AWF Blog

• Where Your Coffee is Born

  Posted: May 28, 2008, 12:32 pm by Paul

  I’m in Nyeri, Kenya, where they grow the world’s best coffee. This is the site of the AWF-Starbucks coffee project. You can see some of the green coffee farms on the steep slopes of Nyeri behind us.

  This is John Kibocha, a coffee farmer trained by AWF to use Starbucks practices that are better for his crop and better for the environment. The training has helped John increase his yield from 148 kilos (two years ago) to 715 kilos (last season).

  These guys help John harvest his coffee cherries.

  Once picked, the coffee cherries are taken to the factory. The cherries are sorted by grade and are weighed.

  This is a pulping machine which extracts the coffee beans from the cherries. At the Kihuyo factory, AWF installed a new electric motor to replace the more polluting diesel motor.

  After passing through several stages of soaking, the beans are laid in the sun to be dried.

  John told me, “Last year I received a record payment of 32.5 shillings per kilo for my coffee. Now my family is happy and we have the incentive to to perform even better next year.”

• The Kuku Project

  Posted: May 24, 2008, 11:09 am by Paul

  The Sanctuary at Ol Lentille is a lodge so incredible that it can easily overshadow everything else. But after my visit to the lodge, I passed by a small project that really grabbed my attention: The Kuku Project by the women of Nkiloriti.

  When AWF approached the Maasai women of the Nkiloriti Group Ranch about setting up a women’s group, they opted not for beads or cultural manyattas. “We want to do eggs,” they said. With the new lodge just over the hill, the 30 or so women decided they could make a good business selling fresh kuku (chicken) eggs.

  AWF, not exactly experts in the chicken business, went to the logical place for help: Kenchic, the ubiquitous chain of fast food chicken joints in Kenya. With the guidance of a consultant, we built the women a chicken coop (“the Kuku House”), bought a heating oven for warmth and a tank for water, and purchased 80 tiny, fluffy, cheeping chicks.

  The women hired a caretaker. But after one chick fell into the heating oven (oops), the caretaker was swiftly relieved of his kuku duties and the women hired another. Today, all 79 chickens are healthy and busy laying big brown eggs. The caretaker watches over the chickens while the women watch their sales climb.

  The eggs are a hit at the lodge and throughout the area. The Nkiloriti women hope to scale up their micro-enterprise, purchase more chicks, expand facilities, and receive additional training in accounting and basic marketing.

  I asked Anna Le Sirima, the chair of The Kuku Project, how the money will benefit her. “The kuku money has helped me buy some clothes for my children and some medicines for my goats. I want to save some money to build a house.”

  If chicken eggs can turn into medicine and clothing, that sounds good to me.

  Fiesta (Samburu Heartland director) and the Kuku Women

• Counting Zebras, Dodging Elephants

  Posted: May 19, 2008, 10:16 pm by Paul

  Juma was telling me about the movements of Grevy’s during different seasons when we heard the loud crack of wood somewhere in the thick bush ahead. He stopped and was silent. We heard another branch snap and he turned around and mouthed the word “elephant!” We spun on our heels, retreated back a bit, and chose a new path around the unseen elephant. The last thing we wanted was to stumble upon an unsuspecting elephant in the thick thorn bushes.

  I was with Juma, a game scout from West Gate Conservancy, and Jessica, a volunteer from South Africa, walking a 4 km transect to get a sample count of Grevy’s zebras. Six other small transect teams were scattered throughout the Conservancy as part of Dr. Paul Muroria’s research to monitor the population of this endangered zebra in Kenya, its last stronghold.

  Avoiding the elephant provided some excitement and turned out to be opportune: once we were back on our transect, we spotted a large group of Grevy’s, heads held high watching us alertly. We took the coordinates, the bearing, and counted the group: 38 in total, with several foals.

  With an unknown total population (Dr. Muoria estimates there are between only 2,000-2,500 left), each Grevy’s foal seems like a bit of hope. Some believe the population remains low because the foals have a high mortality rate. Could the population be declining because foals are dying off? Dr. Muoria is testing whether the presence of livestock and people affect feeding/nursing rates of the foals.

