Ngong Forest

Located at approximately 6Km from the city center, The Ngong Forest Sanctuary is an interesting site for non invasive outdoor activities which includes forest walks, bird watching, jogging, picnicking , cycling, dog walks and, horse riding. We have organized annual events like forest fun run, kids run and art in the forest while some activities like bike rides are ocassionally organized on Sundays, forest walks are there every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the Month.

Forest walk

Horse riding

Cycling

If you want to have a feel of the forest, join us this Saturday for a forest walk

What will you need for the Walk?

Well, we have our rangers who will take you through the forest, help you in the identification of birds and tree species

Come with your binoculars ,a note book, a pen, a bird guide book and of course the right outfit for a walk!

What will you be required to do before the walk.

Kindly inform us, you can call us on 0729840715 or 020 2113358 , or Email to office@ngongforest.com

Venue

Ngong Racecourse at 9.00 Am, you will find our rangers at the site

Charges

For information on entry rates, visit our website on www.ngongforest.org

Income generated from the walks contributes towards recurrent costs.

If you would like to donate towards protection of this adorable forest reserve,donate in the open donation option on the right.

Thanks to our supporters,friends,donors ,readers of our blogs and not to mention our visitors.

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Following the last blog posting, I duly hit the sack and didn’t emerge until 5:15am to open the nets at dawn.. a beautifully crystal clear dawn with awe-inspiring views for miles and miles across the plains from Lions Bluff which stands some 200m above the surrounding plains. Whilst it was dire for catching migrants, it was still stunning and the most beautiful morning.

  Dawn at Lions Bluff – looking across to Chawia peak of the Taita Hills

We duly went ahead and put more nets up being assisted by Chris and Kobin who are keen birders working at the lodge. By a lateish breakfast we had 8 nets up and set more for Barn Swallows with a recording of their song going underneath – which had a magical effect on the swallows bringing them in a huge swirling flock over the speaker but unfortunately not low enough to get caught in the nets – perhaps too exposed? too windy? We caught a few but not the dozens I was hoping, and then the iPod packed up and started freezing / crashing which didn’t help matters.

The (slightly) early start of 5:45am for some others meant that with the slow pace of catching that we were having, Al gently nodded off in between net rounds…

Working the volunteers too hard??!

In total we caught about 35 birds, about 10 of which were migrants including a female Irania (also known as White-throated Robin) which was v nice, and several Spotted Flycatchers. Best bird was probably the White-headed Buffalo Weaver pair that were caught in the swallow nets. I’d not realised just how huge they are – and they have a powerful peck as Albert and Titus found out when ringing them

  Titus with White-headed Buffalo Weaver

As we had some time on our hands, it was a good chance to get out and do a Eurasian Roller survey. Chris joined us together with Bernard, one of the Lumo Conservancy rangers who is also keen on birds, and we piled into the back of ‘Kiboko’ our trusty pick-up and headed for the plains. We actually hit pretty large numbers of Rollers in the somewhat open wooded grassland at the base of the hill as well as having four Grasshopper Buzzards which I don’t see very often. As we neared Lion Rock we saw several tourist vans clumped together and predicted it would be a lion – sure enough, there she was perched on top of an exposed rock only about 60m from the track. We of course had an open pick-up full of juicy lion tidbits in the back and it was amazing to see her suddenly perk up and show a lot of interest in us – particularly Sam for some reason! Needless to say we didn’t hang around but continued on (allowing Albert to find us a Spotted Eagle Owl not far from the lion in a fig tree).

