David Ngala

David received an invitation two weeks ago to atted an ornithological congress by the Pan African Ornithological Congress (POAC) which will be held at Arusha in Tanzania.The congress will be held on 14th to 21st of October.

PAOC is a regular congress which is held after every four years to talk about African Ornithology with the aim of promoting  conservation of African birds.

He has been requested to make a presentation of the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and the bird monitoring programme he has been working on.

David in one of his Bird surveys

It has been almost three months since the last post on the electric fence.The research computer that i was using to do Davids work  crashed and had to be taken for a repair.It was a major problem which took some time to be fixed.Because the problem was major,the GIS programme which i use in producing maps  was lost.This also took some time.We have two volunteers here who worked and were able to re install the programme.The computer is now fully fixed.

Research computer fixed

While the computer was not functioning, alot of activities were on with David.David has been going into to the forest with KWS and KFS staff more frequently now.Last week David and the  rangers were in the forest and were able to  rescue a trapped sykes monkey.

Trapped monkey

KFS rangers holding traps

It has been a while now and David has not gone to the forest.Over the last one  month David was struggling on taking his daughter in and out  of  hospital and unfortunately last month his daughter  passed on.It has been a tough time for David and he is still very destructed from this loss.His daughter died on 10th of April and was burried on 14th of the same month.David has been in his village ever since and he came back just a week ago.

However there has been alot of work going on in the office, finalizing the data entry and arranging all the data from the previous year.I have been able to produce last years maps and have started doing this years maps and report writing.It has been very interesting to see the maps after a struggle in putting all the  the data in order.This is the beginning of what we will be doing every month, to produce monthly maps and reports to help the Arabuko-Sokoke team in conserving the forest

Patrick

Hallo

My name is Patrick. It has been a while since I started working with David and I am so excited to be doing this. I have been concertrating so much on the GIS WORK.

I was introduced to conservation in 2003 by a very close friend who was working at Arocha Kenya here in Watamu. After a year in the organisation, i got a job as a monkey reaserach assistant for a student from Columbia University who was doing his Phd research. This was a start of my love for wildlife. I worked for a year and a half and later got the same job from a student in Moi University

I actually worked for four years as a research assistant with different students from different countries. During my work as a research assistant I spent some time using a GPS in the course of my field work. Recognizing it as a valuable research tool, I  wanted to know more about how they work the various advantages of using them. That is when I got to know some volunteers at A Rocha Kenya who not only taught me more about a GPS works and how to effectively use it as a research tool, but also how to use it in conjunction with GIS (Geographic Information Systems), a digital mapping program.

That is what i am now doing with David. I work with the data that he brings from the forest to produce reports that are used in helping inform managers how best to conserve the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest. Watch this space for more of my personal history.

After WildlifeDirect were sadly unable to continue handling the donations to all the different projects they support on the website, it took those of us who’re not so blog / computer / internet savvy a bit of time to figure out how to get a paypal account set up and link it to the blog.

A huge thanks to Hannah who is volunteering for A Rocha Kenya and who has been willing to help get this set up – and who has done a great job in doing it. You will now find a ‘Donate’ button on the right hand side of the screen which links to the Friends of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest paypal account – of which 100% of any donation made will directly fund David Ngala’s work with conservation of this amazing last remaining patch of East African coastal forest.

As can be read on this blog, David is active in surveying for illegal activities such as poaching of trees and animals in the forest and also spends time talking with community members and persuading them to protect the forest rather than go cutting it and trapping in it. David also in involved in doing bird surveys – he being The Best bird guide in the forest and hugely knowledgable about where to find birds in it.

David is supported by Patrick who is there to ensure that David’s work will not just stay in notebooks and computer hard drives but will end up on the desk of the Warden and Forester of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest so that they can take the appropriate action where possible to reduce the illegal activities.

The main costs for the work are David’s salary and the motorbike costs for getting him into the forest to do his work. Patrick has been working mostly voluntarily but we are keen to give him something to support the really important part he plays in the project.

For one illegal activity survey it costs on average just US$18 to cover the fuel and maintenance for David’s motorbike.

David is currently part-supported by some very supportive and generous supporters of his work but we need more to cover the full costs. We are therefore looking for any donations from even as little as $10 – every cent will make a difference to making sure the work can be sustained. To really make a difference, however, we would invite you to join us with making a standing, regular donation of $25 per month. Just 10 people doing this would cover almost all of the core costs of the work.

One other request is for a donation to buy David a new tent for camping in the forest when he does his fieldwork. His current one is literally falling apart and is seriously not worth even calling a tent. For this we’re looking for $250 to get a reasonable one and that will last.

THANK YOU for those who have supported David and the work of FoASF in the past – and thank you in advance to anyone who is keen to help with this critical work.

Technorati Tags: David Ngala, A Rocha Kenya, Arabuko-Sokoke, donations, FoSAF

After the last post, Dana commented asking why anyone would want to trap such a small mammal. The reason is as suggested – for food. Not a lot of meat on an elephant-shrew, but plenty enough for someone who doesn’t have any other meat option.

We have been trying to introduce alternative sources of meat / protien including keeping and raising guineafowl, chickens and rabbits but we were not able to really follow through so it hasn’t had much effect. The potential is there, however, to really be able to provide an alternative to bush meat.

Last month David Ngala told me about finding some boys at Lake Chemchem just to the north of Arabuko-Sokoke who had trapped Allen’s Gallinules, Lesser Moorhen and other waterbirds. He managed to photograph them and I’ll post the pictures below. This is something which we really need to work on – educating the kids not to do this and instead to be proud of their birds and protect them.

