Monitoring tree poaching & elephants in Arabuko-Sokoke Forest with KFS
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Aug 24 2009 | By: davidngala
David has been doing a lot of fieldwork recently and the elephants in particular are very active in the forest. He reports:
This month the elephants have come to one side of the forest - the north-eastern side around Arabuko and Mida. The reason for this is most likely due to human disturbance further into the forest where they are normally found - including pit-sawing, cutting poles for building, animal snares and camps for wood carvers [ed: wood carvers go into the forest, cut trees and then make a rough carving at a camp right in the heart of the forest so that their load to carry out is much lighter]. We are spotting elephants even in the day - something which previously was almost unheard of since they are so shy. On the 14th, just 400m from the junction near the main road we saw 5 elephants cross the road around 1pm in the afternoon.
We really believe the elephants are being chased out of the Nature Reserve area due to human disturbance - and we therefore need to get in there and check out what disturbance there is in the area. To do this I follow foot paths and using a GPS note all incidents of illegal activity - cut stems, snares and wood carvers camps. These are then to be mapped and distributed as reports to the forest management.
I have been using the FoASF motorbike to reach the very far inland side of the forest in order to survey foot paths near a place called Malanga. There were some well-used paths getting into the forest which I spotted and while over there I met an elephant fence controller who informed me there were tree poachers camping in the forest to cut Cynometra for carving. They apparently leave the forest at the weekends to bring out the wood carvings they’ve made and take them to Malindi or Mombasa through Kilifi using buses. On hearing this I came and reported this to the Forest Officer of Kenya Forest Service at Gede Forest Station who then asked me to take the fence controller to show me the paths that he knows the poachers use to reach their camps for cutting Cynometra trees so that I could take forest guards to follow the pathand take GPS coordinates of any destruction in order to evaluate how far the destruction has gone in that area.
Illegally cut tree for timber - Arabuko-Sokoke
I use the forest guards because to go alone is risky - the poachers can be quite dangerous as they are carrying these ‘big cigarettes’ which when they smoke they don’t worry about who they’re pointed at [Ed: this is David’s way of talking of pangas & other weapons which they don’t think twice about using]. Secondly it is then possible to arrest poachers with guards - something which is impossible alone.
Technorati Tags: illegal wood carving, pit-sawing, Arabuko-Sokoke, Kenya Forest Service, elephant, David Ngala
FoASF on Twitter
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 30 2009 | By: davidngala
Friends of Arabuko Sokoke Forest is now on Twitter!
We’ll be updating our daily happenings on the newest social networking site, and David will be able to post his activities directly from his mobile as he continues work in the forest.
Check us out at www.twitter.com/foasf
Recent Snare Survey
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 29 2009 | By: davidngala
On April 9th, our acting manager Lucy Kapombe, David Ngala, and Gede Forester Blessington Maganga and his rangers went on a snare survey in the forest. After traveling down the trail some ways they came upon three poachers carrying saws and a bag of bushmeat. Upon seeing the rangers, the poachers fled, leaving all their things behind. The team recovered a number of tools used to remove trees, and the cooked meat and skin of a red duiker. Along with the meat, they also disassembled 39 snares of various sizes recently set up by poachers in the forest, and uncovered 16 stumps of trees cut down by the poachers for timber.
The snare survey on April 15th involved no such run in with poachers, but did manage to dismantle 20 snares.
FoASF has benefited greatly from the help of the Gede division of the Kenya Forest Service. Mr. Maganga has been more than helpful in providing rangers for the snare surveys, and is quite adept at identifying them himself.
The team with the unfortunate catch of the poachers.
Community Outreach
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 20 2009 | By: davidngala
Friends of Arabuko Sokoke Forest has teamed up with A Rocha Kenya and Nature Kenya Bush meat Project to organize a community education team, working towards informing the local community about the importance of conserving the forest. This initiative has recently resulted in a number of meetings, both with schools and local communities, on the dangers and adverse effects of hunting bush meat.
The dangers of bush meat are many. Certain diseases such as anthrax and Ebola can be transmitted to humans through the consumption of wild animals. These animals are also part of what draws tourists to the forest. Unfortunately, some of these mammals are both endangered and hunted, including the Adders Duiker, Sokoke Bush Mongoose, and Golden-Rumped Elephant Shrew. The loss of these animals to hunting will also mean a loss of tourism and revenue to the surrounding area.
The schools were happy to have us, and FoASF benefited from a number of volunteers from A Rocha in organizing the lessons. In total, we visited seven schools, reaching over 670 students!
