In 2005, Richard Leakey outlined to Stony Brook his concept for an institute that could provide the permanent infrastructure to enable year-round research in this remote area of sub-Saharan Africa. The University enthusiastically endorsed the idea of TBI, committing funds for the Stony Brook end of the project. Additional fundraising began in 2006; construction of temporary facilities for a long-term field camp on the east side of Lake Turkana (TBI-Ileret) commenced in 2007; the camp was fully operational by year-end and was the site for the first Kenya-based Human Evolution Workshop in 2008. Construction of the first full field center on the west side of the lake (TBI-Turkwel) was completed in 2012. Construction of permanent facilities at TBI-Ileret commenced in 2012, and is scheduled to be completed in 2016.
Formally, Turkana Basin Institute, Ltd. is the title holder for the fixed assets in Kenya known as TBI-Nairobi, TBI-Turkwel and TBI-Ileret (together known as “TBI Kenya”) and is under an agreement with the Government of Kenya, through the National Museums of Kenya, to serve as a repository for the archaeological and paleontological heritage of the Lake Turkana region.
In 2013, Richard Leakey and Stony Brook University President, Samuel L. Stanley, established the TBI International Advisory Board. Comprised of prominent philanthropists and scientists from around the globe, this group meets twice a year to share ideas and discuss how best to ensure the success and secure the mission of the Institute. This dynamic group has assumed a lead role in TBI’s fundraising efforts through their own generous contributions.
We are based in Kenya and support startups abd individuals to achieve their sustainable projects.
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.
Terramanzi Group is a leading South African based multi-disciplinary environmental firm. We provide specialised, professional consulting services to clientele across Africa through our dedicated green building and environmental business units and our extensive and accredited network of industry leading experts. We thrive on providing personalised service excellence, bringing a wealth of knowledge and innovation to each customer experience, first time, on time, every time.
With over 500 successful Projects and 15 years of industry experience across both government and private sectors, backed by our industry leading reputation for service excellence, we help to enable your business to thrive with the comfort of knowing that your Project is in trusted hands.
Our
What do we do?
We provide specialised support services and expertise aimed at adding value and filling gaps in existing capacity. Specialising enables us to keep abreast with emerging international best practice, and to continually build our hands-on skills and practical experience. We are continually striving to introduce new approaches and methodologies that respond to rapidly changing realities, and we are always keen to work with our customers to explore new opportunities and directions. Our four main current areas of expertise are outlined below.
Conservation planning
Planning for conservation – whether for an ecosystem or natural landscape, a national park or a community wildlife area – is a vital yet underutilised tool for achieving the delicate balance between preservation and use of an area’s natural resources. We believe that planning provides the means to build stakeholder consensus around the conservation and development goals of an area, and to overcome sometimes divergent and conflicting needs. We also believe that management plans not only provide a vital framework for the long-term management of a conservation area, but can also be used by stakeholders as a yardstick to measure progress. All our plans are developed using participatory planning techniques which allow stakeholders to contribute fully to their development. They have a simple logical structure which keeps technical language to the minimum to ensure the plans are easy to understand and straightforward to implement.
Programme and project design and evaluation
Good programme and project design is the cornerstone for achieving tangible and lasting conservation impacts. Crucially, this requires developing an understanding of the underlying processes that lead to the unsustainable use of natural resources, and how these processes can be influenced and reversed. This provides the basis for developing a “Theory of Change” of how the programme or project can best achieve tangible outcomes and ultimately realise conservation and sustainable development impacts, by identifying and addressing the necessary drivers of change, including factors such as financial sustainability, institutional capacity, socio-economic conditions, and legal and governance systems.
Impactful project design also relies on a good understanding of what can be practically achieved on the ground, not just in theory on paper. To strengthen our understanding of the factors that enable a realistic project intervention, we have also built up strong skills in the evaluation of a wide range of conservation and development projects, both as evaluation team leaders as well as in specialist capacities.
