Guardianship – We are caretakers of the land, safeguarding endangered species and ensuring the openness and accessibility of conservation for all.
Innovation – An innovative attitude is part of our make-up, we empower our people to think the same way and embrace new approaches to conservation.
Authenticity – We provide natural wilderness experiences, backed up by scientifically credible conservation and genuine interactions with wildlife.
The Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS Network) is a regional conservation organization with the mission to enhance biodiversity conservation and sustainable management of natural resources in the Albertine Rift region, Africa Great Lakes region and African Mountains through the promotion of collaborative conservation actions for nature and people.
ARCOS’ overall goal is to enhance conservation of critical ecosystems and promote sustainable development in the Albertine Rift region, Africa Great Lakes region and African Mountains through collaborative actions between various partners.
ARCOS is registered in the UK as a Charity and Company Limited by Guarantee, and in Rwanda and Uganda as an international NGO.
The Climate Action Network (CAN) is a worldwide network of over 1300 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in more than 120 countries, working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels.
CAN members work to achieve this goal through information exchange and the coordinated development of NGO strategy on international, regional, and national climate issues. CAN has regional network hubs that coordinate these efforts around the world.
CAN members place a high priority on both a healthy environment and development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland Commission). CAN’s vision is to protect the atmosphere while allowing for sustainable and equitable development worldwide.
PCLG international is a network for people who work in conservation, development and indigenous/local community rights. We share information and promote exchange on the links between people and conservation, including on issues of governance, equity, and human wellbeing.
The international network shares the latest news, opportunities, and research through our newsletters with a specific focus on Africa, Asia, Oceania, the Caribbean and Latin America. Key themes of people and conservation that we include are:
- ‘Community-based’ conservation, forest managament, wildlife management, and natural resource management
- Conflict, including human-wildlife conflict
- Culture, indigeneity, and religion
- Ecosystem services
- Gender
- Governance, justice, equity and human rights
- Human wellbeing and poverty
- Hunting (subsistence, traditional, trophy)
- Incentives, including payments for ecosystem services
- Social impacts of protected and conserved areas
- Wildlife trade (legal and illegal)
The network is coordinated by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
There are three PCLG national groups located in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Each group has a particular interest in the conservation of critically endangered great ape species. PCLG national groups define their own agendas related to conservation and development and are involved in research, communication and advocacy activities. IIED provides technical support to the national groups.
In Kiswahili the whale shark is called “papa shillingi”, translating as “shark covered in shillings”. There is a local legend that God was so pleased when he created this beautiful fish, that he gave his angels handfuls of gold and silver coins to throw down from heaven onto its back. So it goes that whale sharks have their magical markings and swim near the surface, catching the sun on their backs, as a way of saying thank you to their maker.
Whale sharks have called Kenyan waters home for many years. Recently, there has been a significant increasewhich is perhaps related to the post El Nino mantis shrimp invasion.
Based on Diani Beach the East African Whale Shark Trust was founded by Volker Bassen in response to the dramatic increase in sightings as well as increased interest from the tourist sector.
The increase in whale sharksalong the Kenyan coast has meant that they have become more of a target. Under international law, whale sharks are only given a secondary type of protection. They are listed under CITES Appendix II meaning that trade in whale sharks is allowed but must be monitored. Although relatively little is known about the biggest fish in the ocean, most specialists will agree that this level of protection is not enough.
The overall aim of many whale shark projects is to raise awareness so that the level of protection afforded to whale shark is increased. The more we know about whale sharks the easier it will be to review the level of protection. The EAWST aims to provide a research centre for collecting and analyzing data on the local whale shark population, its habits and movements. The Trust works closely with other regional organizations because whale sharks are migratory.
EAWST feels that their work to date is just the beginning for whale shark conservation in Kenya. The potential for cutting edge research and conservation initiatives as well as tourism boosters is immense. We are dedicated to raising awareness and protecting the whale shark, and would ask that you help us to continue our work.
Ecotourism Kenya promotes responsible tourism practices within the tourism industry. This entails encouraging the adoption of best practices in the use of tourism resources, working with local communities and managing wastes and emissions.
The Budongo Conservation Field Station is a nexus of research and conservation whose vision is to ensure sustainable management and utilization of the Budongo Forest Reserve as a model for tropical rainforest management. Budongo is habitat to thousands of tropical plants and animals including chimpanzees. To the local and distant communities, the forest is a source of timber and non-timber forest products.
