Thomsett)

Otherwise most of the birding practise was done around the grounds of the Elsamere Field Study Centre where the course was taking place. This was Joy Adamson’s (of “Born Free” fame - the story of her lioness Elsa which became world famous in the 1970s I believe it was) old home. The old house is now a lodge / hotel but in the grounds a field study centre has been built that does a great job providing facilities for courses such as this one for the guides as well as a lot of environmental education with local school groups. Another bird seen regularly along the lake front of Elsamere is the world’s largest kingfisher - the Giant Kingfisher - pictured here in a shot borrowed from NatureKenya.

David has been working actively with Francis Kagema (the FoASF Secretary and David’s direct line manager) to fight against some of the quite serious corruption that has been going on in the forest especially with regard to illegal logging. Only a week or so ago a lorry loaded with illegally cut logs was caught leaving the forest and taken to the Police station in Watamu. One such lorry I remember that was impounded with illegal logs a few years ago was grounded and stayed put in the forest station for almost two years before the case was finally completed… This lorry (truck) was released within 24 hours…!! Also the guys who managed to escape when it was stopped were not followed, apparently on orders from “on high”. This sort of frustration is what we are facing almost daily though we were thrilled to hear of the Gede Forester being transferred to another forest as there have been a LOT of implications as to him being deeply involved with much of the illegal activity going on (why these guys can’t just be sacked mystifies us…!). Anyway, he’s gone which is great news - though we fear for where he’s gone…

We’re in the process of taking on a manager for Friends of ASF who will be able help David get his blogs posted on a regular basis which will be great news. Meanwhile, we’ll do what we can to get a bit more news of David’s activities up on the blog…

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Hi there, Colin here again with some more updates. First though, to say a very big ‘Asante SANA!’ to our very generous donors for your donations. These came at a critical point when we needed exactly what was given to cover the costs of David’s driving test to get a full motorbike licence (he’s been driving on an ‘L’-plate so far which is ok but far from ideal). Thank you!!

David dropped round at the office yesterday with the news of having to get his “piki” licence (we call a motorbike a ‘piki-piki’ here which is because of the sound they make - we don’t ride Harley-Davidsons, you must understand!!. This is often shortened to just ‘piki’) and to get set up to do some surveys of the Amani Sunbird Anthreptes pallidigaster which is one of the rare and Endangered birds of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest. Part of his job is to assist with these surveys which are headed up by A Rocha Kenya but as he’s such a bird ‘fundi’ (expert) he’s The Man for the job to assist with it. So he was out early Monday and Tues this week with volunteer Dave the Brave (from Canada) who’s taking the lead on the sunbird surveys and was out early this morning with Albert and goes again tomorrow for the same thing. Amani Sunbirds are found pretty much only in the Brachystegia Woodland in the forest - one of the three major habitat types. The picture below shows a typical section of one of the Amani survey transects.

David’s written some more which we’ll be posting just as soon as we can get it typed up and get access to the ‘net again.

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My name is David Charo Ngala. I’m a Giriama by tribe, born in 1952 at the Rare Village in Kilifi District 80km north of Mombasa on the Kenyan coast. My home area is on the western side of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest.

During my childhood I used to follow my mother to the forest to look for mushrooms, moth caterpillars for food and many types of edible fruits. In 1952 I joined Dida Primary School up to 1965 when I was in standard four - which was as far as that school went at that time. In 1966 I went to Ganze Primary School complete primary and where I sat for my KCPE Examination in 1969.

In 1970 I was to join the Godoma Secondary School but was unable to due to the lack of school fees. My father had died in 1961 when he was so old - in his 80s; I was my mother’s first born and she was my father’s fourth wife. I had two sisters and one brother from my own mother. We were taken care of by our step brothers - children of my father’s third wife. We were really in a bad situation, we had no other way to survive. In the same year 1970 my sister got married and then my step brothers together with my mother forced me to marry. On 15th January 1970, I got married. I was faced with problems of now supporting a family as well which forced me to go from one household to another asking for casual work to help my family.

On 15th September, 1970, I went to Jilore Forest Station to ask for a job. The Officer who was in charge of the station during that time felt sympathetic with me and took me on as a casual labourer the same day. I was put in the tree nursery where I worked for five months at which point I was put in charge of the stores as I was told I’m a hard worker. In 1979 I was posted to Jilore’s Assistant Chief’s Nursery to develop a Chief’s Nursery. I did very well and got a recommendation from the District Forest Officer Kilifi that I was the first person in Kilifi and Malindi to have a neat and well arranged nursery with many seedlings.

