Featured This Month
- Plastic For Books: The ‘Plastic for Books’ project continues to expand. During the quarter, we made and distributed more cages for the project to 16 new primary and junior secondary schools, in the LUMO School Program.
- Food Donation: Our support for Latika primary schools continues towards their food ration, paying for one of the teachers and a cook, and providing stationery and furniture.
- Aquaculture Project: CWC is involved in the anti-poaching initiatives at LUMO Community Wildlife Conservancy. We aim to strengthen the protection of wildlife and create awareness against bushmeat and logging, aiming to provide an alternative source of protein for the community to substitute bushmeat market.
- Loruka Medical Camp: We have rehabilitated the solar power system at Loruko Dispensary, which serves Samburu Community School and the Ngare Mara community neighboring Samburu National Reserve to the west.
- Clean-Up Activities: We had a successful clean-up activity at Maktau Shopping Center. We involved over 180 persons, including teachers and students from the following schools: Maktau Secondary, Maktau Primary, Kongoni Primary, Mwema Secondary, and Kombolio Secondary.
- Volunteers for CWC: We have had volunteers who have joined to support CWC Activities. The volunteers engage in different projects including the ‘Plastics for Books’ project, facilitating ICT lessons at Mlughi Digital Lab
- Creating Conservation Awareness: We joined the LUMO Community Wildlife Conservancy team at Mwavunyu Junior Secondary School (Grades 7 & 8) to create awareness of wildlife conservation through participative learning.
- CWC College – Sponsored Students: This September, we added one more student to our college sponsorship program. The student studies Diploma in Tour and Travel Products at Kenya Utalii College. This makes the total number of our college-sponsored students 14.
Community & Wildlife & Conservation is a dynamic non-governmental organization founded in 2020, dedicated to community development and conservation efforts. We work to engage with local communities, promote sustainable practices, and protect our environment for future generations. Conservation can only happen IF the community benefits from it.
So far, from July to September, we have accomplished projects in different areas, revolving around creating awareness of environmental and wildlife conservation and community development projects. Our community development projects are based in communities near wildlife-protected areas and to those people who have given part of their land for conservation. This ensures that these communities get tangible benefits from wildlife conservation as they extend their support towards conservation. We are working with communities near LUMO Community Wildlife Conservancy and the immediate neighborhood of Samburu National Reserve.
The following are some of the incentives that we have accomplished between July and September;
Community Conservation
Plastic for Books
The ‘Plastic for Books’ project continues to expand. During the quarter, we made and distributed more cages for the project to 16 new primary and junior secondary schools, in the LUMO School Program. These include; Zare School, Mruru School, Wumari School, Sechu School, Bura School, Mbagha School, Kilulunyi School, St. James School, Mwangea School, Mwavunyu School, Mrughua School, Mnamu School, St.Johns Primary, Iyale Primary, Lushangonyi Primary and St. Georges Mwaroko. Through the distribution, we created awareness of the effects of plastics on the environment.
During the period, we collected 1152kgs of plastic. This makes the total kgs since we started the project to 2599 kilograms
Food Donation Program
Latika Primary Support
Our support for Latika primary schools continues towards their food ration, paying for one of the teachers and a cook, and providing stationery and furniture.
During the period we hosted 3 carpenters at Soroi Lions Bluff Lodge staff quarters, providing them with materials and equipment to make furniture for the school. They made 10 desks and 3 staff chairs, to accommodate the growing school roll.
We also, delivered food ration for Latika Primary School for their term III food ratio to cater to break-time porridge and lunch for 45 students. This includes rice, beans, porridge flour, cooking oil, sugar, and salt. This is one of our initiatives to support the nearby communities living near wildlife-protected areas, we support Latika Primary School, one of the primary schools near LUMO Conservancy.
Wildlife Conservation
Aquaculture Project
CWC is involved in the anti-poaching initiatives at LUMO Community Wildlife Conservancy. We aim to strengthen the protection of wildlife and create awareness against bushmeat and logging, aiming to provide an alternative source of protein for the community to substitute bushmeat market. We are therefore establishing a fish pond project, that will produce fish to be sold within the LUMO community.
From community engagement meetings, who agreed to support and buy from the project, to providing an employment opportunity to youths thus reducing those who are tempted to be engaged as a source of income. The project will also provide a learning ground for other community members who will be interested in hosting such a project thus increasing the base supply of affordable fish to the community and reducing the bushmeat market.
The project is still under construction and we aim to launch in the coming days.
