DSWT Community Outreach Report March 2015

COMMUNITY OUTREACH MONTHLY REPORT MARCH 2015 SUMMARY: The majority of Kenyan children have never seen wildlife in their natural environment, despite living in rich wildlife areas. Every month the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust hosts fully sponsored field trips for the children living in the greater Tsavo Conservation Area. During March the DSWT hosted 250 children who all had the chance to visit Tsavo West National Park. These educational days out are led by a DSWT field officer who delivers a fun lecture on wildlife, conservation and land form as observed during the trip.

To encourage in-depth environmental participation amongst the school children, the DSWT also donates indigenous drought resistant tree saplings to schools and regularly visits schools to give them wildlife videos shows.

As part of the Community Outreach program the DSWT also supports sustainable livelihood projects in communities bordering Tsavo National Park. These projects include bee keeping which is modified as a biological control of elephants invading farms as well as community tree nurseries-seedlings for sale.

MARCH 2015 SCHOOL FIELD TRIPS

In March, the DSWT took 250 school kids and 75 teachers for a fully sponsored field trip to the Tsavo West National Park.

Tsavo West is a savannah ecosystem comprising of scrublands, Acacia woodlands, grasslands, belts of riverine vegetation and rocky ridges.

Major wildlife attractions include elephants, lions, leopards, buffalos, antelopes, diverse plants and bird species.

Landforms attractions include Shetani lava flow, roaring rocks, and Mzima springs amongst others.

SCHOOL TRIPS 1. Kithasyo primary (1) 2. Kithasyo primary (2) 3. Matulani Secondary (1) 4. Matulani Secondary (2) 5. Isongiluni Primary (1) 6. Isongiluni Primary (2) 7. Musiini Primary (1) 8. Nthunguni Primary (1) 9. Musiini Primary (2) 10. Nthunguni Primary (2)

TOTAL

DATE

STUDENTS TEACHERS

11th

25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

250

75

March, 2015 13th March, 2015 16th March, 2015 17th March, 2015 20th March, 2015 21st March, 2015 24th March, 2015 27th March, 2015 28th March, 2015 30th March, 2015

MARCH 2015 TREE DONATIONS

The last week of March came with a substantial amount of rain spread across the Tsavo Conservation Area. It is the start of the March-April short rains season and tree saplings stand a better chance of survival when planted at the beginning of this raining season.

The DSWT planted 200 neem tree saplings in Avemaria Primary and Miangeni Secondary. The two schools were chosen based on the survival rates of the saplings DSWT donated to them last year; the two schools are amongst the best in the communities in terms of caring for the saplings.

MARCH 2015 BEE-HIVE FENCES

The DSWT is supporting sustainable livelihood projects in communities bordering Tsavo National Park. In the communities bordering Tsavo East on the North Western side along the Mtito River, the DSWT is working together with the Iviani Community Human-Elephants Conflict Resolution Self Help Group to come up with affordable and non-aggressive ways of curbing human elephant conflict.

One such way is a beehive-elephant fence installed on farms on the frontline park border. With support from the DSWT, the community group acquired 83 modern langstroth beehives, a 12-gauge tensile wire fence (for hanging the hives), and other modern bee keeping equipment. Three months since installation, 27% hives are already occupied with the trend indicating more occupation with time.

This project has multiple benefits to the farmers such as farms guarded from elephant invasion, crops better pollinated as the bee population increase locally, and extra income from sales from honey.

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is reliant on your kind support in order to keep our community outreach projects running.

For more information about these projects please visit www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.com/community or email info@dswt.org