GOGLA is the global association for the off-grid solar energy industry. Established in 2012, GOGLA now represents over 160 members as a neutral, independent, not-for-profit industry association. Our services assist the industry to build sustainable markets and profitable businesses delivering quality, affordable off-grid electricity products and services to as many customers as possible across the developing world.
We believe that with the right support, the off-grid solar market can scale to provide affordable solar power products and services to provide electricity to the 840 million people currently living without energy by 2030, in line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7. Off-grid solar products and services are also a solution for the estimated 1 billion people with weak grid connections.
The off-grid solar industry needs to deliver quality, affordable products and services to households, businesses and communities in challenging developing markets. It’s a sector that requires coordinated support, the right partnerships, resources, and services to help its businesses scale sustainably and at speed in these complex environments.
The Center for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE) was established in1992 as an international inter-governmental Organization with diplomatic status.This was in response to the convention adopted by the Council of Arab Ministers Responsible For the Environment (CAMRE) , in 1991 and upon the initiative of the Arab Republic of Egypt, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Arab fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD).
ENDA-Ethiopia is the Ethiopian branch of ENDA TW (Environmental Development Action in the Third World) based in Dakar, Senegal.
Its present activities center on urban popular economy and ecology, environmental education, sustainable farming and communication.
Enda-Ethiopia’s approach is to help the local people to seek appropriate solutions to their problems, make the most of local resources, negotiate and identify means of action, organize their activities and assess their own methods and results.
National Environment Trust Fund (NETFUND) is a State Corporation established by the Environmental Management and Coordination Act of 1999. Our mandate is “To facilitate research intended to further the requirements of environmental management, capacity building, environmental awards, environmental publications, scholarships and grants”. NETFUND’s vision is “Sustainable financing available for environmental management in Kenya”. Our mission is “To mobilize, manage and avail resources for; environmental awards, capacity building, research and publications, scholarships and grants in Kenya.”
As a Fund, we provide a platform for environmental conservationists and funding agents to converse and share bankable ideas. Through our unmatched convening power, we coordinate environmental sector players and create synergy to deliver well researched initiatives competently for effective environmental management in Kenya.
Our network of partners, experts and robust internal financial and governance systems have enabled us design and deliver highly impactful projects to greater scale and with higher levels of accountability. We assure our development partners of a high social return on investment and we will make it easier for our national and international partners to support viable solutions to solve priority national environmental challenges.
Official operations began in 2006 under the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA). NETFUND became a state corporation independent of NEMA, in 2015 following amendment of the EMCA.
To fulfil its strategic objectives and mandate the Fund is structured into four (4) Directorates and four (4) Departments reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as follows:
- Directorate of Programmes
- Directorate of Research, Resource Mobilization and Consultancy Services
- Directorate of Strategy and Planning
- Directorate of Corporate Services
- Internal Audit Department
- Supply Chain Management Department
- Corporate Secretary and Legal Services Department
- The Fund Management Services
The Internal Audit and the Fund Management Services report functionally to the Board of Trustees and administratively to the CEO.
The cause for this crisis is essentially the inappropriate and unsustainable exploitation of life support system, which is apparent in the incredible rate of loss of bio-mass cover, soil erosion, irregularity and lack of precipitation, climatic change and creeping desertification.
Therefore, there is not only a strong need to reverse this situation, but also that the demand for some important attitudinal shifts among farmers, entrepreneurs, planners, decision makers, research and development think-thanks, and the public at large has never been more acute.
This needs a rational base for policy development in the fragile area of natural resources management, alongside the responsibility and accountability one should assume.
It is against this background of, on the one hand the horrifying environmental degradation that has rendered life support systems in the country untenable and, on the other, the emergence of new development paradigms on sustainability that LEM, the Environment & Development Society (Lem Ethiopia) is being launched. Thus, Lem the Environment & Development Society of Ethiopia is a citizen’s movement inspired with the concepts of sustainable development and established in March 1992. Since its establishment Lem Ethiopia has entered into a voluntary partnership with communities, schools, civil societies, national & international NGOs, government institutions at different levels, etc. working on environment/natural resources conservation and promotion of alternative technologies to translate the noble ideas of sustainable development and livelihood security into everyday action. It has legally registered by authorized government body & renewed its license every year.
More importantly, LEM Ethiopia enters into a voluntary development partnership with communities, to translate the lofty ideas of a stable environment, sustainable development and livelihood security into everyday action.
