REPORT

ON

THE FIRST EAST AFRICA RSGP RECIPIENTS CONFERENCE

DATE: 21 - 22 OCTOBER 2013

VENUE: LAMBADA RESORT, MOMBASA - KENYA

Report done by:

Edward Mwamuye Convener

Hosted By: Funded By:

Presenter Project Title

Official Opening by Kilifi County Executive in-charge of Environment and Natural Resources, Hon. Mwachitu Kiringi

Thanked those in attendance and welcomed all ideas that will help Kilifi County

- Appreciates the support of the donors and to COBEC for this conference, is happy that environmentalists are here together to provide appropriate framework of appropriate alternatives, guarantee livelihood to areas in poverty, and address climate change issues

- Wants to promote meaningful use of the grants - Has witnessed significant decline due to

overfishing, pollution, and increased population demands; we need more adequate planning

- Hopes that this conference addresses challenges and makes suitable recommendations to the right people, welcome all of us to interact with the community and hopes to offer support in any recommendations made here today

The Role of Networking and Information Sharing Enhancing Environmental Conservation by Professor HalimuShauri - Being effective at networking is an essential life

skill as it allows us to learn and attain our goals; we must know how to tap into various networks as they are critical resources (i.e. information, finance, ideas, support in times of crisis, etc.)

- Networking is about making connections and building enduring, mutually beneficial relationships

- A single individual or organisation cannot deal with the issues of the world, therefore sharing ideas and resources between people and organisations is necessaryfor the benefit of the environment as well as humans

- Information is power. If you have it, share it. If you don’t, seek out a source in your network

- Don’t miss the opportunity this conference provides to expand your resources

- You should not only be visible but you should be attractive; you must find ways to be attractive as an individual and as an organisation

- Information sharing helps to build a stronger working relationship within an organisation; it allows you to deliver results more efficiently and to a higher standard

- People require use of natural resources to

support themselves but they must be used in a sustainable way that allows them to be used by future generations

Enhancing the Conservation of Sea Turtles and Mangroves in Kenya by Edwards Mwamuye - Key environmental factors addressed are

degraded mangrove forest ecosystems and endangered sea turtles and degraded habitats

- Project objectives: education and awareness creation, to enhance mangrove forest protection and management, to protect and conserve sea turtles and their habitats

- Project activities implemented: education and awareness, mangrove restoration and woodlots establishment, sea turtle protection the by-catch release, nest mapping, monitoring and patrols, beach cleaning, and enhanced fishing practices

- Mangrove destruction occurs primarily due to poverty (wood provides a source of income), salt mining, and increased demand for wood products due to growing population; when resources can’t support the community, there’s a lot of degradation

- In 1980’s and 1990’s the government gave out land that was supposed to be forest gazetted areas; are in the process of reclaiming this land to better facilitate mangrove protection

- Five of seven sea turtles are found in Kenya; green turtle is the most under threat due to human activities

- Eggs and meat continue to be consumed by coastal peoples, breeding and foraging sites have been destroyed as a result of fishing and unsustainable tourism, beach debris disturbs nesting turtles, pollution causes accidental ingestion of plastic and other harmful waste

- Some fishermen intentionally hunt sea turtles and some are caught accidentally

- Actions taken: by-catch releases, tagging turtles prior to release, patrolling done on a daily basis by fishermen, nest mapping, translocation and protection, fishing gear exchange programme (unsustainable for sustainable), beach cleaning to protect nesting turtles, education and awareness programmes

- Programme received grant to purchase fishing boat which is shared by 200 fisherman, allowing them to go beyond the reef to fish beyond where the sea turtles are usually found

Understanding Local Communities’ Knowledge and Their Coping Strategies to Climate Change by Samuel Wakang’u

- Project is on forest conservation and livelihoods; a number of initiatives but the focus today is on coping with climate change

- Local communities have long played a significant role in solving problems as they have immense knowledge of their environments, are first to identify changes and adapt to them, and understand very well changes in time and seasons through their traditional knowledge (i.e. mating and migration habits of animals, when particular plants flower, etc.)