In 1980 I was taken back to Office Stores. While in Stores I asked the officer to work in the field so that I get time to go driving school. I did so and by 1981 I got my Driving Licence.

In 1983 while I was still in stores I received students from the University of East Anglia, England, who came to Arabuko-Sokoke Forest to study birds and trees. By good chance the students invited me one night to join them for their night surveys and showed me my first Sokoke Scops Owl - and that’s when I started being interested in birds. Before the students had come, I used to go into the forest and sit under the big trees but hadn’t taken much notice of the birds. After they had gone back to England I continued following the birds and then took my first visitor, an Englishman, Mr. Tom Gullick, show him the owl.

I started getting many people coming for a day of birding and to end with the owls. While taking visitors to the forest for birds I used to spot human footprints and follow them and would find many traps and stumps of cut trees. It was this that led me to have a great concern for the forest being destroyed.

I used to report the illegal activities which I would come across and would often use my free days to walk in the forest. The frustration was most times no body bothered to take action on my reports and I came to discover that some of the forest officers were involved in the destruction.

In 1986 I was transferred to Gede Forest Station to become a Forest Driver. The visitors followed me to Gede and I continued taking them to Forest to show them birds.

In 1989 I got a letter from England that someone was coming to study the birds of Arabuko- Sokoke Forest for three years. I was allowed by the District Forest Officer Kilifi to help Mr. John Fanshawe with his study. As I was in the forest a lot, I would report illegal activities to the head officer quite frequently even though this led to accusations from people that I had become a bad person.

My immediate officers were all against me and they tried in many ways to have me shifted out of the Department but they never managed. I love the forest as my parents.

In 1992 one part of the forest was threatened for degazettement to be turned into farmland. We worked hard with friends like Jonathan Baya of Watamu, Mrs. Barbara Simpson and others to the D.C. Kilifi but did not work. I continued following the village elders and they supported me with 100% and took them to Gede Station to present themselves in front of the officers and BirdLife project coordinator Dr. Ian Gordon and then I took them to the press. After two weeks time they appeared in the Kenya newspapers that village elders around the forest cry on degazettement and from that time the degazettement stopped. The second time I took the elders with Hon. Mayor of Malindi to the forest to look for the destruction that is when Forest Officers were all against me. The following day they forced me to take them to the areas I took elders when me they were upset.

In 2004 during the BirdLife International global conference I was nominated and later on was awarded a Conservation Achievement Award Certificate. I am very proud of it and I still go to the forest to look for traps and cut stumps.

From around 2005 I applied for early retirement from being a driver for the Forest Department so that I could focus on the conservation and bird work. This process took over two years of a lot of frustration by the Department but my retirement finally came through in January 2007. I am now retired but have dedicated my life to the protection of this forest. I’m now employed by the Friends of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest (FoASF) as a Conservation Officer carrying out surveys for traps, cut stumps and other illegal activity as well as working with the local communities, particularly the wazee (village elders) to encourage them to stand up for the protection of the forest against those influential people who want to destroy it for their own gain.

Your support of my work with FoASF will be crucial to making sure this jewel of our East African forests with it’s rare and precious inhabitants is kept secure for future generations.

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Hamjambo!! (”Howsit?!” in Kiswahili - “wote” means ”all”)… My name is Colin and I’m the Chairman for Friends of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and as such work closely with David in giving him what support and backup I can on the ground in his work. We’re still trying to get our ‘bush heads’ around this concept of blogging as it’s not quite the way most people communicate around where we live in Watamu / Gede on the northern Kenya coast, but it seems like a great idea to get the message out to all and anyone about the work we are doing and to allow others join in by supporting and taking an interest!

David is only just back from several days camping in the forest having gone in on the new FoASF piki-piki (motorbike in Kiswahili) which he received last week (see pic below). This was donated very generously by a FoASF supporter last year and it has taken all this time for us to clamber through the beaurocratic loops of registering it. But we HAVE now and it is already being put to good use (despite the odometer measuring 2km for every 1 travelled…!).

David was camping in the forest to save funds on mileage and fuel and was doing surveys for illegal snares and cut trees - the main problems we are facing in Arabuko-Sokoke Forest. I’m sure he’ll have some stories to tell from his time in the forest - and he’s a great story teller, particularly about traditional Giriama legends (which are often firmly believed to be true!!).

I’m sure this will be of real interest as we get going on reporting on David’s and other FoASF activities and look forward to receiving feedback.

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