Two Allen’s Gallinules

Lesser Moorhen

Black Crake

The culprits with their prey…

Technorati Tags: Allen’s Gallinule, trapping, David Ngala,

The nest of the eagle shown in the picture below has been active for about 20 years and I have known it for the last 8 years. In October last year I took a visitor to the site and we both saw the eagle on its nest but there was a tree close by that the bird used to rest on before going to its nest which had been felled (see other posts).

Crowned Eagle Nest that I found in forest last year

This picture I posted last year showing the nest and the adjacent cut tree.

I reported the matter to the Kenya Forest Service and then later took them to the site. The Forester decided that forest guards should return to the site every day to see if the poachers had returned for the timber as they had not yet split the trunk into planks. However over the following days that they went to check, they didn’t find anyone there.

After some time I went on a safari for two days to Mlima wa Ndege on the western side of the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest which is 80km from the Gede forest station. I had gone to educate the community about setting up a community run nature reserve in their area.

When I returned back I was told the shocking story by one of the game rangers of how the tree had been cut by a power saw and that it happened over four days but during the night. This activity took place from 7/12/09 to 11/12/09. I was told that the forest rangers and the forest guards had been informed when it was happening because people around Mida and Arabuko area could hear the power saw working in the forest during the night.

According to the story I got, when the forest guards and game rangers heard about this they took the boundary road on the north side of the forest instead of taking the elephant track which would take them faster to the place. I was told that they did this because there were many elephants on the tracks and it was therefore dangerous for them.

This information made me feel bad because I thought that the rangers and guards would use their thunder flashes to move the elephants away from the track but they decided not to do so and therefore missed the poachers!

The day I went back there with the rangers we saw how the tree had been split into pieces of timber and that they had collected almost everything as you can see in this picture. 
you can still see the eagle nest in the background

I guess at least they tried and it was very good to be able to work with them and show them where the nest was. Let’s hope next time they are able to get their quicker and catch the poachers.

Technorati Tags: David Ngala, Crowned Eagle, powersaw, illegal logging, Kenya Forest Service, Arabuko-Sokoke

GREAT news is that we have Patrick Sirya working with the Bushmeat Committee that has been going for a year and that David has worked closely with, and Patrick is now working to help David with organising the data collection and report writing among many other things.

Patrick is from Gede right next to the forest and has worked with a Sykes Monkey research project in Gede Ruins forest for four years so is very familiar with forest life – and especially Sykes Monkeys! In fact he knows them all by name at the Ruins!

Patrick will be assiting to write the blog posts for David’s blog and hopefully since he is full time with the bushmeat work, will be able to post much more news and updates than I have been able to. Please give us your comments and feedback on how things are going – your support is hugely valuable to us.

by Colin – Chairman of Friends of Arabuko-Sokoke

Elders of Dida, Kafitsoni, Nyari and Rare villages want the burial place of their great-grandparents to be recommended as a Kaya. Dida, Kafitsoni and Nyari are on the western edge of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, whilst Rare village is approximately 2.5km from the forest boundary, between Kafitsoni and Nyari.

A Kaya is a deserted village which the locals have no intention of returning to. It is considered a sacred place and members of the families go to the place and pray to god through their ancestors. When the Sanya people migrated up from Kaya Kinondo in Kwale to the south of Mombasa, Rare was the first village they formed after they had arrived in this area. Kaya Kinondo has now become a site of interest for tourists to visit due to its fascinating history.

Legend has it that in the 15^th Century, Mwavuo, son of Ngonyo was the first man who settled at Rare from Kwale. Mwavuo had wives, children, a large group of servants and many cattle. The children grew up well and his eldest son, Ngonyo son of Mwavuo (in Giriama tradition, the grandson takes on the name of the grandfather), decided he wanted to own his own property so he asked his father to divide his estate.

So Mwavuo took his children together up to a place called Dida, where he began to divide the land. Ngonyo as his eldest son was given Dida, his sons Katete and Nyanke were given Kafitsoni and Mumba was given Nyari. The others followed up to Sokoke.

edge of forest on the way to Dida

Some years later, Ngonyo decided to move to Marafa, whereby he was appointed Chief by the British Government. The brothers of Ngonyo stayed in their inherited lands. The grandsons of Ngonyo and his brothers stayed at the same land up to today, where they are still alive – though very old now.

When ASF was proposed for degazettement, the grandsons of Ngonyo’s brothers were the first elders from around the forest to come to the Government offices at Gede Forest Station to state their opposition to the degazzettement. They really wanted the forest to remain as it was before. The elders were very happy with the first demarcation, done by the British Government in the early days. Furthermore they have understood the significant importance of the forest in its usefulness to the local community in many different ways.

The first major project for ASF was that of BirdLife International – and it met with the same problems of threats to degazette the forest. The Project Co-ordinator was very happy, therefore, to work with the Dida Elders who were the first community to fight for the conservation of the forest.

Some months later, conservation awareness was made around the forest to support Dida community with their conservation. Elders sat down together and formed a conservation group – Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Adjacent Dwellers Association (ASFADA). The group stated that they are facing many problems from the forest wildlife coming to their shambas (farms) and destroying crops. The Project Co-ordinator then helped the group to write a proposal, which succeeded in gaining funds to install the Elephant Fence know seen around the forest edges.

The Dida elders are proud of their achievements in stopping degazettement of the forest through focussing on the same things that their grandfather Ngonyo prioritised – and which therefore led to him being appointed a Chief in Marafa in the early days.

Given the history of their people and the stories handed down from their great grandparents, the people of Dida and Rare are very keen to make their area known as a place of interest and to have their burial ground recognised as a Kaya.