- Local knowledge is being neglected, despite many key stakeholders purporting to be involving and empowering local communities in climate change and adaptation

- Climate change policies are still being debated

- Various civil organisations engage in climate change adaptation (i.e. improved farming practices, recycling, rainwater harvesting, beekeeping, butterfly farming, ecotourism, etc.)

- No clear mechanism for sharing information

- Most rural initiatives are urban-based, implementing grassroots programmes without an accurate understanding of the issues facing the communities; also a lack of follow-up

- Indicators of climate change: changes in temperature and precipitation, increase of disease, lower crop yields, invasive species, etc.

- Recommendations: need a platform for sharing info, specific activities, common understanding, more interaction between civil societies and communities, need for advocacy and coordination of efforts, and more research needs to be done

Population Fluctuations and Diet at Roosting Sites of Straw-Coloured Fruit Bats by Paul W.

- Almost ¼ of mammals in Kenya are bats; second highest number of species after Congo

- IUCN red list: 5 species extinct, 26 critically endangered, 52 endangered, 94 vulnerable, 83 near threatened, 203 data deficient

- Document distribution and status of 108+ bat species, map and prioritize key roost sites for protection, gather samples to study bat taxonomy, diet, parasites and pathogens, develop a comprehensive call library to assist in identifying

- Collect bat museum vouchers, fecal material for analysis, collect ectoparasites, tissue samples to fuel genetic and pathogen screening; bats have transmitters attached to research, and are trapped it in a cage and document their calls

- Bats migrate but little is known about them so we’re unsure where they go

- Studies have been done to determine how roost sites are selected; number of branches ended up being most critical factor

- Straw-coloured fruit bats feed on 31 plant species, primarily figs; some species can travel up to 9kms in one night, dispersing seeds in a wide area so are crucial to ecological process and helpful in areas that have been cleared of vegetation

- Contrary to popular belief, bats are not blind, though they rely primarily on echolocation to navigate dark forests at night; unusual mouth and nose shapes help them to channel the sounds

- Feared and killed out of ignorance, but are critical in seed dispersion, plant pollination, and insect control; each bat can feed on up to 1000 insects per hour, thus contributing greatly to population control of insects, including mosquitos, which carry malaria

- Bat droppings (guano) is a rich fertiliser and many people harvest it; those who see the value in it will aid in their conservation

Investigating and Promoting Natural Pest and Weed Suppression by Birds in Nyandarua by Paul Ndang’ang’a

- Birds are known as a very good indicator of the health of an environment

- In designated areas, counted bird species four times (twice in wet season, twice in dry season); also did vegetation assessments

- Birds tend to prefer more trees, complexity in species and vegetation; will find more diversity

- In areas dominated by cultivation, most birds were found to be foraging from the ground and were grain eaters, eating a lot of wheat seeds with higher numbers taking seeds, fruits and flowers compared to other food types

- Conclusions: most birds forage from the ground, given high intake of seeds from the ground (dry season) and weeds (wet season), birds potentially significantly contribute to weed control

- Crop damage was low because the birds were actually feeding from the ground and not the crops directly

- Performed experiments on kale and compared pest damage and abundance between kale grown in cages and plants not in cages; found that birds are reducing leaf damage by 3x and heavy aphid infestation by 130%

- Did a similar experiment with weeds and found that birds reduced weeds by 22% on average

- Conclusion: avian foraging behaviour significantly contributes to weed and pest control, but to low levels of crop damage

- Recommendations: have structurally rich agricultural landscape to attract more birds, study which crops benefit from which birds,

determine which weeds are most effectively controlled by birds

Role of Tree Seed in Conservation and Reforestation by Helen Thorton-Mutiso

- Established in 2006, started by establishing seed collectors from local community and created a seed source for its nursery; Scouts came and offered assistance, so had them go out and map local trees (scout movement is 300,000 members)

- Currently out with KFS to identify and map trees and collect seed in gazetted forests, in conjunction with local community forest associations (CFAs)

- Project: Planet Positive Reforestation: highest success rates are with intercrops of indigenous and exotic plants; exotic trees are removed and used in other means once the indigenous trees have become established

- Seed source mapping is done in one of two methods:

- Manual – 1:10,000 maps, compasses and pacing, field identification and physical samples; this method involves walking and counting paces, which is tough with thick undergrowth/forests

- Digital – smart phones for GPS location, photographs and tree identification and digital mapping; taking the photo with a smart phone automatically tracks the GPS location.