It was a very successful roller survey and we had some other good things to see too – well worth the expedition.

out on the Lumo plains – looking at a huge Baboon Spider nest by the pick-up when we’d stopped for a Red-winged Lark

view of Lions Bluff from the plains below – our netting site is at the right hand end of the photo just below the brow of the hill

Technorati Tags: Lumo Conservancy, Ngulia, A Rocha, Lions Bluff, ringing, migration, Eurasian Roller, lion,

Well I finished off last night at around 2a.m from where I was sitting it didn’t look very hopeful. However once I’d packed the computer away and went out onto the patio to look properly the cloud was lower than I thought and there were in fact one or two birds flying around. By 3:30am I figured it was worth giving it a go – so it was to wake Janette to get the night nets and Toby & Keith to help put them up – by 3:45am we had the first net up and pretty soon the second and had caught half a dozen birds – the Ngulia phenomenon had finally come! Others got up to help and then at around 4am it started to rain! and not just a few drops – very soon it was chucking it down and we had to close the nets as to have birds caught in a net and then drenched can cause them to chill very fast and die. We opened and closed the nets a couple more times as the rain stopped and came on again between then and dawn and in all caught just over 30 birds – at least a sample of weights and fat scores for the night which is always interesting.

So it was with renewed energy and anticipation that we went out at 5:40am to open the rest of the bush nets – I didn’t think there would be really huge numbers and sure enough, while there were certainly plenty of birds in the bush, it wasn’t really heaving as it can be and we ended up with a very reasonable catch of c.700 birds total. The diversity was the wonderful thing about the catch.

Scopus, David M and Tito ringing birds (finally!) at Ngulia

I get used later in December to catching 1000s of Marsh Warblers and often not much else (see last year’s blog 19th Dec 08 where we caught over 57% Marsh Warblers!). This time we had 3 or more Garden Warblers (some years we only catch 3 in total), 5 or 6 Sedge Warblers (again some years we only get 1 or 2), several Basra Reed Warblers, Olivaceous Warbler, a Rufous Bush Chat and then the stars of the show – a female Golden Oriole and no less than two Asian Lesser Cuckoos!

Asian Lesser Cuckoo – a first year bird

I was then hammering along through the Marsh and Whitethroats and pulled out of a bag a long-snouted but very small and greyish ‘Marsh Warbler’ that really did not look like a Marsh Warbler… Sure enough the notch on the second primary was way too long making it another Euro Reed Warbler, but then the winglenth was only 64 and basically all the Reeds we get at Ngulia have long wings of 68-72 mostly – this was in fact 2mm shorter than the shortest recorded. It also looked odd and so we looked very hard and long at it and got out lots of books to see if it wasn’t in fact a Blythe’s Reed Warbler – an central Asian species that winters in the far East (and so would be VERY lost if it was in fact one). They look very very similar to a Eurasian Reed so we took some time over it but in the end decided whilst certain features fitted Blythe’s, it was in fact just a very small Eurasian Reed.

small bird.. greyish… but no real supercilium

notice the very long notch

It was then time to head out with Titus and head for Lions Bluff Lodge in the Lumo Conservancy – a site where I suspected the ‘Ngulia phenomenon’ might also occur and it would be very interesting to see what birds we’d catch and if we caught any ringed at Ngulia just 55kms to the north. We eventually left on the staff bus and I fell asleep only to be awoken by the bus jolting to a stop and Tito waking me saying ‘look! look!’ – a pack of real, live (and very full stomached!) Wild Dogs!!! A friend had seen two Wild Dogs in Tsavo West about four years ago which we had got very excited about as this species is fast becoming rarer and rarer and is very hard to see. I remember as a lad growing up in Nairobi, we used to see them every time we went into Nairobi National Park – where they have now long been extirpated (locally extinct). These were the first I’ve seen in many many years and they were just loafing by the side of the road!!! If anyone reading this knows who this important record should be reported to, please let me know.

Wild Dogs in Tsavo West

We eventually got to Mtito Andei (after seeing 15-20 Amur Falcons feasting on termites together with Stepped Eagles strewn all over the road picking termites off the road surface – the first Amurs we’ve seen. It’s amazing how at this time year, you get rain… and you get Amurs immediately after. They must see the rain from miles and miles away and come in for it as that’s where the good feeding is) and straight onto a bus for Voi. Getting there we were relieved to see ‘Kiboko’ – our land cruiser – with Albert, Nick, Al and Sam waiting patiently for us to turn up.