The students were eager to join in on the lesson
Charo Ngumbao, Bushmeat Committee Member from the local community, assisted in the school sessions
A Rocha Kenya volunteer Laura Wise from Reading, UK was there to help out
The team also set out to make aware the community the laws against hunting bush meat. The surrounding villages of the Arabuko-Sokoke have depended upon the forest for hundreds of years as a source of food. Many are still unaware that hunting in the forest is now illegal. For this reason, FoASF, A Rocha and Nature Kenya have strived to provide alternatives to illegal poaching. We have helped to establish small groups within the local community organized to both breed and distribute domesticated animals like goats and chicken. Each group organizes a constitution stipulating the best way to distribute these animals throughout the community. Once the Bushmeat Committee approves these plans, they will distribute a number of animals to the groups.
The meeting in Malanga drew 364 villagers from the local area! We were glad to have such a great turnout and are excited that the community is taking an interest in conservation.
A Rocha even helped out with allowing us to use their projector for our presentation!
Thanks to all who volunteered and participated!
Teaching scientists to tell stories.
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Dec 12 2008 | By: davidngala
Scientists always work on facts and figures, its either this or that, most of them are straightforward and to many people they are always termed as boring and don not entice anything. Well this past week a group of scientist, researchers and conservationist took part in a one week training held at Naivasha. The training was aimed to help them explore their creative and story telling side.
The workshop facilitators: Richard Brook, David Harper, Noah Lusaka and Mary Mwendwa
I was lucky to be among this interesting group of people and to learn first hand how to be more creative in presenting facts, be they scientific or others. This was part of the final stage of the Darwin initiative that seeks to engage young and vibrant conservationist in filming and story telling. The course was structured to help us gain more skills that will enable us tell good film stories and present our data or facts in a more appetizing way.
A group discussion.
The training gathered participants from three different countries in Eastern Africa: Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya. The participants have been engaged in conservation work in there home countries and are learning to involve filming as a tool to pass the message across.
Listening to the presenters.
This training was a good eye opener for us at Friends of Arabuko-Sokoke as we intend to use filming as a marketing tool for the forest and to tell the story of what has been going on. We look forward to use this skill in the next year.
Workshop participants
Caroline Lumosi
FoASF
Day three of film training and close encounter with hippos at camp
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Nov 20 2008 | By: davidngala
Day three of the training went on smoothly, we continued to work on our five minute film and the film was getting in shape slowly, we kept on learning new skills and what we could do to improve the film and to get our target audience.
After lunch I received a call from a former classmate telling me that my former class will be coming to Naivasha for a briefing on the lake and also on our projects, before I put the phone down the bus drove in to the lake shore and I was summoned to accompany them and I was latter to give a briefing to them on my work and the filming project. it went well and my lecturer was impressed with our project. we later continued editing.
the bus by the shore of Lake Naivasha.
me talking to them about the filming project.
back to editing.
Later on that night, as we burnt the midnight oil as we tried to edit, we had a close encounter with hippos three huge, massive hippos came to camp to graze, we all ran out of the editing room to try to get a close look at them, Elene our trainer had never seen hippos a part from the ones on TV, so it was quite exciting for her, some of us got too carried away that I think they did something to make them aggressive as one of us was charged by the hippos lucky it was a shy one so it just scared them and ran back to the lake, that was a pretty close encounter
Tags: community, Conservation, Film
Watch out for the safari ants!!!
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 14 2008 | By: davidngala
Safari ants I guess got their name because they love to move, they are ever on transit, from one place to another.
I recently saw a massive exodus of some safari ants in the forest and needless to say they were not happy to see me either, I got bitten more than once when I accidently stepped on a group of them,
Safari ants - in organized groups.
These creatures are amazing, the way they move, the long lines and paths they take and how they guard each other as they move, its as if they are at war, anyone who messes them up gets a warning - they bite them or is it sting them?- . The soldier ants guard the others and create a protective barrier for the others as they invade on other ants and insects and steal their food and resources.
More safari ants…….
The sting or bite from them can leave you scatching and some times with bruses. They are so painful, that if you get attacked by them in the forest and they get into your inner garments…. Them you are in trouble, you may have to undress to try to remove them from your body as they somehow stick to the body ( i went through this and it was not intersting!)