  Next month, if all goes according to plan, Dr. Muoria will participate in a national Grevy’s zebra census – a large-scale effort by several Grevy’s stakeholders to figure out how many zebras remain in Kenya. Also next month, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) will launch the Nation Conservation Strategy for the Grevy’s Zebra.

  These mark substantial steps for Grevy’s conservation in Kenya. Dr. Muoria’s research is providing valuable data but more can be done, he thinks. He says he needs additional equipment for his community scouts who are the eyes and ears on the ground. They lack range finders, binoculars, and more GPS units. If you’d like to help, and support Grevy’s conservation in Kenya, click here.

• Welcome to the Project Site

  Posted: May 19, 2008, 1:11 pm by Nakedi

  The Leopard Project is in the Limpopo Heartland situated in southern Africa. The Heartland is spread over three countries: Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The work area chosen for the project is in the Kruger National Park and surrounding areas/communities in South Africa and Mozambique. For starts, the project is running at the N’wanetsi Concession (Popularly known as Singita Kruger National Park). The concession covers 15 000 hectares and is situated on the south central part on the eastern border with Mozambique.

  The Lebombo Mountains run from north to south through the concession. The two main rivers, N’wanetsi and Sweni, also run through the concession with their confluence situated approximately 2.5 kilometres from the Mozambican border. The nearest community on the Mozambican side is in Mapulanguene, which is just 10 kilometres east of the border.

  In order to measure the effectiveness of the project, Program Impact and Assessment (PIMA) was designed. To successfully implement PIMA in this project, I had to gather baseline data such as:

  1. Identifying suitable habitats;
  2. Surveying availability of suitable prey species;
  3. Quantifying leopard numbers; and
  4. Establishing contact with neighbouring communities.

  So far I have managed to:
  1. Identify suitable habitats with the help of the Singita’s well trained guiding and tracking teams;
  2. Identify the availability of suitable prey species; and
  3. Establish contact with Mapulanguene community.

  I would like to thank Singita Kruger National Park for all the support in terms of the logistics, accommodation and giving us the opportunity to conduct this work.

• Arrival at the Grevy’s Zebra Research Camp

  Posted: May 14, 2008, 11:47 pm by Paul

  I’m in a town called Wamba at the foot of the Mathews Range. This is the site of Dr. Paul Muoria’s research on endangered Grevy’s zebras, and I’ll be visiting him for the next few days.
  Camp is basic but comfortable. Muroia shares it with Earth Watch, which brings volunteers out to the field to aid scientists with their research for short periods. There’s a mess hall and kitchen, simple dormitories, and a work room / “lab.”
  The generator came on at 5:30a.m. and surprisingly, I was already awake. By 6:30, a group of volunteers and I climbed into the Land Rover with Mjomba, our driver, and Geoff, a young, sharp Samburu who is an intern for Dr. Muoria’s Grevy’s research and conservation project.

  We made our way to West Gate Conservancy on the Ngitok Ongiron Group Ranch, where we spent the morning collecting behavioral data on mare-foal pairs of Grevy’s.

  Grevy’s aren’t just zebras. They are spectacular creatures, strikingly different than plains or Burchell’s zebras. Their stripes are finer, softer, and don’t fully wrap around the belly, leaving a nice white underside. The ears are larger, less sharp, more disc-like. Perhaps what I like most is their stature. They seem more sturdy, grander. Today was the first time I’ve seen a Burchell’s grazing with a group of Grevy’s so it was interesting to make a side-by-side comparison. The Burchell’s zebra, with its big ol’ rump, looks like it needs to hit the gym when standing next to the Grevy’s. Sorry, Burchell’s.

  What do you think? Is it just me or is the Grevy’s the most beautiful of the equines?