It’s not far from there to Lumo (c. an hour’s drive) though we were delayed on the way by elephant on the main road which we had to stop and admire. At the gate to Lumo, Agnes, one of the rangers, sorted our tickets very nicely and politely and we drove the 5kms to Lions Bluff seeing a Kudu on the way and discussing the potential for the site for ringing. We were given a wonderful welcome by the staff and immediately took Kobin to assist us in putting up a net and locating the best spot for the flood light we’d brought with us to compliment the lodge’s spot lights. In between some heavy rain and dinner we managed to get the nets and light up and left them open in the vague hope that the African Scops Owl calling not far beyond where we put the nets might come up to see what was going on and get caught (it didn’t!).

at the gate to Lumo Conservancy

Now it’s 3:45am and I got up to see what was happening with the mist. There was some not bad mist though a bit high when we went to bed at 10pm and Tito and I had seen 4-5 birds but they were staying high and not coming down. We figured we’d get some sleep and then try at 2am. The mist had lifted somewhat but there is still low cloud and I saw one or two birds just now (had to wake the night watchman to switch the generator on who has also kindly got me a couple of Masai shukas (red cloths) to keep a bit warm and fight off the mosquitos) but the mist hasn’t come in properly yet – at 5am Solomon (watchman) says… We’ll see! I might hit the sack again now and try to get some sleep – having said that a bird just flew into the window which is a hopeful sign. Perhaps I won’t be sleeping much again?!!! – I’ll tell you more tomorrow…

Technorati Tags: Ngulia, ringing, Blythe’s Reed Warbler, A Rocha, Lumo Conservancy, Lions Bluff, elephant, Wild Dog,

It’s getting rather tedious and repetitive to report that once again there was no mist… When I went to bed last night at 3:30am and Peter took over the watch, there was low cloud clearly lit up by the lights and even 4-5 birds that I saw dropping down and flying just below the cloud level. This was looking encouraging and we thought Peter might wake us in just 1/2 hour… but it was not to be and the cloud lifted and the birds vanished with the stars coming out once more. 18 ringers were up at dawn (actually, I confess – when I woke at 5:15am and saw it was clear, I had an extra hour’s kip!) and at the 15 or so nets opened to catch any migrant that had arrived over night. The grand total for the day was just 11 migrants in the bush nets and then the redeeming Barn Swallows once again – giving a daily total of at least over 100 – 108 to be precise. This makes the grand total so far this year at only just over 1,200 birds – of which hardly 100 have been migrants other than Barn Swallows!! This is pretty much unheard of and at this rate it’ll be the worst year since 1987 when just 2,400 were ringed – though all of those would have been non-swallows making this even worse! There is the December session to redeem the totals, and still a week of possible nights here…

Toby and Keith had put up some additional 4-5 nets in the old original ringing site along the entrance road to the lodge in the hopes of increasing the catch – even the Afrotropical catch. Surprisingly they caught very few though did produce the first Spotted Flycatcher of the season.

Those ringers for who it’s their first time here are beginning to wonder if it’s all just stories – that of 1,000s of birds in just a few hours – and I don’t blame them! We did catch a retrap Nubian Woodpecker which was very nice to have – the first known adult bird retrap I’ve handled and good to make some notes on. It was a shame that Bruria from Israel and John Musina (Nairobi museum) had to leave today without seeing even one night of mist and real Ngulia action, though both seemed to have enjoyed their time anyway.

Due to it being so quiet, it was perfect to do the Eurasian Roller survey and raptor road count that I started last year and hope to do at least once per year while here at Ngulia. Keith, Toby, Mike and David kindly offered to take me in their Suzuki Maruti (not the world’s most spacious of vehicles…!) and so we set off at about 11am with me standing up through the open roof between Mike and David. For the Rollers we use the Distance Sampling method of recording the distance from the road for each bird seen and the distance travelled for the transect. This is then fed into the Distance program which will give you an estimate of overall density of birds in a given area. I’ve not done the Distance calculations but we saw a total of 42 Rollers today, some of them just a metre or two from the road.