Wildlife Conservation
Wildlife Conservation Unit
CWC has a dedicated conservation unit that operates in the LUMO Community Wildlife Conservancy in collaboration with the Kenya Wildlife Service and Kenya Forest Service to effectively deter bushmeat & trophy poaching, logging and charcoal burning, and other threats such as illegal grazing, illegal mining, and bush fires. The team is primarily concerned with the protection of wildlife and its habitat. By enforcing state laws and collaborating with other stakeholders to maximize penalties for wildlife crimes through the local administration. So far, in this quarter, we have had:
- Justice for wildlife: 5 arrests, 1 escaped suspect and 1 pending court hearing
- Poaching recoveries: 28 snares removed, 254.3kg of bushmeat confiscated
- Forestry recoveries: 15 cases of logs/firewood stopped, 4 charcoal kilns destroyed, 22 bags of charcoal seized, 1 pending hearing.
Community Conservation
Loruko Clinic - Samburu
We have rehabilitated the solar power system at Loruko Dispensary, which serves Samburu Community School and the Ngare Mara community neighboring Samburu National Reserve to the west. The clinic is made of a small structure with two treatment rooms and one office/dispensary that depends on solar power. They were using a small solar system that provides power during daytime hours. Due to faulty batteries, the system could not support power to the dispensary at night, and its fencing system. We therefore rehabilitated and expanded the system to address the power insufficiency. In addition, a fridge for the facility to store important medical supplies was faulty, so we purchased one for the purpose.
Community Conservation
Clean-up at Maktau Shopping Centre
We had a successful clean-up activity at Maktau Shopping Center. We involved over 180 persons, including teachers and students from the following schools: Maktau Secondary, Maktau Primary, Kongoni Primary, Mwema Secondary, and Kombolio Secondary. We had over 30 Maktau community members, LUMO management, Lions Bluff management, Assistant Chief – Maktau, Police officers, KWS officers, and Mwatate sub-county Director of Education – Madam Dorothy – who graced the activity.
We also planted trees at the Maktau police post to mark the activity. We discussed wildlife and environmental conservation, the effects of poaching and logging, and mentioned the upcoming Rhino Project at Oza.
From the litter we collected, we separated plastics that will be ferried for recycling for our “Plastics for Books” project. The proceeds will buy textbooks for the schools that participated in the clean-up.
Volunteers for Community Wildlife & Conservation
During this period, we have had volunteers who have joined to support CWC Activities. The volunteers engage in different projects including the ‘Plastics for Books’ project, facilitating ICT lessons at Mlughi Digital Lab; Joining Kenya Wildlife Service rangers for patrols and de-snaring; and other activities at the lodge.
Also, one of the volunteers donated tennis equipment and football boots to a nearby secondary school LUMO Conservancy.
Community Engagement
Creating awareness of wildlife and Environmental Conservation
- Conservation Debate at Mwavunyu Primary
We joined the LUMO Community Wildlife Conservancy team at Mwavunyu Junior Secondary School (Grades 7 & 8) to create awareness of wildlife conservation through participative learning.
The motions discussed were the following:
- Should the government impose strict penalties for wildlife poaching
- Does wildlife tourism contribute positively to conservation efforts or does it cause more harm than good?
The group was divided into opposers and proposers. They discussed the motions by amazingly portraying their conservation knowledge and how it positively impacts the community. They also discussed human-wildlife conflict as well as poaching incidents.
- Environmental Awareness at Lions Bluff Lodge
We also created awareness among our casual workers at Soroi Lions Bluff Lodge on environmental conservation. The activity involved cleaning and picking up litter around staff accommodation and in particular part of their residence. In addition, we created awareness of waste management to ensure reckless disposal of litter around the area doesn’t reoccur.
- Game drives
Within the period, we facilitated game drives for Gir Gir Primary and Gir Gir Secondary from Archers Post Samburu to Samburu National Reserve. An award for having participated in the clean-up at Archers Post. They later had a tour of Larsens Camp, where they had some lunch. From this, the students understood wildlife conservation, the relationship between wildlife conservation, tourism, and community development benefits.
On going Projects
College Sponsorship
This September, we added one more student to our college sponsorship program. The student studies Diploma in Tour and Travel Products at Kenya Utalii College. This makes the total number of our college-sponsored students 14.
7 of our ongoing college-sponsored students resumed back to college for their 2nd years. At the same time, 6 of them from the Taita Taveta National Polytechnic (TTNP), formerly known as Coast Institute of Technology (CIT), proceeded for their attachment at Soroi Lions Bluff Lodge, Soroi Mara Bush Camp, Soroi Luxury Migration Camp and Soroi Private Wing.
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