 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s Community Outreach Programs
Assistance to Schools bordering Kenya’s National Parks
Indigenous Tree Nurseries
Tourism and conservation initiatives on Community land
Assistance to the impoverished communities that border the boundaries of the Protected Areas, and who are responsible for most of the snaring that takes place along these boundaries and within the Parks, is an essential component for the success of the De-Snaring and Anti poaching efforts of The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Most of these communities are extremely poor, and have always snared wild animals on a subsistence level, viewing them merely as an endless resource there for the taking. Since the Government legalized the sale of game meat, the sale of bushmeat has become commercial and totally unsustainable, threatening the existence of many species, and taking a devastating toll of the country's wildlife resource upon which Kenya's Tourism Industry is based. Deprived people know that the key to a better life for their children is advancement through education. They thirst for this, but usually cannot afford even the basic essentials of learning such as text books, black boards and desks. Furthermore, because wild animals no longer exist in their tribal lands, most children have never seen a living specimen. Nor do they understand or appreciate the value wild animals have for their country and what a precious commodity it is for their future. We have two full time Community Officers who are actively working with Communities and Schools in and around Kenya’s Capital Nairobi, concentrating on the schools bordering the Nairobi National Park. Our seven Desnaring team Leaders, all of whom are Post Graduate students, focus on what schools we can cover along the boundaries of the Tsavo Conservation area, visiting them regularly. We have four mobile cinema units, and are able to show the communities wildlife films, telling them about the various species and their role within the environment, encouraging the students to form Wildlife Clubs, and we arrange field trips into Tsavo West National Park and Tsavo East National Park, and Nairobi National Park. They help initiate tree Nurseries within the communities, supplying the indigienous tree seedlings from the Trusts own Indgenous tree nursery, and bird feeding tables, along with teaching aids to schools with very little, art materials and sporting equipment. The community initiative has proved extremely popular, and has had a huge impact on the schools we have been able to touch. Our Team Leaders are viewed as role models, and enlightenment about the nature of animals, coupled with anecdotes about specific known animals that the Trust has hand-reared, engender compassion and caring, something that was hitherto lacking. Furthermore, by supporting the schools, one reaches the adults who understand that should they continue the practice of poaching wild animals, the support their children have enjoyed could be compromised. We have recently initiated regular radio programs that run in five different native languages reaching the following tribes in their mother tongue. Wkamba, Kikuyu, Luo, Maa and Meru. The Trust’s employees are able to communicate in their own tribal languages about the raising of orphaned elephants, the bush meat threat to Kenya’s wildlife, and numerous other environmental issues. The general public are afforded time to call in and ask questions after each program and these shows are broadcast to millions of Kenyans and are proving incredibly popular. The DSWT helps initiate and advise and fund Community initiatives that embrace conservation and tourism and alternative incomes for those communities that live on the boundaries of the Tsavo Conservation Area. These initiatives include Zero Grazing initiatives - DELETE INITIATIVES , silk worm farming, the making of elephant dung paper, tree nurseries, and Wildlife Conservancies. The DSWT would like to thank the following organizations for helping us help the communities and in so doing help conservation in Kenya. The Trust is deeply grateful to the following for their enormous and continued support towards our community effort.
|
|
|
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust P.O. Box 15555 Nairobi Kenya
All Photographs in this website are Copyright by The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and can not be used without permission.
Copyright © 1999-2006, Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. All Rights Reserved.
Site Design by Elehost Web Design Inc. | Hosting by Elephanthost.com