- Have been talking to Google; smart phone app development of Google Goggles to identify Kenyan trees; this can also mark tree locations (GPS) and allows for photographs of the trees

- Also have plans to create a Google Earth layer to map all mother trees for seed source

- KFS and Community Based Forest Associations: KFS agreement to collect tree seed in gazetted forests

- Benefits are income generation, increased

awareness of indigenous trees, community security for mother trees, broader range of seed available for reforestation projects, ensures biodiversity is maintained, protects and ensures survival of vulnerable, rare and endangered species

Status and Assessment of Humphead Wrasse Stock by NyagaKanyange

- Listed in IUCN red list as vulnerable, populations are decreasing, information its status is scant in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO); there’s a very strong correlation to the need in Kenya and the disappearance of the fish, but also fetches high live food fish price in Asia

- Naturally rare, largest resident reef fish, grows up to 2 meters, 70kg, though few fish over 30cms are being caught now

- As they aggregate when breeding it makes them more vulnerable because the fishermen know where they’re grouped during spawning

- When there’s a shortage of males, the females change to males (sequential hermaphroditism)

- Objective: describe the status of the wrasse in Kenya (southern coast), to estimate stock size from catch data, to verify local fishermen’s knowledge about the fish, to identify the fishing areas, to provide background information and data for conservation, management and future research

- Difficult to monitor and accurately assess stocks

- Species specific management plans and regulations are needed; a regional monitoring programme is necessary within the WIO

Creating Impact from Small Resources in Rural Uganda

- Cut off from the rest of Uganda for two decades by the LRA, and with men escaping to cities to avoid abduction, women were left with the

responsibilities of providing for their families

- 83% of women are employed by agriculture but their responsibilities are many so productivity was low

- Community was asked to identify which women should participate in the project, with a focus on those who were relying on tobacco growers, loggers, and charcoal burners as these activities have the greatest negative impact on the environment

- Participants were then educated on farming techniques and each member worked their own piece of land

- Members unanimously agreed to grow onions, but after poor performance many also added groundnuts

- Poor performance was due to mismanagement of nurseries and a lack of access to market information; growers were not aware that they were already living in the area with the greatest demand for their product and believed they had to export it, which led to them storing it and ultimately to a lot of food spoilage

- Achievements include CBO registered with functional structures and a savings account, 120 community members trained in onion growing, 3000 trees planted in area, 20 tobacco growers and charcoal burners abandoned their practices in favour of onion growing, 5000 GBP generated

- Also saw improvements in family relationships as the men returned from years in self-imposed exile

Mobile Education Unit by Gabriel Ngale

- WCK formed in 1968 by 12 Kenyan schools when the students had the urge to be involved in conservation; first school-based conservation effort founded by students in Africa

- Vision is empowered Kenyans with conservation knowledge for sustainability and

motto is learn to conserve for a better tomorrow

- MEU is an outreach education programmeequipped with AV, generator, filming equipment, etc; Addresses issues thematically,provides learning support materials, and has a problem solving approach

- Objective is to educate Kenya’s school youth in wildlife and environmental conservation, to establish clubs in the schools, to guide the schools to initiate conservation activities;from education to action

- People who understand their connectivity with nature are more likely to take action and 60% of Kenyans are youths

- Objectives were to educate kids, guide schools in initiating activities, and establish wildlife clubs in schools

- Target was to reach 80,000 children and reached 122, 689; 83% of schools were visited for the first time by a programme of this nature which represents a 54% increase in the number of schools reached the previous year

- Target was to have 50% of visited schools start a wildlife club, but actually 83% of them formed the clubs and registered with us, joining our network

- Membership benefits include reduced entry to Kenya’s parks, receive Komba magazine three times per year, visits by MEU, chance to win in wildlife competitions, use WCK facilities at half rate, and a chance to conserve

- Target was 20,000 seedlings planted and planted 18,400, but severe drought forced delays in planting that otherwise would’ve taken place