Anyone with more information on the safariants, kindly feel free to share it,
Thanks
Caroline
FoASF
Tags: ASF, safariants
Ever seen a 10 M wide tree?.. look no farther than Arabuko-Sokoke forest…
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 13 2008 | By: davidngala
Ever seen a 10M wide tree?… well look no farther than at Arabuko-Sokoke forest
Me trying to get around the tree, obviously i could’nt
This baobab tree could be the widest tree I have ever seen, I could not even get around it halfway!,
The baobab tree (Adansonia digitata) was really amazing, it stood at an approximate height of 14 meters and was 10 meters wide. We found it along Ngaranya area in Arabuko-Sokoke forest, beside it was an active trail that is believed to be used by poachers,
The baobab tree is a special tree in the coast region, it is believed to be a sacred tree and most Giriama people are known to used it as a scared grove and make sacrifices to gods at the foot of the tree, if you are short of rain, just slaughter a white chicken and pray at the foot of the tree and wala! … rain you will get……. (so they believe)
A grasshoppers view point of the height of the tree.
The trunk of the baobab tree can store water, and in dry seasons elephants like this tree as they can get some water from it. The wood is mostly used for making canoes and the bark fibers makes ropes and baskets. The leaves and fruit pulp on the other hand are used as medicine against fever and the seeds and leaves are edible.
It amazing what creatures you can get in the forest!
David Ngala
FoASF Conservation Officer
Tags: Arabuko-Sokoke forest, Baobab
In a bid to save Lake chem. Chem.
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 06 2008 | By: davidngala
Sometime last week I went to lake Chem Chem to educate the local community on how they can sustainably use the lake and the ecosystem around the lake.
Lake Chem Chem. Is one of the best lakes around Ganda - Goshi area. It is situated between Gede to the north and Malindi to the west covering an area of about 1000 m long and about 450 m wide.
The lake is active in biodiversity with fish, frogs, hippos and many different species of water birds. Surrounding the lake is human settlements and shrubs.
This lake is well known as a habitat of water birds such as African pygmy goose, white backed duck and African poen billed stock among others. Grass lands birds such as Zanzibar red bishop, black winged red bishop and trush bare eyed thrush, black headed batis, black throated wattle eye and rufous chattere are also common here, making this area ideal for bird watching.
The lake is home to a large number of water birds and other biodiversity, however some human activity threaten the lake and its ecosystem. Illegal fishing of small fish is often the biggest threat to this lake and the creatures that depend on the fish for food. With the recent climate change the lake get dry during the dry seasons.
Some community members have seen the importance of the lake and the problem the lake is facing. They got together form a conservation group, which seek to educate the other community members such as fishermen on how to use proper fishing nets to avoid killing the small fish. The group also wants to be involved in tree nursery and planting trees along the edges of the lake.
Some members of Lake Chem Chem group
This is a positive step towards conserving the biodiversity of Lake chem. Chem..
David Ngala
FoASF conservation Officer
Tags: birdwatching, fishing, Lake chem chem
Making use of the available resources!
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Oct 06 2008 | By: davidngala
I traveled by piki piki (motorcycle) about 98 kilometers from Gede forest station to an area called Mrima wa ndege. I was requested by the Kenya Wildlife Service warden to educate the local community on environmental conservation.
Mrima wa ndege location is a big area consisting of three sub-locations. The area is dominated by shrubs and a few trees some Brachystegia species which are scattered throughout the area. The population is sparse and hence the community faces problems during the dry seasons , their crops die due to lack of water and they have to travel long distances in search of water for their crops, animals and for drinking.
A cut tree.
The community is constantly faced with problems of elephant invading their land, some of these elephants move from Tsavo East national park to Arabuko-Sokoke forest passing through the human settlements and shrubs. The ecosystem is conducive for elephants who find their way to Arabuko-Sokoke forest.
one of the elephants trap
The high level of poverty in the community has led them to destroy their environment, they cut down trees for building, for poles and charcoal. They also hunt wild animals to earn an income and sustain their families. This location has been facing food shortages over the past few years and the government recently donated food aid in form of maize to some families.
While at Mrima wa ndege I was very fortunate to meet with the three assistant chiefs of the three sub location and also all the village elders. This was a good opportunity for me to speak to the chiefs and elders to share my views on their issues and educate them on how they can use their land to earn an income without destroying their environment. After a long and fruitful discussion, the leaders were receptive and welcoming to my suggestions and they farther went a head to propose having a community park as a way to earning income and the villagers will eventually realize the economic value of animals such as elephants and hence conserve them.
David Ngala
FoASF - Conservation Officer
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