Eurasian Roller by Peter Usher

But it was the raptors that really made the day – particularly a large, light brown Accipiter first seen chasing and trying to catch a cisticola (tho’ the cisticola was too agile for the Accipiter and escaped being lunch) and then mobbing a Wahlberg’s Eagle in a tree. It had heavy dark barring underneath, a plain throat, bright yellow eyes and a very clear supercilium – that made it very much an adult female Eurasian Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus – the first record I’m aware of for Kenya for c.5-6 years and one of what must be less than 20 records ever. Toby managed to get a very reasonable shot of it:

Eurasian Sparrowhawk in Tsavo West by Toby Collett

Not long after that with a herd of very red elephant as a backdrop, we watched a wonderful aerial display of a Brown Snake Eagle with a snake being harassed high in the sky by first one Steppe Eagle, then another, then a pair of Wahlberg’s Eagles joined in the fray doing some steep diving display flight for boot and then finally a massive juvenile Martial Eagle came hammering in from about a km away and laid into first a Steppe Eagle which turned up-side-down with talons bared about 1,000feet up in the sky and then the Martial went for the other Steppe which was not far behind one of the Wahlberg’s – all of them spiralling and towering way up in the sky… Meantime over to the left a ways was the female White-headed Vulture, an increasingly rare bird to see and definitely one to really watch out for these days.

Steppe Eagle – by Toby Collett

Total count for the day was as follows:
Wahlberg’s Eagle – 7
Steppe Eagle – 13
Tawny Eagle – 5
Martial Eagle – 2
African Hawk Eagle – 2
Black-chested Snake Eagle – 2
Brown Snake Eagle – 3
African Fish Eagle – 2
Eurasian Sparrowhawk – 1
Bateleur Eagle – 6
White-backed Vulture – 9
Ruppell’s Griffon Vulture – 7
White-headed Vulture – 1
Secretary Bird – 3
Augur Buzzard – 1
Gabar Goshawk – 1

White-backed Vultures in the sunset by Toby Collett

Well – it’s 2a.m and the cloud is somewhat high – at least there is cloud and it’s not starry and clear, but unless it drops down further, we’re unlikely to get much of a catch again. I’ll post this and head to bed again and let Peter take over in an hour… Tomorrow I leave with Tito and head fo Lions Bluff Lodge – exactly 53km due south of here. I’m meeting up with Albert from Mwamba together with three volunteers (Sam, Al and Nick) to go and set nets in front of a spot light by the lodge to see if there is a similar effect as we have here at Ngulia. If it works, it could be very very interesting to compare with what we catch here – and you never know, we might even catch a bird ringed at Ngulia!

Technorati Tags: Ngulia, Tsavo West, raptors, roller, Distance Sampling, A Rocha, vulture, eagle, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Lions Bluff

I arrived back at Ngulia yesterday evening to find a full team of 18 ringers all keen to get into action in ringing the legendary thousands of migrant birds that come down to the lights of the lodge under the right conditions… but still so far there has been not a wisp of mist when it has been needed (the feature that together with the bright spot lights attracts the birds) and as a result we’ve only just passed the 1,000 bird mark today – of which over 900 are Barn Swallows!

I woke a couple of times in the night last night to check to see if the mist was rolling in and we’d be in action but to no avail and at 5:30am, the view of the front of the lodge looked like this:

Dawn Ngulia this morning – not a wisp of mist…

The three guys standing on the far right silhoutted are the Czech ringers who arrived at the weekend – seen below with Titus an half an hour later at the nets when things were at their busiest in terms of catching birds… yes, grand total for the morning catch was a mere 11 birds.

The unfortunate thing about not catching birds quite apart from having something to occupy the ringers that have come, is that we are missing a lot of very interesting and useful data on the numbers of birds that are passing through the area this year. The ringing here at Ngulia is a good way of monitoring population levels of the various migrant species – but only if we can get consistent conditions whereby we can catch good numbers of birds. As it is this year, we’ve not got anywhere near a representative number of birds with which to give any idea of how populations may be doing.