Innovative Approaches for Biodiversity Conservation by James Mwang’ombe

- Taita Hills indigenous forest fragments are of global conservation importance; area includes the largest elephant population and other

endangered species such as black rhino, horiola antelope and Grevy’s zebra

- Second most visited park after Maasai Mara and highest income earner for KWS

- Conservation issues: it’s one of the few places where almost all known threats to biodiversity are active; habitat degradation, habitat fragmentation (research indicates that about 98% of the original forest cover has been lost over the last 200 years), and climate change effects

- Effects include extinction of plants and animal taxa, severe threat of endemic species, loss of ecosystem services, increased crop loss, increased human/wildlife conflict

- Ultimate solution is to enhance indigenous forest cover but is difficult and enhanced indigenous forest connectivity is more feasible

- Started with workshop and produced three key recommendations: forest enrichment, matrix enrichment, convert exotic plantations back to indigenous species

- Achievements: establishment of tree nursery and raising of indigenous tree seedlings, identification of the farms falling within the least-cost paths and corridors, create incentives for farmers to participate in nature-based enterprises such as carbon trade through linkage with TIST, beekeeping, butterfly farming, fish farming, production of handicrafts

Conservation Awareness Campaign for the Protection of Critically Endangered Jipe Tilapia and Its Habitat by J. Mshana

- Almost 100% of Lake Jipe in Tanzania is utilised for fishing

- Mosquito nets are commonly used as fishing nets as they are provided for free by the government; nets are treated with insecticides and the effects on the environment are untested/unknown

- As the holes in the nets are very small, everything gets captured which means that juveniles are being caught before they can reproduce

- Project is implementing different conservation approaches such as awareness education to primary and secondary school children, teachers, environmental journalists and residents living around the lake

- Performed ecological survey: water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, total dissolved salt (TDS), type of fishing gears, size of fish caught, status of nursery and spawning habitats

- Conducted interviews with key informants, village leaders and fishermen; Public Education Environmental Awareness Tool Kit was used as teaching guidelines during training; also held poetry and art competitions with the theme of conserving Lake Jipe

- Founded school environmental clubs with the support of ‘Malihai Club of Tanzania

- Invited media to visit the lake to observe the various threats

- Project Achievements: fishing activities have decreased from 80% to 40%, and have changed to agricultural and livestock activities; environmental education and awareness was provided to students, committees, fishermen, youth and parents

- Documentary was produced with assistance of ‘Malihai Club of Tanzania that shows the threats facing the lake ecosystem; will be provided to schools and media

- Recommendations: awareness creation at the slopes of the Pare Mountains, need to establish cross boundary lake conservation plan to include the protection of the lake and its environment, alternative livelihood activities should be introduced, call for international involvement, tree planting, reduce numbers of

livestock but increase efficiency and income, training on improved agriculture, establish beach management unit

Tourism Used as a Vehicle for Environment Conservation and Community Development by Felix

- Few permanent residents; only 1000 during farming season, very poor, one basic primary school only

- The Elephant Centre (TEC) is a community owned and run tourism site; 15 acre property surrounded by cotton fields; often visited by elephants and other animals; TEC offers meals, drinks and camping services, including toilet and shower facilities

- Prior to TEC, poaching was occurring frequently and TEC was initially seen as an annoyance as it was impeding the existing practices, but are slowly changing the view to that tourism is a more valuable use of time and resources

- Involve ex-poachers and the local community, who already have great knowledge of the environment, which is a key point for success

- Working on community sensitisation, but progress is slow

- Created a much nicer environment within TEC which the local community now enjoys spending time in

- Issues facing Kikorongo: drought, park community conflicts, poverty, problem animals (human/wildlife conflicts), low infrastructure development, marginalised children/youth and women, illiteracy and lack of awareness of the park

- Focuses and concerns of TEC: increasing population, household poverty, climate changes, conservativeness, lack of awareness, community park conflicts, problem animals

- Community needs lead to conservation threats: food (game meat), money (charcoal burning)

and energy (firewood collection), jobs (meat roasting, trees for stakes), shelter (tree cutting), medical care (collection of herbs and tree skins)

- TEC is a tourism project which will enhance financial benefits, improving local life (building schools, government involvement, etc.), and development and partnerships

- Achievements: employment of three full-time staff from local community, sell local handicrafts, purchase of the local foods for the tourists, market for community tourism activities, local community tours under development