Wildlife law enforcement and trafficking
Illegal killing and trade in African wildlife, especially of iconic species such as elephants and rhinos, has now reached crisis proportions. Illicit wildlife trafficking is now the fourth largest illegal trade internationally after arms and drugs trafficking, and trafficking in human beings. In recent years, tens of thousands of elephants have been killed every year for their tusks. Faced with this unprecedented level of poaching and organised wildlife crime, many conservationists now fear that species such as elephants and rhinos may disappear in the wild within our lifetime.
CDC is assisting international, national and site-level efforts to address this crisis in several ways. Firstly, we are working with key agencies to develop new project initiatives designed to bolster efforts to combat wildlife crime and to strengthen law enforcement efforts at both site and national levels. Secondly, we are assisting in the identification and promotion of wildlife law enforcement best practices, in order to ensure that interventions are based on the best available knowledge of what works and what doesn’t. And thirdly, we are helping to understand the status of law enforcement and wildlife trafficking prevention measures, so that national governments, conservation organisations and donors know how best to focus their resources to stem the tide in wildlife losses.
Conservation and sustainable development governance
Across Africa, there is a growing disparity between the livelihood needs of a rapidly expanding human population and the conservation needs of Africa’s outstanding but increasingly vulnerable biodiversity and habitats. From our experience over the years, we believe that natural resource governance systems are especially important for reconciling conservation and human development needs. This includes aspects such as natural resource institutions and legal frameworks, resource ownership and use rights and responsibilities, and mechanisms for equitably distributing the costs and benefits of conservation. CDC’s work in this area has focussed on developing an understanding of the socio-economic factors at play in unsustainable resource use and biodiversity loss, as a basis for designing more effective natural resource governance mechanisms. We have also provided practical support for the development of natural resource governance approaches that respond to changing socio-economic and environmental circumstances and increasing human development expectations.
ETC Group works to address the socioeconomic and ecological issues surrounding new technologies that could have an impact on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. We investigate ecological erosion (including the erosion of cultures and human rights); the development of new technologies (especially agricultural but also other technologies that work with genomics and matter); and we monitor global governance issues including corporate concentration and trade in technologies. We operate at the global political level. We work closely with partner civil society organizations (CSOs) and social movements, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
We are..
- Dedicated to the conservation and sustainable advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human rights. To this end, ETC Group supports socially responsible developments of technologies useful to the poor and marginalized and we address international governance issues and corporate power.
- Working in partnership with other CSOs for cooperative and sustainable self-reliance within disadvantaged societies, by providing information and analysis of socioeconomic and technological trends and alternatives. This work requires joint actions in community, regional, and global fora.
- Developing strategic options based on research and analysis of technological information (particularly but not exclusively plant genetic resources, biotechnologies and biological diversity), and in the development of strategic options related to the socioeconomic ramifications of new technologies.
- Focused on global and regional (continental or sub-continental) levels. ETC Group supports partnerships with community, national, or regional CSOs, but does not make grants or funds available to other organizations. We do not have members.
ACT’s work is to stimulate, facilitate and challenge for mutual sharing of information and knowledge on experiences or lessons on promotion of Conservation Agriculture (CA) in Africa. These efforts enable farmers, entrepreneurs, policy makers, researchers, learners and academicians and other stakeholders to access and share information and knowledge on CA, thereby contributing to better and more appropriate policies and programmes in the efforts to scale-up CA in Africa. Ultimately Conservation Agriculture (CA) as an approach to managing agro-ecosystems helps improve and sustain land productivity, increase profits and food security while preserving and enhancing the resource base and the environment.
Rhino Ark was established in 1988 as a charitable trust to help save Kenya’s Black Rhino population in the Aberdare ecosystem. The rhino were under severe threat from rampant poaching for their highly valued horn.
Wildlife would invade the farms bordering the park, destroying crops and occasionally killing people. The resulting fear and aversion towards wildlife worked in favour of poachers who got easy access since the local community saw no value in protecting either the wildlife or the forest habitat.
Rhino Ark’s formation was specifically to assist the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to build an electric fence along sections of the Aberdare National Park on its Eastern Salient which has the highest concentration of wildlife and borders directly onto farmland.
