Sustainable alternative livelihood

In order to manage parks sustainably, access to traditional resources is frequently restricted or changed. Such impacts must be reduced since local residents and resource users must directly or indirectly benefit from the MPA and be fully included in the solution. To steer local stakeholders away from the ongoing overexploitation of their mangrove and fishery resources, the development of environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative revenue creation was created. Apiculture was chosen to demonstrate that income can be generated from mangroves and other plants without destroying them and losing their ecological benefits. This activity has strengthened the two fishing associations and illustrated that they can cooperate to execute activities outside of their "normal" operations, the members stand to gain from it.

  • Strengthening the existing beekeeping cooperative
  • Training beneficiaries in honey harvesting techniques and business management
  • Women (fishermen's wives) were more engaged than the actual fishermen who were busy spending long hours in the sea.
Environmental Education and Outreach

An important component of conserving the marine protected area is public education, communication, and increasing awareness about the value and vulnerability of the marine ecosystem. Capacity building activities were desperately needed and the project provided this opportunity to stakeholders including university students, local government officials, and FoProBiM employees. Everyone was glad to go outside and have real field experiences, which made the classes, both in the classroom and, in particular, the field, extremely well accepted. This was the first "large scale" activity that FoProBiM offered to many sectors, allowing them to meet each other, learn together and create new beneficial contacts. FoProBiM has conducted smaller, more directed activities similar to this in the past. As management operations for the 3-Bays continue to grow, this additional capacity will be crucial for all stakeholder groups.

  • Outreach activities should be integrated into a program 
  • Training for trainers; train community members to conduct activities
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • The addition of university students is key.
  • Activities carried out within the communities are more effective
FoProBiM
Environmental Education and Outreach
Sustainable alternative livelihood
Increase community awareness and involvement

This project encouraged the participation of youth and community volunteers to gain support and increase local knowledge of the importance of protecting local ecosystems. Increased community involvement will work to build capacity while empowering and strengthening local conservation efforts. The group of volunteers we currently work with is a mix of residents and visitors, men and women, young and old and from a wide range of backgrounds.

Efforts are made to keep policymakers involved and inform them of the importance of mangroves in general and restoration in particular to gain their support. 

 

  • Supportive community, whenever activities are anounced they respond readily

  • the actvities organised for engaging the community are diverse (tours in the mangrove forest, events, presentation evenings) and thus cater to a variety of groups like school groups, junior rangers, general public, science community and stakeholders operating in the area. 

  • Easy access to media outlets.

  • Momentum reached (having reached a lot of local, regional and international exposure).

  • Collaborating with other nature organisations helped reach more people.

  • Advertisements for events could be improved by divulging information through other media channels, e.g. radio.

  • Organising different forms of outreach activities, such as public presentations, encouraged community engagement.

  • Even though most residents speak English, communicating in both the local language and English gives a better result.

     

Partnership Collaboration, Action Planning and monitoring progress:

A stakeholders workshop was conducted to share assessment results, address questions from the 2nd workshop, and discuss an action plan for mitigating identified negative impacts. Actions, activities, and timelines were discussed for each impact.

 

Based on the collected data, TT successfully engaged donors in funding projects aligned with reducing the negative impacts.

 

To mitigate the Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) negative impact, TT has constructed a 33km Elephant exclusion Fence and 8 additional 10% fences,  reducing HWC by over 80%.

 

To address the lack of water, TT provided 110 dam liners, each with a capacity of 56,000 L, resulting in the harvesting of over 6 million litres of surface run-off water.

 

In support of schools, TT is offering scholarships to 9 students and has constructed and equipped a Science and computer laboratory in a local secondary school.

 

To overcome information barriers, TT established a BULK SMS platform and grievances log to facilitate communication on key issues, ongoing projects, and address grievances between TT and communities.

 

TT is currently developing a SAPA review scheduled for July 2023 to assess the impact and change in perceptions resulting from the implemented interventions in communities.

 

 

 

 

The Tsavo Trust management was very supportive throughout the entire process.

