The process involved in Data for decision-making included gathering information by conducting participatory community Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and from key stakeholders, development of digital questionnaires, enumerators training on data collection, community data collection exercise and analysing the collected data to draw meaningful insights.

The data-gathering process involved participatory FGDs and engaging stakeholders, collecting information on the positive and negative impacts of Tsavo Trust (TT). This supported the development of a structured survey. The first Stakeholder meeting presented FGD findings, with participants providing additional insights. A digital questionnaire was created based on this input. Ten trained enumerators collected data from 156 households (approx. 950 individuals), achieving gender balance.

Community meetings shared survey results and ideas for addressing negative impacts. A second Stakeholder workshop gathered additional ideas. These components generated meaningful insights for decision-making.

These key components, including participatory discussions, stakeholder engagement, the development of a digital questionnaire, and data collection from households, were instrumental in generating meaningful insights for decision-making.

The objectives of the Preparing for Assessment block were: 

• Conduct a feasibility check, to determine whether SAPA was an appropriate methodology for assessing the social impacts of Kamungi.
• Plan for the assessment, to ensure that the assessment was implemented as a high-quality multi-stakeholder process
• Conduct community mapping, to help ensure that SAPA included all relevant communities within Kamungi.
• Review existing information, To ensure the assessment builds upon existing data relevant to the design and implementation of the assessment.
• Conduct stakeholder analysis,  To identify critical actors that should be engaged in SAPA

The SAPA team provided an overview of the SAPA to TT and Kamungi Conservancy management, this was followed by a community visit for mapping and awareness of the SAPA process, Two facilitators from Kamungi were identified, a male and a female, and trained for 2 days on gathering data from community members on positive and negative effects TT has had in the area. TT management provided the necessary data to facilitate the assessment and identified and ranked its stakeholders, clarifying their interests and Influence, the preparation phase helped set the base for the assessment ensuring all checkboxes were catered for and paving the way for the next building block

Since the software being deployed (SMART) was not being developed but rather an implementation, there existed other organizations that have used it. It was necessary to adapt and capitalize on the experience of other partners for a smooth process. This project engaged Space for Giants (SFG) who monitor large mammals in the landscape to provide guidance, templates and training. The training of trainers was conducted by SFG who also offered support in the development and configuration of necessary databases, online platforms and data collection models.

Two years before the project was conceived, a collaboration between Ol Pejeta and Vulcan Inc. through the Tech Lab saw the creation of an online visualization platform, EarthRanger that has since been used to integrate reports from various sources within the organization and from partners.

The purpose was to bring together all the affected persons, the potential beneficiaries and all the concerned community members, partners to introduce to them the project idea, its anticipated impacts both negative and positive, whilst explaining the responsibility of the community members their roles during the implementation. This was also meant to get the different views and ideas of members to aid the successful implementation of the activities of the project. It was also meant to share with the community members the relevant knowledge required to utilize the wetland and its various resources/products  sustainably in order to live in harmony with nature. The engagement involved teaching the members the need for their participation for each step during implementation. Different individuals or households were engaged in different activities in the wetland. This sensitisation meeting further explored how each activity in the wetland can be carried out to minimize negative impacts and maximize positive impacts both economically and environmentally. A call for a community meeting was announced on radio, church gatherings and other media. This was a continuous activity throughout the implementation of the project.

This helps to orient and introduce the project idea to the relevant officials working with the district/administrators directly or indirectly involved in the project. This was meant to avoid any future audit queries, conflicts arising from implementation of activities. These involved local councilors, local council or village chairmen, district political leaders, environmental police, internal security organizations, district administration officials, district technical staff from different departments(finance, procurement, natural resources, community development, engineering etc). This included other private stakeholders doing more or less similar projects, lodge owners etc. The engagement involved an organized project launch activity or ground breaking ceremony to educate them on the project anticipated activities, locations/areas, budget, beneficiaries, potential risks and the anticipated outcome, plus seeking their input and support for the success of the project. This also involved field visits to access the situation on ground before implementation.

Data collection is digitised using technological applications often selected to meet the needs of a particular project. In wildlife monitoring and protection, SMART for Conservation was identified as a suitable software for it provides a quick form to record incidents while tracking the distance covered by each team. Further, data collected in this manner needs to be used alongside other datasets for well informed decision making. To achieve this, an integration with Earthranger (an online visualization platform) was instituted to allow visual analysis of incidents and patrol coverage against other components such as tagged animals, live streaming images from security cameras, points of interest and environmental hazard reports.

The purpose of this building block is to ensure that the broader communities are involved in the conservation efforts through activities that they are passionate about i.e youth through sports, school children through reading programmes. This helps to improve the connectedness that the local people have with the rhinos and they value the rhino more. 

An excellent communication plan/network with different stakeholders was initiated across different levels. From the inception of the project, the community and other stakeholders were constantly capacitated on how the project is going. A relay of relevant vulture conservation and policy issues was achieved to the target stakeholders within the communities and KAZA TFCA.

The achieved results relied heavily on the collaboration and cooperation partnerships among various stakeholders, including government agencies, conservation organizations, scientists, and local communities. Collaboration with the Ministries/Government departments was key in sensitizing the communities on issues around human-wildlife conflict and suggested environmentally friendly ways to mitigate the conflict. The scientists were there to collect information related to wildlife poisoning and give feedback to the government ministries. The communities were the key stakeholder since they are the sole custodians of the environment.

Our team has identified the importance of accurate data collection, regular monitoring and oversight of data is done by the science and research adviser and Chief Operations officer to ensure accurate data is uploaded to the database. Population management and scientific decisions concerning the rhino population in the country are guided by the data collected during monitoring conducted by our patrol teams. Data based inputs are used to define the carrying capacity for wild-life based tourism and to plan and manage conservation and development activities.