The scope of the initial project evolved into a much more ambitious task of protecting the entire Aberdare Conservation Area with a fence that would:
- Be powered by electricity to contain wildlife
- Be strong enough to withstand elephant pressure
- Curb illegal logging
- Curb snaring
- Curb poaching of wildlife (especially the critically endangered black rhino and bongo antelope)
The fence has brought harmony around the area and farmers now can enjoy peaceful sleep at night without fear of losing their lives, crops and homes.
Over the years, Rhino Ark’s work has evolved and expanded to include support for various community based conservation initiatives such as the Bongo Surveillance Programme designed to offer long-term solutions to the conservation of mountain forest ecosystems.
Landmark Dates
- 1989 – Aberdare Electric Fence construction started
- 28 August 2009 – Aberdare Electric Fence construction completed
- 12 March 2010 – Aberdare Electric Fence formally commissioned by H.E. Mwai Kibaki, the President of the Republic of Kenya
- 11 May 2012 – Aberdare Trust launched by the Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kenya.
- July 2012 – Mt. Kenya Electric Fence construction started
- 6 September 2012 – Launch of the Mt. Kenya Electric Fence by Hon. Njeru Githae, Minister for Finance
- March 2013 – Eburu Electric Fence construction started
- 26 November 2014 – Eburu Electric Fence (43.3 km long) construction completed
The Trust is a public-private partnership with strong ‘Participatory Management’ by communities to ensure the objectives of the fence are met. This is intended to be a role model to be replicated in the other areas.
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.
Earth System Governance — a global research alliance, is the largest social science research network in the area of governance and global environmental change. The Earth System Governance research alliance takes up the challenge of exploring political solutions and novel, more effective governance mechanisms to cope with the current transitions in the biogeochemical systems of the planet. The normative context of this research is sustainable development; earth system governance is not only a question of institutional effectiveness but also of political legitimacy and social justice.
The Earth System Governance Project is a core project of Future Earth.
Read more about the Earth System Governance Science Plan and Research Agenda.
Background
Since prehistoric times, humans have altered their local environment. Beginning about a century ago, they are altering their planet. More and more parameters of the earth system are changing due to human influences. The scientific knowledge about the earth system and its current transformation becomes more confident every day. Humans now seem to influence all biological and physical systems of the planet. The entire earth system now operates well outside the normal state exhibited over the past 500,000 years. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop better governance mechanisms and institutions at all levels to cope with this emerging earth system transformation.
Yet it is apparent that the institutions, organizations, and governance mechanisms by which humans currently regulate their relationship with the natural environment and global biochemical systems are not only insufficient. They are also poorly understood. More fundamental and applied research on the global, national and local institutions and governance systems is therefore needed. This research must address all levels of policy-making and cut across many sectors. It must be about the people who are drivers of global environmental change and at the same time part of any solution. It must be about places in all their variety and diversity, yet seek to integrate place-based research in a global understanding of the overall challenge to steer human interaction vis-à-vis earth system transformation. Eventually, this research will need to be about our planet. It is the task of developing integrated systems of governance, from the local to the global level, that ensure the sustainable development of the coupled socio-ecological system that the Earth has become. We call this research challenge ´earth system governance´. This term signals, in our view, a paradigmatic change from governing local and national environmental problems to coping with a more fundamental transformation of the earth system.
This research need has been recognized in March 2007 by the Scientific Committee of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), which mandated a scientific planning committee to draft a science plan for a new IHDP Earth System Governance Project. A draft version of this Science Plan has been reviewed by more than 40 researchers and practitioners. At its 15th Meeting, October 2008 in New Delhi, India, the IHDP Scientific Committee approved the Earth System Governance Science and Implementation Plan and appointed the Scientific Steering Committee (ESG SSC). This approval marked the official launch of the Earth System Governance Project, as a new core project of IHDP. In 2015, the Project became a core project of Future Earth – the overarching international research platform that seeks to provide the scientific knowledge needed to accelerate transformations towards a more sustainable world.
