Lakes Jipe and Natron: readers are joining in the fight
Category: Lake Jipe, Lake Natron, Wetlands | Date: Oct 27 2007 | By: admin
Today I just want to thank all of you who’ve joined in the ‘fray’ to save my two favourite lakes (Natron and Jipe). I thought I was the only person who cared about these important community resources. Well…I was wrong.
Where do I start…
Dipesh is intent on discussing ways of getting involved in saving Lake Jipe. I believe that he can rally the private sector - especially the tourism industry - to contribute to this noble cause. And what do you know…Raphael Omondi turns up and offers technical and community mobilization expertise towards this goal. Raphael was the EAWLS Project Officer for the GTZ- and later UNDP-funded Lake Jipe conservation projects cluster. Dipesh and Raphael - it turns out - already know each other. May I suggest that they meet up with the current officer Moses Ziro and come up with a workable arrangement. The people of Lake Jipe need your help to recover this vital resource that they have depended on for generations.
There is someone who is doing something for the beautiful Lake Natron. F J Pechir signed the petition and sent all his friends and colleagues trooping to the petition page. Do I admire this person or what! Keep up the good work Pechir. We can’t forget to thank our friend Lisa…
Friends, the battle is still on. Let us fight for these Lakes with all we’ve got.
Lake Jipe and Dolphins Comments
Category: Community, Lake Jipe, Wetlands | Date: Oct 19 2007 | By: admin
The posts about Lake Jipe and the Disney Wildlife Fund’s donation of funds to support the Year of the Dolphin campaign were well received by you readers and, naturally, you had questions and comments. I would like to thank you all for the comments and respond to your questions.
First, I wish to thank Dipesh for his comment on the Lake Jipe post. Dipesh wanted to know when the Plan will be implemented. Well, Dipesh, as I said the plan is still in its draft phase and it will be some time before implementation begins. Lack of a plan has not however stopped us from working and I can assure you that we have been actively working with communities on the ground to do this important work.
Second, admin(?) wanted to know when all the ‘workshops’ and the wasting of time on ‘draft upon draft will end and the real work of saving this ‘incredibly important ecosystem’ will start. Well, you can rest assured that we are still doing the work even as draft plans are being produced.
Since 2004, we have mobilized more than 10 community groups in Jipe and neighbouring locations who’ve been working hard to save their own resource. We have mainly concentrated on rejuvenating the Lake’s water inlets particularly River Lumi and the Grogan Canal which are the most important inlets for Jipe. We are proud to say that Lake Jipe’s water level has been gradually rising from its typha weed-choked past and that water now flows from Grogan Canal. River Lumi, which had deviated its waters to northern Tanzania, is now feeding water into Lake Jipe.
Below are a couple of pictures from our earlier work involving the local people. As you can see, local stakeholders are the most important players in all the work that we do.
Finally, I express my gratitude to Lisa of Atlanta who is an avid reader of this blog. I particularly wish to thank her for offering to call Disney and make them know that she appreciates their contribution to the plight of Dolphins (I would like to know how that went). Well, Lisa I can’t thank you enough, but I am sure that it is your passion for the salvation of the planet that drives you to be an active participant in this forum. That is the spirit!
Lake Natron: Where is the petition?
Category: Lake Natron, Uncategorized, Wetlands, Wildlife | Date: Oct 19 2007 | By: admin
Many of you have asked where the petition for protesting the proposed Lake Natron soda ash project is. If you read that post, you will see that the petition that I said is online is one that is organised by the Lake Natron Consultative Forum (LNCF). This petition is hosted in the Youth for Conservation (YFC) website and links to it are spread out in many other websites. The direct link to the petition signing page, however, is Lake Natron Petition which leads you to a form in the YFC website. YFC is a member of the LNCF.
For the sake of clarity, I would like to point out that the petition signed by the Birdlife Partners was a way of adding their voice to the ongoing protest and as Lisa of Atlanta found out you cannot sign that one. You can however view the petition that the Birdlife partners signed from the Birdlife Petition PDF
Do not despair however as the LNCF petition is open to all.I hope you will all go there and sign it.
Disney’s gift to Dolphins
Category: Community, Marine, Parks, Wildlife | Date: Oct 15 2007 | By: admin
This year (2007) is the Year of the Dolphin according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and its Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).
I can remember in November last year I travelled to Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Park and Reserve to witness the German-based Touristik Union International (TUI) – the corporate partner of UNEP and CMS in the Year of the Dolphin initiative – officially launch a campaign to educate people about dolphins. The event was organised together with TUI’s local destination management partners, Pollmans Tours, and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and EAWLS among other partners.
This Thursday (11 October 2007), at the EAWLS offices, in a quiet – and brief – ceremony, the EAWLS Director (Ali Kaka), Deputy Director and Head of Conservation Programmes (Hadley Becha), and the newly installed Marine Programme Coordinator (Lionel Murage) officially received funding for an education and awareness project from Richard Lamprey (Fauna and Flora International’s Technical Specialist for East Africa) on behalf of the donors, the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund (DWCF). This funding (US$ 4,050) will be used to educate the communities at the Shimoni-Vanga area of Kwale District some 80-km south of Mombasa.
The Shimoni area, which includes Kisite-Mpunguti Marine Park, the pristine Wasini Island and the Pemba Channel, is popular with divers. It is the ‘dolphin capital’ of Kenya and the obvious choice for the campaign that will be seeking to win over the hearts of local youth (especially) and community on matters of conservation of dolphins and the marine environment.