Role of CBOs in Management of Forest, Water and Soil by Kato Shaban

- NGO/CBOs are typically value-based organisations which depend, in whole or in part, on charitable donations and voluntary service

- Difference between CBOs and NGOs: CBOs are grassroots organisations or people’s organisations, typically are membership organisations; NGOs are intermediary organisations which are formed to serve others

- First appeared after WWII but began increasing exponentially in the 80’s due to expanding market economies, economic reforms and shrinking states

- NGOs/CBOs role in ecosystem management include: initiating and strengthening framework for sustainable ecosystem management plan, policy and programme; advocacy for programme visibility and good practices; promotion of participation and partnerships; build capacity

- Mt Elgon ecosystem is an important water catchment area in the region and is surrounded by densely populated farming communities; issues with landslides due to encroachment in the forest ecosystems

- Preliminary surveys of the study area revealed there are approximately 100 CBOs operating in

the area, but no NGOs, other than assistance through the CBOs

- Determined several criteria to investigate that were within international guidelines: maintenance of forest, water and soil ecosystem health and vitality; maintenance and appropriate enhancement of protective functions of forest, water and soil ecosystem; maintenance of socio-cultural, economic and political functions and conditions for forest, water and soil management

A New Population of De Brazza’s Monkey in Kenya – Iregi Mwenja

- Theorised that undocumented populations may exist elsewhere but it was largely assumed that these monkeys wouldn’t cross the Rift Valley and had a short range so few people believed that this project was worthwhile

- Findings made national headlines (Times Online, National Geographic News, etc.)

- DeBrazza’s monkeys are found in central Africa, prefer living in wet forests; rare and threatened in East Africa

- Initial investigations gave national estimates of approximately 200 monkeys; this study found in 2004 that there were at least 500, and 700 in 2006

- Objectives: establish the status and distribution of the monkeys in Mathew range, identify local threats, map the group’s distribution (used GPS coordinates when located them)

- Locals were trained to assist with survey

- Threats: habitat degradation caused by pursuit of pasture, food and medicinal herbs; aggravated by poor law enforcement, frequent drought, low level of awareness, insecurity and poor infrastructure

- “Late discovery” as animals are cryptic and elusive (very good eyesight and hearing), rarely use group calls and lack social alarm

calls, actively avoids polyspecific associations

Community Participation in Conservation in Lake Nakuru Catchment Environmental Conservation: A Case of River Njoro Watershed by Joseph Maina

- River Njoro is the only source of fresh water for Lake Nakuru; Lake Nakuru harbours thousands of flamingoes

- River is greatly degraded and over utilised

- Issues: irrigation, pollution, overgrazing and erosion by livestock, abstraction, logging, tourism

- Sensitising on current environmental issues, establish environmental club patrons’ network, establish tree nurseries in schools, training students and patrons how to manage the nursery and generate income, tree planting and labeling in schools

- Most important outcomes: increased awareness (pupils kept talking about the trees), tree growing culture is now being instilled in the students (pupils have pledged to adopt and plant trees when they join high schools), multiplier effect (parents went to nurseries to purchase trees so meant more traffic/conversation in the community)

- Next phase will focus more on schools and follow up with the pupils adopted trees needed; plan for expansion to other schools to cover more parts of Lake Nakuru region

- Challenges: took longer than the 6 months planned for the seedlings to mature and be transplanted, reaching out to all stakeholders, not a single event solution (i.e. requires continuous follow-up)

Community-Based Conservation of Oxystigma Msoo Tree Species in Rau Forest Reserve, Tanzania by Revocatus Petro

- Tree is a legume species; large tree restricted to small areas of wet forests

- Four of the five species are native to rainforests of Western and Central Africa and one is native to Eastern Africa (Tanzania and Kenya)

- Its environment is threatened by water regime change and firewood as well as due to high population pressure

- Was added to IUCN red list in 1998

- Project team collected data from ten concentric plots of 20m, trees were counted and measured

- Seeds were collected from mature trees in reserve and raised in nursery for about five months before transplanted to forest by the community

- Results of study: 2950 trees recorded in reserve; 83% of the recorded trees were seedlings; spoke to community and learned that since the saplings are straight and strong, they’re cut to use for making brooms