The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), is established under the Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act No. 8 of 1999 (EMCA) as the principal instrument of Government for the implementation of all policies relating to environment. EMCA 1999 was enacted against a backdrop of 78 sectoral laws dealing with various components of the environment, the deteriorating state of Kenya’s environment, as well as increasing social and economic inequalities, the combined effect of which negatively impacted on the environment. The supreme objective underlying the enactment of EMCA 1999 was to bring harmony in the management of the country’s environment.
The Authority core functions are:
- Coordinating the various environmental management activities being undertaken by the lead agencies.
- Promote the integration of environmental considerations into development policies, plans, programmes and projects, with a view to ensuring the proper management and rational utilization of environmental resources, on sustainable yield basis, for the improvement of the quality of human life in Kenya.
- To take stock of the natural resources in Kenya and their utilization and conservation.
- To establish and review land use guidelines.
- Examine land use patterns to determine their impact on the quality and quantity of natural resources.
- Carry out surveys, which will assist in the proper management and conservation of the environment.
- Advise the Government on legislative and other measures for the management of the environment or the implementation of relevant international conventions, treaties and agreements.
- Advise the Government on regional and international conventions, treaties and agreements to which Kenya should be a party and follow up the implementation of such agreements.
- Undertake and coordinate research, investigation and surveys, collect, collate and disseminate information on the findings of such research, investigations or surveys.
- Mobilize and monitor the use of financial and human resources for environmental management.
- Identify projects and programmes for which environmental audit or environmental monitoring must be conducted under this Act.
- Initiate and evolve procedures and safeguards for the prevention of accidents, which may cause environmental degradation and evolve remedial measures where accidents occur e.g. floods, landslides and oil spills.
- Monitor and assess activities, including activities being carried out by relevant lead agencies, in order to ensure that the environment is not degraded by such activities. Management objectives must be adhered to and adequate early warning on impending environmental emergencies is given.
- Undertake, in cooperation with relevant lead agencies, programmes intended to enhance environmental education and public awareness, about the need for sound environmental management, as well as for enlisting public support and encouraging the effort made by other entities in that regard.
- Publish and disseminate manual codes or guidelines relating to environmental management and prevention or abatement of environmental degradation.
- Render advice and technical support, where possible, to entities engaged in natural resources management and environmental protection, so as to enable them to carry out their responsibilities satisfactorily .
- Prepare and issue an annual report on the State of Environment in Kenya and in this regard, may direct any lead agency to prepare and submit to it a report on the state of the sector of the environment under the administration of that lead agency.
Environmental Rights Action (ERA) is a Nigerian advocacy non-governmental organisation founded on January 11, 1993 to deal with environmental human rights issues in Nigeria. ERA is the Nigerian chapter of Friends of the Earth International (FoEI). ERA is the co-ordinating NGO in Africa for Oilwatch International, the global South network of groups concerned about the effects of oil on the environment of people who live in oil-bearing regions. Oilwatch was founded in 1995 (in Ecuador), in the aftermath of local struggles against oil companies such as Shell (in Nigeria) and Texaco (now Chevron) in Ecuador. Both cases have given rise to well-known court cases where damages in the billions of euros are being claimed at present. ERA has been the winner of the Sophie Prize.
The organisation is dedicated to the defence of human ecosystems in terms of human rights, and to the promotion of environmentally responsible governmental, commercial, community and individual practice in Nigeria through the empowerment of local people. ERA will mainly provide its great knowledge of oil extraction conflicts and gas flaring to Work Package 2 on the database of environmenal conflicts and to Work Package 4 on oil and gas extraction and climate justice, as well as giving input in many other parts of the EJOLT project. ERA is also the coordinating NGO for the Nigerian Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA).
The African Climate Technology Centre (ACTC) is a project hosted by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to support sub-Saharan African countries in scaling-up the deployment of low-carbon and climate resilient technologies for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
This is delivered by:
- Enhancing networking and dissemination of knowledge, with respect to climate technology transfer and financing.
- Enabling the scaling up of technology transfer through policy, institutional and organizational reforms of the country and regional enabling environments.
- Integrating climate change technologies into investment programmes and projects.
The ACTC was established in July 2014 and is housed in the Climate Change and Green Growth Department of the AfDB.
The project originated within the policy arm of the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP16) Technology Mechanism, established to support adaptation and mitigation activities in developing countries. Consequently, the Global Environment Facility set aside funding to finance the set up of regional climate technology transfer and financing centres, and networks with regional multilateral development banks.