Policy Relevance
The Earth System Governance Project, while being essentially a scientific effort, is also designed to assist policy responses to the pressing problems of earth system transformation. All analytical problems studied in the project have profound policy implications. For example, the problem of the architecture of earth system governance is a key concern of current negotiations and political processes that are often faced with ‘treaty congestion’ and complex interlinkages between different institutions, for instance between multilateral environmental agreements and the World Trade Organization. ‘Fragmented’ governance architectures are also an increasing problem for decision-makers, particularly in climate policy. A related concern is the reform of the United Nations, for example with a view to the debate on a United Nations Environment Organization. At national and local levels, architecture is a key concern for decision-makers dealing with policy integration, the comparative effectiveness of policy instruments, and the integration of decision-making from international, national and local levels. Research on agency within the project will generate novel ideas on the integration of civil society actors in earth system governance, and on the advantages and disadvantages of private and public-private governance arrangements. Research on governance of adaptation and the adaptiveness of governance arrangements will inform policy-makers who have to deal with adapting politics and policies to a changing world. The accountability and legitimacy of decision-making, from local to global levels, is equally a key problem for public policy. Finally, the research on allocation and access will help to improve governance outcomes and advance philosophical and ethical discourses on an equitable approach to earth system governance.
In 2017, the Earth System Governance Project strengthened its policy relevance through the Governance for Global Sustainability Partnership with Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future.
BORDA (Bremen Overseas Research and Development Association), founded in 1977, is a civil society expert organization focused on the provision of essential public services.
In 2006, BORDA started operating in Africa through cooperation with TED (Technology for Economic Development), a Lesotho based NGO.
In 2010, the regional BORDA Africa office in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania was established. The regional office coordinates the program activities and facilitates a constantly growing partner network within Africa.
In 2017, BORDA opened its latest office in Mali’s capital Bamako.
Our countries of operation — Lesotho, Mali, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia — are characterised by urban migration and rapid urbanisation. In most cases, the infrastructure is unable to keep up with population growth. Local policy-makers and authorities face an enormous challenge: to provide all citizens with adequate sanitation systems. Those living in low-income unplanned communities are particularly affected.
BORDA Africa is specialised in integrated decentralised sanitation solutions in the fields of wastewater, sludge and solid waste management.
Our Services
- Successful implementation of sanitation solutions
- Strengthening local governments, municipalities, and utilities and advising them on sanitation solutions
- Marketable systems and instruments for integrated sanitation solutions in urban areas
- Supported sanitation solutions play an important role in developing holistic solutions for liveable cities
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).
DSW is focused on youth. We are proud to work alongside today’s youth who will become tomorrow’s leaders.
Over half of the world’s population is under 25, and we have a chance now to release this untapped potential!
A non-profit organisation specialising in Primate rehabilitation and rescue,
based in Kwazulu Natal – South Africa
- Am a sustainability coach interested in your services
The Institute of Environment and Water Management (IEWM) is a non-governmental organization that aims to strengthen water and environmental governance and climate change resilience through unlocking the potential of communities and institutions to manage their natural resources equitably and sustainably.
IEWM has a strong track record in tackling and finding innovative solutions to address climate change, natural resource management, and water and sanitation issues, through training and capacity building, skills development, research and knowledge management. The institute’s added value and achievements relies on strategically combining effective programme management, targeted advocacy and compelling communications.
The Institute has striven to bridge the gap between local action and policy/decision making through lobbying and advocacy. It’s technical experience and influence is recognised and valued at the national level and IEWM’s interventions are clearly aligned with national policies and guidelines, actively contributing to the country’s Vision 2030.
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) establishes and manages global sustainable standards, known as the GSTC Criteria. There are two sets: Destination Criteria for public policy-makers and destination managers, and Industry Criteria for hotels and tour operators. These are the guiding principles and minimum requirements that any tourism business or destination should aspire to reach in order to protect and sustain the world’s natural and cultural resources, while ensuring tourism meets its potential as a tool for conservation and poverty alleviation.
The GSTC Criteria form the foundation for GSTC’s role as the global Accreditation Body for Certification Programs that certify hotels/accommodations, tour operators, and destinations as having sustainable policies and practices in place. GSTC does not directly certify any products or services; but it accredits those that do.
The GSTC is an independent and neutral organization, legally registered in the USA as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that represents a diverse and global membership, including UN agencies, NGO’s, national and provincial governments, leading travel companies, hotels, tour operators, individuals and communities – all striving to achieve best practices in sustainable tourism. It is a virtual organization without a main office, with staff and volunteers working from all six populated continents. Financial support from donations, sponsorship, and membership fees allows us to provide services at low costs and to create, revise, and make available the GSTC Criteria.