One thing that did happen today, however, was being able to keep an eye open for raptors moving through. Toby’s got a very good eye for picking them out a long way off and as we were at the net (mending one of the top shelves of a cliff-top net that was in bad need of a fix) we had three Ruppell’s Griffon Vultures cruise past heading north-east along the ridge. Vultures have become very few and far between in Tsavo these days when 20-30 years ago it was not hard at all to see vultures all over. Today, due mainly to poisoning I fear, numbers have plummeted and as a result these are the first ones we’ve seen at the lodge in a week… Large raptors are in serious trouble in Africa (as Simon Thomsett for one will confirm) and Tsavo – even as a National Park the size of Wales – is no exception. There has been a lot of poisoning going on around the edges of National Parks to kill predators that might threaten livestock and unfortunately birds of prey do not understand or adhere to park boundaries and end up feeding on the poisoned carcass left out and die in their hundreds.

There were a few other raptors today of interest – a Grasshopper Buzzard, the first Steppe Buzzard of the season at the lodge, 10-12 Steppe Eagles, the resident pair of Verreaux’s Eagles gave a stunning fly-by including some aerial display of towering stoops and climbs with one of them doing a complete 180 degree backwards roll at the top of one of its towers – awesome to watch. We had a several Wahlberg’s Eagles as well (apparently there’s a nest not far back along the road leading to the lodge) including a very very dark, practically black bird that was very smart to look at, two juvenile Black-chested Snake Eagles and a two African Hawk Eagles. Falcon-wise there were a couple of Euro Hobbies, one of the local pair of Lanners (pictured below banking at speed in a typically impressive falcon style), a single Amur falcon towards dusk, a juvenile Shikra in the trees around the lodge at breakfast and the pair of Verreaux’s Eagle Owls came to perch on the dead tree over the waterhole during dinner.

Lanner at Ngulia – not quite up to Simon Thomsett’s standard of photo!

As there were so few birds (even with walking through the bushes to flush any lurking Sprossers out – see Toby at work below…) we ended up putting up the swallow nets on the lawn (dirt, as it is this year….) earlier and catching c.75 birds over about 7 hours.

Some of the guys then decided to put up some nets in the quite significantly bushier area along the road leading into the lodge which is where we used to ring prior to 1995 when we started putting nets in front of the lodge as we found we caught many more migrants there. As its more bushy, there’s a greater chance of catching at least some more Afrotropical birds – for whom there’s just no cover nor food in the bush in front of the lodge yet given the lack of rain to stimulate vegetation growth. They caught a single Grey-backed Camaraptera and three aptly-named Superb Starlings – one of them pictured here.

Superb Starling having been ringed

The leopard came early to eat his snack satisfying the tourists many of whom come to Ngulia solely to see the leopard and meaning that if the mist comes in, we can put the nets up straight away without fear of disturbing tourists who’re staying up to watch for the leopard. It wasn’t looking too bad after dinner – we had a short briefing session to update all the team on where things stand and the plans for the night and morning and at the end of it the stars had disappeared and some lowish cloud come in. I went to bird early for once planning to get up at 00.30hrs to write this and wait for the mist to come in for real… of course when I got up just now, the cloud had cleared and it’s clear and starry once again and quite chilly. I reckon I’ll go hit the sack again once this has been posted and see if Peter can whistle up some mist during his watch from 3-4am.

Ngulia leopard having his snack…

Technorati Tags: Ngulia, ringing, Tsavo West, raptors, poisoning, A Rocha, vultures, Verreaux’s Eagle, Simon Thomsett, population monitoring

Am sitting in Mtito Andei waiting for the Ngulia staff bus and where it is hot, hot, hot and dry though with some clouds around which I can only hope means there’s at least some moisture in the air – but we badly need them to dump some rain on the land… I figured that since I don’t want to stay up late tonight struggling with trying to get a good spot for network on the eastern side of the dining room (the best spot is out on observation point but after dark the leopard likes to wander around there and it’s probably not a very clever idea to sit in the dark there blogging…!), that I would do the blog now.

I’ve heard from Titus and an email from Graeme that the ringers have had some excitement with a rhino in the or near the netting area! I’ll only find out the real details once I get back tonight, but apparently on Friday evening a rhino was seen somewhere near enough to frighten people into taking down the back line of nets and moving nearer to the lodge. As far as Tito has said it was only Friday it was seen and the news is that KWS have released another few rhino from the rhino sanctuary into the main park – hence the appearance of one at the nets!