Internationally, the Year of the Dolphin (recently extended to 2008) has HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco as its Patron and focuses on raising awareness of dolphins in the wild, the threats they face to their survival and actions that could help with their conservation, and the protection of their habitats and ecosystems. For more information visit the Year of the Dolphin official website.
We will keep you posted on this project.
Lake Jipe Plan Around the Corner
Category: Lake Jipe, Policy, Wetlands | Date: Oct 10 2007 | By: admin
Our field officer Moses Ziro just came in from Taveta (Taita-Taveta District, Coast Province, Kenya), where he was among a selected group of 24 individuals representing NGOs, CBOs and government agencies attending a planning workshop. The workshop was held at the Challa Hotel; smack in the middle of Taveta town.
Their mission: to develop a Management Plan for Lake Jipe, a freshwater lake located in the boarder between Kenya and Tanzania, and the only home for the entire world population of the native Tilapia fish, Oreochromis jipe. To read more about the lake go to Lake Jipe and Lake Jipe Project.
Lake Jipe is a beautiful lake teeming with hippo, elephant and birdlife. The elephants are the ‘red’ elephants of Tsavo as Jipe is at the southern boarder of the Tsavo West National Park.
The process to develop The Lake Jipe Management Plan started back in the early 1990s when regional development authorities of both Kenya and Tanzania begun to dialogue on how to stop the rapid deterioration of the basin’s ecosystem. The dialogue led to a meeting of stakeholders from both countries with the support of the IUCN in 1999 in Taveta. This workshop came to the conclusion that an integrated plan for the lake Jipe basin ecosystem was needed to guide its restoration.
A dialogue process initiated by Coast Development Authority (Kenya) and Pangani Basin Water Office (Tanzania) in the early 1990s was concluded with the inauguration of the Lake Jipe, Lake Challa and Umba River Ecosystem Integrated Water Management Plan in June 2006. At this point, however, the process run into financial difficulties and was stifled by on-going water reforms. Given these constraints it was apparent that it would be difficult to implement the plan.
It became necessary to re-visit the process in light of the evolving legal and sectoral reforms to come up with an acceptable plan for Lake Jipe that could be implemented. The process thus resumed with two workshops held in October 2006 and February 2007. These workshops gave rise to the development of a draft plan that is now being polished and being made – as they say – ‘implementable’.
The two previous workshops had identiried the problems facing the ecosystem and the direction the plan should take. The workshop held this month, tharefore, aimed at polishing the zero draft which will then lead to the completion of the final management plan.
The Lake Jipe Management Plan process is being conducted with the leadership of the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) with the EAWLS being among the key participants.
I will be telling you the story of Lake Jipe soon. You will find it very interesting
Join us at the waterhole!
Category: Swara | Date: Oct 05 2007 | By: admin
Hello readers. My name is Samuel Maina I work for the East African Wildlife Society where I write for Swara Magazine. Above is the cover of the next issue which is due any day - as you can see we have given the main story to the gorilla crisis in order to raise awareness about this crisis in Eastern Africa and the world. If you would like to receive this magazine copy simply join the society online. We ship to anywhere in the world!
Half a Century of Wildlife and People
In 1961 the members of the wildlife societies of Kenya and Tanzania – both founded in 1956 – came together and with Ugandan wildlife enthusiasts formed the East African Wildlife Society (EAWLS).
For half a century, the EAWLS has been at the forefront of conservation in East Africa. From protecting the region’s endangered species and habitats to guiding community groups living adjacent to protected areas in the ways of conservation and all the way to influencing policy changes in the higher echelons of wildlife governance. The Society has become the watchdog, the leader and the teacher of conservation ideals – and the protector of wildlife and their environment.
Of course, we have relied heavily on the generous support of our members throughout the world and like minded individuals and organisations. With this support we have been able to help conserve the region’s black rhinos and elephants; contribute to current efforts to save the Hirola and Roan Antelopes; and act to preserve East Africa’s rapidly disappearing forests, marine resources and wetlands. We have worked in close collaboration with Non-Governmental Organisations and local communities; governments and the various institutions within government; and intergovernmental agencies.
We are guided by a vision to work towards an East Africa where all people can enjoy the full diversity, beauty and richness of nature – because when all is said and done, conservation is about people. That is why our mission is to promote conservation and the wise use of wildlife and the environment in East Africa.
How do we do that? We first influence policy reform through advocacy. In short we make policy makers jittery whenever they start fiddling with policy. That would explain why we are always invited to sit in the panels of policy and law reviews. Policy makers know that if it has to be right, we have to be in it. From the Wildlife Policy and Act, Tourism Policy and the Forest Act. We sit in them. We see the big picture. We want it to go in the direction that benefits both wildlife and people who live with wildlife.
We support conservation areas: from parks, reserves, anti-poaching, and most important community conservation areas. We have for instance been supporting the Kuruwitu Conservation and Welfare Association (in Kilifi, Kenya) put together the first ever community managed marine conservation area. It was their idea. We thought of it as noble. We supported it.
We are always out there interacting with the people who live with wildlife. We tell them of the new techniques that are emerging on wildlife management, we teach them, and we take them to visit their counterparts in other regions. We want them to share experiences with their peers. We want them to be good managers of their resource.
The EAWLS is a membership-based organisation. Our members are the primary focus of our Society. So join us today and be part of a good story that has carried along for half a century.
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