Membership is open to all interested parties and does not by itself imply endorsement by the GSTC of the policies and practices of the member organization
ATE’s research arm, the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, has made many important contributions to elephant research over the years. The knowledge gained from the AERP team has profoundly altered the way we think about, conserve and manage elephant populations. Our research has highlighted the ethical implications of dealing with sentient, long-lived, intelligent and social complex animals and our knowledge base provides powerful and authoritative support to elephant conservation and advocacy campaigns worldwide. For more than four decades AERP’s presence has helped ensure the survival of the elephants as well as the Amboseli ecosystem.
AERP research covers many areas including: social organization, behavior, demography, ecological dynamics, spatial analyses and mapping, communication, genetics, human-elephant interactions and cognition. Our long-term datasets underpin all these research topics.
CORE RESEARCH
Our team of Kenyan research assistants and visiting scientists are in the field at least six days a week. We record all demographic events in the population; births and deaths, musth, oestrus and mating. Our routine daily observations note associations between family units and independent males, geographic location, group size, composition, activity and habitat type. Within families we monitor female affiliation and the dispersal of young males from their family to analyze family dynamics. We have systematically monitored the size and growth of over 600 individuals from 1976 to the present. Since 1999 we have collected dung samples for genetic analyses of population origins, paternity and within- and between-family relatedness. We are constantly maintaining and updating our individual records, and we also carry out basic ecological monitoring through vegetation plots, water table measurements and rainfall.
COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH
ATE hosts visiting researchers who contribute to the growing understanding of African elephants in general, and the knowledge base for the sustained future of the Amboseli population in particular.
Researchers interested in collaborating with ATE should address their enquiries to our Director of Science, Prof. Phyllis Lee (phyllis.lee@stir.ac.uk). ATE has always enjoyed a dynamic collaboration network and we welcome the opportunity for new partnerships to continue that tradition. Our collaborations extend across many subject areas:
Communication
Communication is the glue that binds the social network of an intelligent species. Joyce Poole and Petter Granli recorded and analyzed Amboseli elephant vocalizations as part of the work of their NGO ElephantVoices. Their aim is to build our scientific understanding of the intelligence and social complexity of elephants and enhance the toolbox for their conservation and management. At the same time they act as a voice for elephants in a strong advocacy component. You can follow some of their work and activities on the ElephantVoices Facebook page. Other communication studies have focused on elephants’ capacity for individual recognition: Karen McComb pioneered the playback approach and demonstrated that each female elephant recognizes around 100 other females from voice alone.
Elephant Life Histories and Reproduction
Ongoing studies provide vital information on how elephants grow, mature and learn to cope with their physical and social environments. This work, guided by Phyllis Lee asks how longevity and developmental processes contribute to fitness and reproductive success. The four-decade-long Amboseli dataset is now yielding exciting insights into these questions; Phyllis’ work has recently demonstrated that early life experiences have survival and fitness consequences across individual lifetimes. The role of old, experienced females in guiding family decisions has become apparent: families with older matriarchs have improved calf survival and shorter inter-birth intervals for all females in the family. An extreme drought event in 2009 caused the death of many of these important leaders. Vicki Fishlock’s work, supported by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, aims to assess the social and reproductive effects of these losses. As a result of Vicki’s work, we are developing further studies into what leadership and negotiation means for elephant families.
Human-elephant conflict and co-existence
ATE is bringing its specialized knowledge of elephant behavior and society to bear on developing conflict-reduction strategies that are consistent with rural agriculture and Maasai livestock husbandry (see also Community Outreach). Work by Kadzo Kangwana, Christy Browne-Nunez, Patrick Chiyo and Winnie Kiiru has guided and developed our approach to conflict and coexistence.
Genetic analysis
Scientists from Duke University have mapped DNA profiles in order to define family relationships and origins of the Amboseli population. Cross-referenced to behavioral observations, the DNA analysis by Beth Archie examined survival strategies based on relatedness. Beth’s student Patrick Chiyo studied the socio-ecology of crop-raiding elephants using genetic techniques. Patrick’s work expanded to examine male association patterns and the impact of these on high risk activities such a crop-raiding.