However the news on the catching is just the same – no mist still and only about 80 birds ringed today. Dire or what?! We’ve got 18 ringers all champing at the bit and eager as anything to ring a couple of thousand migrants and there’s hardly enough for each person to ring more than a couple each! One of the nightmares that we fear each year at Ngulia as it doesn’t take long for people to get quite frustrated. There may a case for putting a couple of nets up at the back for some local birds (who have also seemed to have deserted the main netting area in front of the lodge).

So that’s news from here for now. I’m sitting in the KWS education centre just inside the main gate and had an Upcher’s Warbler feeding in the bush just outside the window half an hour ago and a female Paradise Flycatcher as I type; Black Cuckoo singing too, and a Spotted Flycatcher around as well as other usual Tsavo birds – White-bellied Go-Away-Bird, Slate-coloured Boubou etc..

Technorati Tags: Tsavo West, Ngulia, rhino, bird ringing, Upcher’s Warbler, A Rocha Kenya

Yes – I’ve heard back from Brian Finch, one of Kenya’s top bird guides and birders, who confirms he had a single bird in central Kenya in November 2003. That therefore makes this record of ours the third one – though he has yet to submit the record to the Rarities Committee (as do I!).

Technorati Tags: rarities, A Rocha Kenya

I’m still in Nairobi but heading back to Ngulia tomorrow so this will be short but the news from the lodge via Titus is that yet again there was no mist last night and no sign of rain on the plains to add moisture to the air and therefore hopefully bring mist… instead the numbers of ringers have increased by half again with three Czechs arriving and two more Brits making it an even more international affair. There were only 80 birds ringed today and of those only about 10 were not Barn Swallows – so even the swallows are reducing in number. No mention of anything unusual so I imagine it was mainly Sprossers with a good representation of Marsh Warblers and a handful of Whitethroats…

Here are a shot or two from the November session a couple of years ago when you can see just how desperately dry it is at the end of the dry season and before the rains really set in.

Sprosser hanging in the net waiting to be carefully extracted

(left to right) Kuria, Chege and Nico by the bush nets – who were the team with me that year. Nico is back this year with Tito and John

I’m on the bus in the morning back down to Mtito Andei and then waiting for the staff bus to give me a lift back to the lodge in the evening. Will hopefully have something to report on tomorrow.

A week or so ago, volunteer Al posted a blog for me about the amazing discovery of what turned out to be a national rarity – the two Greater Short-toed Larks Calandrella brachydactyla just in behind Turtle Bay Beach Club in Watamu. From the books it seemed like it was the third record for Kenya (the others being in 1964 at Diani on the south coast and a much earlier record in 1899) but it turns out that the 1899 record was misidentified and has since been rejected thus making this one (if it is accepted by the rarities committee of East Africa) as only the second record. The species is one that I used to catch and ring quite often in Portugal when I worked there and certainly saw many of – though that was getting on for 18 years ago and my memory isn’t as good as some!

Rehema, Albert & Al watching a pair of Greater Short-toed Larks near the mangroves of Mida not far from Turtle Bay…

This blog is mostly to post some images more of the bird with some annotations… make your own judgement of what it is – comments welcome!

  The small but visible dark patch on the side of the neck can be seen in the right hand bird here
quite finely streaked head and back
Note the buffy / yellowish bill, clear supercilium with dark post-ocular stripe (behind the eye); also the somewhat ‘bland’ face
bland face again clear here; also long tertials
The very plain underparts are an important ID characteristic together with the slight blotches on the side of the lower neck
The dark centres of the median coverts forming a dark wing bar are also a feature of the species
Here you can see the white outer tail feathers – just…
Clearly unmarked underparts

This one is a rather cool shot of it looking like a torpedo…

Verdict??