The centre focuses on the water sector for adaptation and on the energy sector for mitigation. For the Energy part, the ACTC supports the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative (SEforALL).
Originally called the Field Study Centre (FSC) our work now goes far beyond field studies and research on the ecology of the lake. Whilst still supporting the Trust’s traditional role working with Kenya Wildlife Services to conserve biodiversity and protect habitats, the scope of the Centre’s work is now centered on several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recently launched by UNEP (the United Nations Environment Programme).The increasing problems resulting from climate change, loss of biodiversity, forest destruction, inadequate waste disposal, food insecurity, and water shortages, are all contributing to yet more environmental degradation and, for some, reduced life expectancy. Kenya’s rapidly growing population is putting ever more pressure on its limited natural resources so CES is committed to thinking globally, but acting locally, not just saving wildlife and protecting forests, but planting trees, supporting sustainable agriculture, preventing pollution, cleaning up communities, encouraging recycling and providing renewable energy.
CES’s vision is to extend its programme to respond to the many emerging environmental challenges facing Kenya today. Last year about 15,000 students and teachers passed through the Centre and we are developing an expanding network linking schools, communities and partner organisations keeping them informed about our programmes and sharing our resources.Our new motto is Caring for the Earth and we aim to become recognised throughout Eastern Africa as a centre of education for sustainability which both improves the environment and benefits people, a centre of excellence contributing to Kenya Vision 2030.Ultimately Kenya’s unique wildlife and wild places will only survive if the population at large realises how important they are not just as a national, but as a world heritage. Ensuring that as many young Kenyans as possibly learn about the importance of conserving their environment and sustainable development is without doubt, the best way to achieve this.
The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. We amplify the power of our 3.5+ million members and supporters to defend everyone’s right to a healthy world.
The 400km electric fence is a conservation tool put in place to help resolve multiple challenges facing the Aberdare Range ecosystem. These challenges included poaching, bush-meat hunting, snaring, illegal logging, charcoal burning and encroachment. These activities, by the 1980’s had almost decimated the population of critically endangered black rhino in the ecosystem.
At the same time, regular crop damage by wildlife, especially elephant, was a major problem for the farmers residing next to the Aberdare protected areas. Encounters between farmers and wildlife occasionally led to human fatalities, and served to heighten tensions between humans and wildlife.
Construction of the fence began in 1989 and was completed in August 2009.
Today, in spite of the dramatic decrease in black rhino number in the 1980s, the ANP still hold a small and genetically viable population of native black rhino. This is largely due to the building of the fence.
To maintain the fence in good working condition, a team of fence scouts based in “Fence Energizer Stations” patrol the fence line daily to carry out maintenance work.
The project is a partnership between Rhino Ark, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Kenya Forest Service (KFS) and the local communities. Rhino Ark and the Kenya Government provided the funds while KWS oversaw the construction work.
Wildlife Conservation
Protecting an astounding diversity of species. (Humans included.)
Africa is home to keystone wildlife species that are facing extinction, including the mountain gorilla, Grevy’s zebra, and Ethiopian wolf. To protect populations from further decline, our on-the-ground safeguards involve training rangers and using sniffer dogs to stop wildlife traffickers. Wildlife must survive in their natural habitats, so we empower local communities through conservation-friendly development and work with international agencies to protect Africa’s natural resources.
Critical to protecting these vital ecosystems are people. Sharing land across the continent, local communities and wildlife often live alongside each other, leading to struggles for space and water. If people and wildlife learn to live together — inside and outside of protected areas — the future for all will thrive.
In the basalt mountains around Lalibela, stay in local communities. See their ancient world, their churches and their way of life.
Walk through the age-old agrarian landscape of the Ethiopian Highlands following escarpments with birds of prey soaring in the thermals and Gelada baboon scrambling up and down the cliff face. Local shepherd boys keep an eye on their flocks, while their fathers plough the fields, and their sisters collect water in clay pots.
An experience you will never forget!
Please use the links on this site to find out more about these stunning sites and learn how a visit to them could be easily integrated into your holiday in Ethiopia.
See how easy it is to fit a trip to these mountains around your visit to Lalibela, perhaps stopping off en-route from Lalibela to Bahir Dar or Gondar. Let TESFA help you plan one that fits in with your preferences.
TESFA’s Mission Statement (extract)
TESFA seeks to work in partnership with local communities to enable them to generate sustainable improvements in their livelihood through the development of their own tourism related enterprises, while also contributing to the protection of their physical and cultural environments.