• A Plan for Shaba

  Posted: May 9, 2008, 7:21 pm by Paul

  Yesterday we arrived in Shaba National Reserve just past nightfall. I always enjoy arriving at a place at night. You hear sounds around you – maybe a river running, palm fronds in the wind. The next morning you get to step out of your room to find what was behind the darkness the night before. My first sight this morning was the Ewaso Nyiro river only a few steps from my room.

  The Ewaso is full from the recent rains, the water is the color of chocolate, and the banks are green with new vegetation. Vervet monkeys are up to their usual antics nearby, chasing each other up and down tree trunks, shrieking.

  I’m staying at the Sarova Shaba lodge for a two day workshop to develop the General Management Plan for Shaba National Reserve. AWF is hosting the workshop, which has brought together about 60 stakeholders from local communities, tour operators, members of both Isiolo and Samburu County Councils, wildlife researchers, and reps from the Kenya Wildlife Service. 13 women are attending and have been active.

  Shaba hasn’t had a General Management Plan (GMP) since 1985. The new Plan will help guide the park’s conservation, tourism, management and infrastructure development.

  Shaba is located along the Ewaso Nyiro river, a few km from Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserves. In 2003, AWF facilitated the creation of Samburu Reserve’s General Management Plan. Under that plan, new ranger houses were built, signs and other basic infrastructure was improved, and visitors have increased. Now, the County Council of Isiolo has solicited AWF’s help in facilitating a GMP for Shaba.

  By the end of the first day, an important consensus was reached. Because Shaba lies within the same ecosystem as its close neighbors Samburu and Buffalo Springs reserves – and often shares the same roaming wildlife and management issues - there was agreement among the stakeholders that one General Management Plan should be created to encompass all three reserves.

  If the Samburu and Isiolo County Councils approve this move, it could unite both districts under the common goal of sustainable management of their parks. Fiesta and the Heartland team foresees tricky negotiations and planning ahead, but hope to deliver a firm Plan by September.

• North to Samburu

  Posted: May 8, 2008, 7:05 pm by Paul

  Today I leave Nairobi and head to Samburu Heartland. I was seized by a shock of anxiety when I looked at my gear: laptop, camcorder and mic, SLR camera with an assortment of lenses, tripod, my clothes and boots, binoculars, field guides, GPS unit, and of course the small arsenal of cables, batteries and blank tapes. I hate not traveling lightly, but this small roving media center is critical to the success of my story-telling mission.

  I’ll be joining Fiesta and the Heartland team at Shaba National Reserve, a place in the arid Isiolo district north of Mt Kenya. I’m traveling with a large group in a van that will make the journey north in about 5 hours. Goodbye Nairobi, hello bush!

• World Tour of Nairobi

  Posted: May 1, 2008, 2:08 pm by Paul

  I’ve been in Nairobi for a few days, settling in and preparing for my travels ahead. I was in Nairobi for most of 2004, and it’s great to reconnect with the staff in our headquarters here. I’ve been welcomed so warmly that in some ways I feel like I’ve come home from a long trip.

  It was a nice surprise to find Jef Dupain, our Congo Heartland director, is in the office visiting. It’s been a great opportunity to hear about some of the cool stuff he’s working on and has lined up over the next few months. With the success of establishing Lomako Reserve, now his team is setting their sites on expanding some other protected areas to secure the habitat of bonobos and other critical forest species.

  I asked him what is the most important species in the Congo. Without hesitation he said, “humans of course.”

  Jef and I went out for sushi, joined by a friend of his from Uganda. The Belgian, the Kiwi-American, and the Ugandan eating Japanese food together. It was great. We poured each other sake and talked about life in Kinshasa. Jef has a deep bag of stories that scare me and at the same time make me want to come visit such a wild place. He’s urging me to visit the Congo in August, and I’m thinking that’s an offer I can’t pass up.

  Today is Labour Day here in Kenya, and is the first public holiday to be marked under the grand coalition government. I think it’s time I signed off and went out to have a couple cold Tuskers with some friends!

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Fish cakes

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Yet more fish cakes

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The end of the fish cakes