Technorati Tags: Greater Short-toed Lark, rarity, Turtle Bay, A Rocha Kenya,

The Dakatcha Woodlands form one of the 61 internationally important sites in Kenya for bird conservation (and therefore by assumption other biodiversity as well) – known as an ‘IBA’ (Important Bird Area).

a view of the Brachystegia woodland in Marafa – a few years ago before it was hit with charcoaling

It is the only other place on the planet that Clarke’s Weaver Ploceus golandii can be found apart from Arabuko-Sokoke Forest 30kms to the south and it also holds several other Threatened species such as Sokoke Pipit and more recently we discovered a population of Sokoke Scops Owls Otus irenae there. We have been working with NatureKenya to have the woodlands protected, to encourage the local community to stop cutting trees for charcoal and timber and instead to use it sustainably.

Endemic Clarke’s Weaver Ploceus golandii (by Steve Garvie)

NatureKenya has been doing a great work with local groups of young people to encourage them to take up birding and other conservation activities. This is one of the groups with Dominic Mumbu, the NK manager 4th from the left.

This year, however, an even more devastating threat is looming – one that is masquerading as an ‘eco-friendly project’… for bio-diesel. The Malindi County Council has welcomed a proposal by an investor, Kenya Jatropha Energy Limited, to clear large tracts of land for growing Jatropha curcas.  This South American bush has been aggressively promoted in Kenya for the ‘biodiesel’ extracted from the oil in its seeds. It is now being tried in localities that range from rainfall-rich Western Kenya to desert-like Magadi area. Yet little is currently known of the plant’s suitability, its yield under different conditions, and the market capacity. Talking to Ann and Ian Robertson in Malindi – Ian being an experienced farmer and agriculturalist and Ann one of East Africa’s leading botanists – who have planted some jatropha in their garden out of interest, they report that the yield from jatropha is hugely unpredictable, some years it can be good and others it can be dire – and with no apparent reason. As a result it is highly unlikely to be suitable crop to grow on a large commercial scale and much better to be grown by small holders who can exploit the good years and get something out of it and make ends meet on the bad years with the other crops they are growing.

The jatropha / biodiesel issue is going to be one of the hottest debates going in East Africa environmentally in the next few years. A lot of businessmen are likely to jump on the band wagon where they can see big funding coming from the West to fund what some see as effectively covering up the West’s guilt complex for the vast amounts of carbon pollution it is producing – i.e. “give money to developing countries to produce biodiesel so that we can maintain our lifestyles and claim to have reduced carbon emissions – oh, and shame about that priceless forest or wetland that was cleared to grow an alien monoculture, but it’s all for the greater benefit of the planet…”

Anyway – this debate could go on quite a long time here! The point is Dakatcha Woodlands really are under threat of disappearing under an alien monoculture – and thus causing probably at least one species to go extinct.

As A Rocha Kenya we are committed to finding lasting, long-term solutions for conserving such habitats and sites whilst at the same time ensuring that local communities can improve their lifestyles and living standards but reduce their ecological footprint. We have already started working with churches in the Dakatcha Woodlands to introduce them to Conservation Agriculture, a form of farming that hugely improves productivity whilst conserving the soil and in fact improving the soil such that farms become more productive over the years and not less (as they do using the traditional farming methods). This is just one way of seeking to improve the lot of the local communities while teaching them the importance of caring for the environment – God’s creation.

Conservation Agriculture training by Paul Simpson in Marafa, Nov ‘08 for church leaders

We’ve employed Gabriel Katana to work alongside the NatureKenya manager in Dakatcha and to also follow up on the Conservation Agriculture workshops we’ve held with church leaders there.

Katana – our right hand man in Dakatcha and doing a great job.
He’s also assisting in bird surveys and done some excellent work on finding how far the Sokoke Scops Owl is found as well as looking out for Clarke’s Weavers and keeping an eye open for where they might breed. The area is quite large however and currently he’s trying to do all this on just a bicycle or sometimes borrowing the piki (motorbike) that the NK manager uses. For him to be really effective we desperately need a piki for him – and then funds to cover its running. Katana’s salary has kindly been covered by a church in the UK, but any assistance towards purchasing a piki would be hugely appreciated.

More to follow…

Technorati Tags: Jatropha, bio-fuels, bio-diesel, Dakatcha, A Rocha Kenya, NatureKenya, Clarke’s Weaver, endemic, endangered species, conservation agriculture