Most of East Africa’s wildlife and habitat lies outside the boundaries of National Parks and officially protected areas. In Kenya, for example, 70 percent of wild animals live outside Protected areas hugely more than in Tanzania (35%-40%) and Uganda (2%-3%). Well-managed National Parks are vital, but so too is the sound development and governance of the land outside their remit. Only by creating the right legal and policy frameworks will we ensure that our ecosystems can survive to the benefit of the people who share them with nature.
EAWLS is the region’s wildlife watchdog and the crucial Voice of Conservation in East Africa. We work alongside local communities and the private sector to develop blueprints for their future and for the nature they live with and husband. We have the knowledge, the people and the know-how. But we need your help to expand our efforts for our children and our grandchildren.
We are involved in newly proposed Kenyan legislation so that it does not threaten initiatives such as the Northern Rangelands Trust, the umbreala for 17 community owned conservancies in northern Kenya. They, and many similar initiatives, would simply disappear if current draft legislation were to be enacted.
We are active wherever development and nature are in conflict. Grandiose sugar and rice schemes threaten the Tana Delta, the people who live there and their neighbours in nature. The jewel of the Maasai Mara is losing its wildlife lustre because of development inside and outside of this protected area. We also stand proud where good governance is at stake, as with the attempted forced degazettment of Amboseli National Park.
EAWLS is in the front line of this conflict. It is part of the Kenya Wetlands Forum and the Forest Working group, bringing expertise and people-sensitive advice in areas such as East Africa’s dwindling and threatened forests. The Society wants to defend our forests, the water towers they nurture and their biodiversity, for national interests, not for personal gain by the well-connected.
The Society publishes SWARA, an important and respected quarterly written by leading conservationists and the African Journal of Ecology, a benchmark of scientific excellence.
Back us. We need to set up a speciased Advocacy unit to bring informed argument to the centre of debate. We need to reinforce our links with partners locked in the struggle for sound governance of dwindling resources. Every donation, however small, will make the Voice of Conservation in East Africa louder, stronger and more easily heard.
DO YOU HAVE AN EAWL PAPER DESCRIBING YOUR POSITION TO THE CURRENT/FUTURE WILDLIFE POLICY IN KENYA?
THANK YOU
I ENJOYED YOUR PRESENTATION AT MUTHAIGA CLUB AND REGRETTED THAT YOU HAD TOO LITTLE TIME AS OPPOSED TO THE LAND LECTURE WHICH TOOK TOO MUCH!
Congraturations for considering our wetlands which are important in improving microclimate,providing habitat to gamelife and providing arena for research.
I am a long time member of EAWLS and a biologist and ahve a small travel agency for east africa. As this I am strongly concerned about the pressure in the parcs espcially in the Mara and I support strongly the camps that are outside the parc on the private conservancy , now Mara north. In the parc we found lions that where surronnded by 10 or more cars and even at the crossings they blocked the animals. What do you want to do to stop the pressure and the ongoing development in the Mara ?
Kindly let me know
Please keep me onformed of your developments,
Thanks, n Ken
I feel I can no longer sit by on the sidelines and watch the Africa I love be destroyed. I have only been to Africa once, but had dreamed about her since boyhood. I realized this dream on a study abroad trip to Tanzania during my last semester studying Wildlife Conservation at the University of Delaware, USA. I graduated shortly after my “once in a lifetime” trip and sadly have since done nothing to conserve the wildlife I once studied so hard for. I chose to focus on financial gain and I am miserable. I am willing to go back to school, but wish to focus on imminent threats to our fragile world. I humbly ask of you where can I be of use in Africa? I will gladly pay my way and just wish to contribute before it is too late.
Sincerely,
Rob Fausnaught
Rob: I agree with you. I plan on going to Namibia to help the Cheetah Conservation Fund. Check into that organization, it is so worth while!
Sure enough, I am in agreement with you on the issue of wild animals living outside of the protected areas. I remember, with nostalgia, that in the 1980’s and 1990’s when I was growing up in the village of Chemoinoi, Rift Valley, I would usaully see leopards roaming the escarpment below which we lived, especailly at sunrise – and sometimes at sunset. Since I went to High school, and left the village, I haven’t had time to really check out if these priceless animals, including serval cats, the mongoose, hyena, monkeys, baboons, dik-diks etc, still roam our landscape.
One thing that I know for sure is that the yellow mongabey, which I use to encounter often when I was herding goats in the 1980’s is now gone.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I am now a member of EAWLS – since 2008, and I am eager to see that we conserve the biodiversity that we’ve for ours and next generations of Kenyans. I would be happy to send a few euros, perhaps 50 euro, for now towards this worthy cause. I hope any small contribution I make will go towards making a difference where it matters the most.
And while we’re still discussing this issue, I wonder who is supporting the conservation of the less visible, but nonetheless important, invertebrate wildlife. I am thinking about the insects, scorpions, the worms etc, that also dot our beautiful landscape, and whose contribution to the base levels of the ecosystem sustains the bigger more visible wildlife? I have not seen much of it discussed here or indeed elsewhere in the Kenyan biodiversity fora.
We already know the priceless role of insects in pollination. Let’s also do something about them.
Regards.
Samuel Kibichii, PhD. Dublin 4, Ireland.