- Strategies formulated: encouraging villagers to grow the trees in their own woodlots, communities formulated bylaws that protects the trees from being cut unnecessarily, villagers were advised to use other less marketed trees instead of vulnerable tree species, increased awareness

- 5200 seedlings were transplanted in the reserve

- 52% of transplanted seedlings survived; mean height of 2.0m; success rate was affected by timing of planting

- Shared results through facilitating visits to nurseries, made publications in TAFORI newsletter, produced brochures for distribution

Pro-Poor Community Eco-Tourism as a Window for Sustainable Ecosystem Conservation by D Nkwanga

- Extensive marsh stretching through a long bay fringed with papyrus towards the main body of Lake Victoria

- Home to the Shoe Bill, which is a flagship species of the wetland and a major tourist attraction

- Challenges: sand mining, hunting that involved burning, poaching on birds, eggs and animals, unsustainable wetland agriculture

- Locals did not appreciate the value of tourism as they weren’t directly seeing any funds coming into their community

- Approaches used: mobilised communities (trained them in eco-tourism, group dynamics, conservation and wise-use approaches, identification of other tourist attractions); set up an eco-tourism information centre constructed with community contribution, installed with solar, computer, internet access; demonstrating best conservation practices (clean ups, catchment protection and enrichment, alternative green IGAs)

- Achievements: community motivated to conserve and guard their ecosystem, interventions were able to contribute to develop community institutions and further cohesion building for joint community action expanded the tourism baseand contributed to reducing the pressure on the wetland resource; contributed to improving collaborations with stakeholders; reduction in burning by 75%, reduction of poaching (e.g. only one case reported in a 2-year period), other stakeholders have been able to build on the project’s interventions

- Community involvement at all stages of the project cycle has facilitated sustainability of interventions put into place, enhances ownership and responsibility

- Challenges: policy lapses and insufficient support, some challenges are bigger than the group’s capacity, competition of actors in the tourist guide business (e.g. introduction of motorised boats), mechanised sand mining (causes artificial lakes in what was previously a wetland, changes entire ecosystem, fish

breeding grounds destroyed, death of people and animals from drowning)

- Boats cause noise pollution which scares away wildlife; also leaves oil pollution on/in water which affects marine life (i.e. lung fish are repelled by this pollution, which is the primary food source of the Shoe Bill)

- Next steps: research on impact of sand mining, using scientific facts to engage political leaders/local government action to stop degradation, enhanced connectivity of conservation efforts in neighbouring Mpigi District

- Wetlands occupy 13% of the land cover in Uganda; more than half degraded

- Wambabya is one of the most important ecosystems with high biodiversity, ecological and economic values; source of water for over 50,000 people and is used in hydro-power generation

- Threats: reclamation for agriculture and settlement, sand mining and brick making, dumping, motor vehicle washing

- Uganda is second country after Canada to enact legislation on wetlands and yet with one of the highest levels of degradation

- Objectives: strengthen public participation in conservation activities, build capacity of locals, determine workable remedies to address threats

- Key activities: mobilisation and sensitisation, formation of management committees, participator identification of degraded wetland patches and earmarking them for regeneration, creating buffer zone along wetlands by planting trees, monitoring and evaluation

- Challenges: political interference, influx of jobless youth who had been anticipating work from oil and gas companies end up washing vehicles, resistance from areas where vehicles are washed

- Lessons learnt: conservation is not one man’s initiative but mixed effort from a range of stakeholders, conservation requires political support, community involvement is necessary, people still considered wetlands to be waste lands

Collaborative Action for Conservation of Dunga

Papyrus Swamp IBA by Evarastus Obura

- Dunga swamp is one of papyrus fringes on shores of Lake Victoria; covers an area of almost 5 sq. km.; habitat to papyrus restricted bird species

- Threats: expansion/population explosion, upstream livelihood activities (e.g. deforestation, poor farming practices, diversion of streams, invasive species)

- Past Interventions: education and awareness, establishment of community action groups/capacity building, promotion of alternative livelihood/eco-tourism, energy saving, sustainable farming, beekeeping, one private campsite established