Tsavo Trust contracted experienced consultants who conducted the SAPA process professionally within the set timelines 

The good relationship between Tsavo Trust, Communities and Key Stakeholders made the process a success

Timely availing of project funds from BIOPAMA

During the SAPA process final phase, TT learnt that bringing a wider network of stakeholders had varying benefits. Ensuring there was representation from County Government, like-minded NGOs, Kenya Wildlife Services and Community helped reduce the pressures on TT to deliver and address all the negative impacts identified during the evaluation. All partners who were part of the SAPA process now have a clear picture of the work that TT does and the needs of the Kamungi members. 

Data for Decision Making

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.

Using community youths to collect the data ensured that we got a good reception from respondents who answered the questions truthfully without fear of victimisation.

The sharing of results with communities and allowing them to give ideas on mitigation of the prioritised negative impacts made the phase start getting direction on negative impacts mitigation.

Stakeholders identified in the 2nd Stakeholders meeting contributed towards by giving more ideas for action on the negative impacts.

The community members shared local and traditional methods of mitigating the prioritised negative impacts which we found easy to implement with a small budget, this made us understand that sometimes the solution to otherwise big problems is with the people themselves and the need to be involving them in decision making.

TT learnt that bringing a wider network of stakeholders had varying benefits. Ensuring there was representation from County Government, like-minded NGO’s, Kenya Wildlife Services and Community helped TT and the stakeholders identify solutions/ideas for action for every negative impact identified. This helped reduce the pressures on TT to deliver and address all the negative impacts identified during the evaluation.

Sharing the information with the stakeholders also acted as a platform for Tsavo Trust to share what it does with The County Government, KWS and relevant stakeholders

Capacity building of Wildlife Rangers on the enforcement procedures, monitoring of seabirds, and invasive species eradication.

This building block emphasizes the main solution to the lack of capacity of wildlife rangers. Doing this activity requires good planning and preparation to convene a successful training. The activity enhances the capacity of wildlife rangers so they would be able to carry out the enforcement, seabirds monitoring, and invasive species eradication activities effectively. This building block is very essential, therefore, the wildlife office continues to search for funding, as much as they could, to cover all the cost of these capacity buildings to ensure that all their rangers are well equipped to execute their responsibility. 

  • The full participation of wildlife rangers in these trainings. Without their full commitment and participation in these conducted trainings, the outcome of these trainings or capacity buildings will not be achieved.

  • Full support from the Management team in these training sessions. There is a need to involve the management in the preparation phase, so they are well aware of the training content.

  • The great commitment and effort given by the trainer, when conducting these training, will make the training very fruitful.

Having a good and well organized workshop or training will bring lots of benefits to the rangers, and will effectively build their capacity in every operation they will conduct at the field in the coming future.

Development of an integrated management strategy and action plan for the protected areas and conservation of seabirds and their habitat on Kiribati Island.

This building block emphasizes the major concern of the Government of Kiribati regarding the challenges in the management of the protected areas and seabirds. The Government of Kiribati, through the Wildlife Conservation Unit (WCU) of the Environment and Conservation Division (ECD), has been struggling for the past 30 years in managing the protected areas in Kiritimati Island. But through the development of this integrated management strategy and action plan, the Government of Kiribati is able to manage and address the identified or common environmental challenges that are affecting the health of the seabird species successfully and effectively.

  • The full support from the local council and other Government agencies in the development of the project is one of the key enabling factors for the success of the management strategy and action plan development.

  • The full support from the community to the development of the management strategy and action plan is another key factor. Most of the communities, who participated in the consultation, were very supportive of this important management plan.  They even gave some suggestions and advice for strengthening the implementation of the management plan.

  • Having a good collaboration and partnership with the key stakeholders (local communities and other key Government enforcement partners) to fasten the development and process of the intended Management plan.  

  • The consultation to local communities to enlighten them on the importance of the vulnerable island seabirds to the environment and ecosystem, and also emphasize the real factors that caused the decrease in the number of seabirds, will persuade them to reconsider their actions that have an impact on these seabirds.

Wildlife Conservation Unit (WCU)
Development of an integrated management strategy and action plan for the protected areas and conservation of seabirds and their habitat on Kiribati Island.
Capacity building of Wildlife Rangers on the enforcement procedures, monitoring of seabirds, and invasive species eradication.
Wildlife Conservation Unit (WCU)
Development of an integrated management strategy and action plan for the protected areas and conservation of seabirds and their habitat on Kiribati Island.
Capacity building of Wildlife Rangers on the enforcement procedures, monitoring of seabirds, and invasive species eradication.