Cognition
Dick Byrne and Lucy Bates have examined elephants’ formidable reputation for memory and intelligence by investigating specific cognitive skills designed to probe elephants’ ability to manipulate and respond to their world and each other. Karen McComb and Graeme Shannon have expanded Karen’s early work on elephant communication and vocal recognition into the cognitive sphere by presenting elephants with a series of acoustic “threats” via playback experiments. Their studies show that elephants and discriminate and appropriately respond to varying levels of threats from lions and from humans, and that these abilities are strongest amongst experienced (older) elephants.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
The long-term survival of elephants can only be assured by creating a niche for free-living elephants that is compatible with the needs and aspirations of the surrounding human communities. Elephants and humans have shared the Amboseli landscape for approximately 500 years. With the expansion of settlement, agriculture and livestock numbers inevitably encounters between people and elephants are increasing. ATE’s approach is aimed at maintaining the conservation ethos which has been part of Maasai tradition, but which is increasingly threatened by the pressures of 21st century human society.
Community Relations
Our field staff maintains daily contact with the surrounding Maasai community. This friendly interaction is essential to ensure that landowners maintain a tolerant attitude to the presence and passage of elephants on their group ranch land. We estimate that at any one time 80% of the wildlife in Amboseli is using community lands; without community participation there is simply no future for wildlife. Our approach is to allow a two-way exchange of understanding with communities. Concerns are aired in constructive dialogue, not in retaliatory killing of wildlife. We had proof of the value of this approach in 2012, when a local Maasai man waited for five hours beside an elephant calf trapped in a well. He patiently protected the little calf until he could reach ATE staff via an unreliable mobile phone network, and we then rescued the calf with the help of DSWT staff. Without this man’s care and respect, the calf, who we called Lemoyian, would certainly have died.
Consolation
ATE has an innovative and successful consolation scheme to assist members of the community who lose livestock to elephants. Started in 1997 the program pays an owner of a cow, sheep or goat a set amount when an elephant kills any livestock on community lands. Previously, Maasai custom dictated an elephant had to be speared and killed in retribution for livestock deaths. The number of elephants speared dropped by more than half after the initiation of the consolation scheme. This scheme has since become a model in other areas and for other species.
Maasai Elephant Scouts
ATE operations outside the park include employing fifteen Maasai elephant scouts who patrol the ecosystem on foot, reporting elephant presence and signs, injured elephants and conflicts, as well as signs of poaching and the bushmeat trade. Their work is coordinated with that of the Amboseli-Tsavo Game Scouts Association (ATGSA) and the Big Life Foundation. The ATE scouts support our monitoring work by augmenting our elephant sightings data, especially during the wet season when elephants range widely. Scouts also assist in verification of consolation claims. Support to the scouts contributes to improved community participation and understanding of human-wildlife interaction as well as providing employment in a depressed rural area. We are also beginning a collaboration with the Lion Guardians programme to fund the work of two conflict mitigation scouts, at the request of the Kaputei community.
ADEC Innovations advances sustainable practices around the world, and helps organizations grow and operate responsibly. Seamlessly delivering fully integrated, cost-effective consulting, data management and software solutions, ADEC Innovations helps clients save time, reduce costs, optimize resource use, and drive operational efficiencies in a world where sustainability matters.
We have over 30 years of group experience in data management, software solutions, professional services and workforce solutions. Our products and services cover various industry sectors such as education, health information, environmental services and compliance.
The Northern Rangelands Trust is a community conservancy membership organisation. Our mission is to develop resilient community conservancies, which transform people’s lives, secure peace and conserve natural resources.
We do this by supporting communities to:
- Develop locally-led governance structures that complement traditional systems
- Run peace and security programmes
- Take the lead in natural resources management
- Manage sustainable businesses linked to conservation
We fundraise for our member conservancies, and provide advice and guidance on management. We support a wide range of training, monitor performance, and work as an independent third party in support of conservancy partnerships with county and national government, investors and development partners.