- Impacts to date: 10 community groups active in environmental and eco-tourism activities, improved living standards for people involved in eco-tourism, 2 farmer’s associations cooperating with conservation partners, increased tree cover in Kajulu catchment and reduction in deforestation, 7500 seedlings planted and increasing, new partnerships borne for conservation, monthly upstream bird walks

- Challenges: first honey that was harvested could not be processed so was locally consumed, media coverage did not focus on desired areas

- Future plans: building community eco-resource, more upstream rehab, improve reach of energy saving project, plans to partner with VIRED to involve at least 100 more farmers to engage in beekeeping

- Won award for being best student mentorship opportunity

Skills and Experiences in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, Best Practices and Strategies by Dr. Begambe Steven

- Climate change is having disastrous consequences in the East African region, Africa

and the world

- Many natural disasters today are associated with climate change; if not directly caused by climate change, their intensity and/or frequency is increased as a result

- Climate change mitigation is the action taken intended to reduce the severity and impact of climate change

- Benefits to tree planting: reduce deforestation due to fuel wood, soil erosion control, soil fertility improvement, provide shade and habitats, timber tree species to reduce pressure on forests for building materials, land rehabilitation, fruit trees for food security, medicinal trees, wind break trees to reduce impacts of weather, ornamental trees, attracting bees to aid in pollination, provide natural fences

- Climate change adaption refers to adjustment to suit and bear with the impact of climate change

- UN REDD+ concept is premised on payment for ecosystem services (giving communities natural resources dependent communities and indigenous peoples)

- Strategic interventions for building community resilience: enhanced irrigation methods, rainwater harvesting, more energy efficient stoves, use of renewable/alternative enery sources, diversification of livelihood among natural resource dependent communities, information sharing and awareness creation, use of early warning systems, planting of tree species that are weather/insect resistant, relocation of resources from high risk areas

- Weak/temporary coping mechanisms include growing crops in wetlands, taking loans without understanding how to manage, reduction in meals eaten per day, prostitution, charcoal burning and poaching, petty theft, gambling, etc.

Integrated Community-Based Human/Wildlife

Conflict Management – Dr. Andama Edward

- Human wildlife conflict (HWC) is any interaction resulting in negative effects on human social, economic or cultural life, on wildlife conservation or on the environment

- HWC is a major constraint in the management of Protected Areas (PA)

- Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahingo National parks are examples of where these conflicts are found; animals can eliminate your agricultural efforts in very little time, causes emotional reactions

- Animal attacks can cause disabilities, dismemberment or death

- Disease transmission to/from animals which are closely related to us (e.g. gorillas)

- Kigezi region in Uganda has highest human population in the country, many farm right at park boundary which means more exposure to animals

- Compensation for damage done by wildlife is not available; do not have the funding or the ability to substantiate claims

- Uganda Wildlife Authority does not have adequate capacity to respond to all threats

- These negative experiences erode local support for conservation efforts, especially since food security is threatened further

- Goal of study was to initiate strategies for sustainable management of HWC

- Established sampling grids to determine the amount and frequency of crop loss; group discussions within community regarding same

- Strategies included removing the most troublesome baboons to see if there was a change, planting of non-palatable crops, stone fencing, trapping rodents, and/or guarding crops

- Also planted hedges as boundaries and/or surrounding crops to determine if this would reduce the presence of animals; found that areas where the hedges were uniform and thick the measure was quite effective, but efficacy decreased when density was reduced

- Attempted trapping baboons and relocating ones causing difficulties but proved to be a temporary solution

- Stone walls targeted buffalos; was effective but farmers broke down parts of the wall to allow their cows through

- Trapping rodents provided a significant reduction in loss of Irish potatoes, successfully regulated the population of rats and provides an additional source of protein

- Crop guarding needed to be guarded for a period of 4-5 months and requires constant presence of people, but in some instances entire crops were lost when guarding was neglected for one day

- Tea crops were planted as boundaries as baboons find them difficult to run through

- Many animals don’t like moving through open spaces so attempts were made at buffering farmland with grazing areas, was effective for most animals except for baboons

- Increasing the distance from the park boundaries reduced the raids

- Planting wheat, chilies and lemongrass as animals find them unpalatable

- Farmers participate more when there are financial gains to be made

- Conclusions: None of these measures are 100% effective but many are promising, especially when used in combination