DSWT Community Outreach Report May 2015

COMMUNITY OUTREACH MONTHLY REPORT MAY 2015 SUMMARY: The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT) Community Outreach Program is aimed at clarifying conservation concepts to communities living in the greater Tsavo Conservation Area so that they can develop skills and attitudes necessary to understand and appreciate the inter-relatedness between human and wildlife.

In Kenya, tourism is a major income earner for the government, earnings from tourism are devolved to the local levels to develop infrastructure and provide other vital utilities. Key to wildlife tourism is keystone species such as elephants and predators. Over the years these species have been under the threat from poaching and habitat loss. Furthermore, more than 60% of Kenyan wildlife lives outside protected areas, thus it is imperative to work with the communities living in wildlife areas to protect wildlife against poaching and habitat destruction.

In May, the DSWT hosted the first meeting to review the Community Outreach projects currently carried out. This meeting brought together the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) community outreach/education department, school teachers heading Wildlife Clubs from the Mtito-Andei area, and the Mtito Andei community opinion leaders.

Community Outreach Projects Review In May, the DSWT working closely with KWS Tsavo Community/Education department held the first meeting to review the community awareness projects carried out by the DSWT in the greater Tsavo Conservation Area. The review meeting brought together the Wildlife Clubs patrons from schools in Mtito-Andei area, Mtito Andei area opinion leaders, KWS education warden and the DSWT community outreach coordinator. The meeting offered a platform where participants freely shared thoughts on how effective the DSWT community outreach projects are, what DSWT should improve on, and a list of priority projects specific for the Mtito Andei area.

One major recommendation out of the review meeting was how the DSWT can work with teachers on how to integrate fundamentals of conservation within the school curriculum, especially in subjects such as biology, geography and agriculture. Other issues that came up during the meeting included the development of conservation awareness programs which targets the out of school population (+18 years old), and community sensitization on the wildlife law passed by the Kenyan government in 2013 amongst other projects.

Photo: Schools’ Wildlife Clubs patrons, community leaders, KWS and DSWT during the meeting

MAY 2015 SCHOOL FIELD TRIPS

During May the DSWT continued running school trips to Tsavo National Park, hosting seven (7) school trips including 175 school children and 21 teachers. The DSWT school trips offer the best opportunity to teach wildlife conservation outside the classroom setup in a fun and interactive manner.

During each school trip students are accompanied by a DSWT field officer with a wealth of knowledge on various conservation concepts. The field officer’s duty is to ensure that the participating kids are given an overview literature on the biodiversity, challenges facing biodiversity and landforms of the specific park they are visiting. To further educate the kids, a DSWT booklet with a spotter guide, a wildlife crossword, and literature on Tsavo Conservation Area is distributed to all the participating kids. After each trips all participants are awarded a DSWT wildlife guardian certificate.

SCHOOL TRIPS

DATE

STUDENTS TEACHERS

Boinzau Secondary Boinzau Secondary Mavindini Primary Mavindini Primary Tsavo West Secondary Usalama Secondary Usalama Secondary

19th May 2015 20th May 2015 22nd May 2015 23rd May 2015 25th May 2015 29th May 2015 30th May 2015

25 25 25 25 25 25 25

3 3 3 3 3 3 3

175

21

TOTAL

MAY 2015 WILDLIFE FILM SHOWS

The DSWT hosted three wildlife video shows in three schools in the Kibwezi area, these videos touch on poaching as a major threat faced by wildlife in Kenya and efforts made by different conservation groups to curb poaching.

The videos are in an easy to understand Swahili language courtesy of the African Film Foundation, and are very appropriate for kids in primary school.

Name of school

Video show date No. reached Students Boinzau Secondry 18th May 2015 207 Muusini primary 21st May 2015 512 Mavindini primary 26th May 2015 351

Adults 11 20 12

TOTAL

43

1170

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