Samburu conservation projects in Kenya
| country: | Kenya |
| departures: | 2008: 26 Oct, 7 Nov |
| price: | From £1795 (13 days) excluding flights. We can help arrange flights |
the amazing things you'll be doing
Samburu-Laikipia Ecoregion, Kenya - This East African nation is known for its teeming wildlife and inviting savanna landscapes, vast regions of sun-soaked earth and grass with mountains lounging on the horizon. Kenya also has one of the highest human population growth rates in the world, and the impact on the land and its celebrated biodiversity is telling.
The Samburu people have coexisted with a diversity of wildlife for hundreds of years, but these traditionally nomadic pastorals now live on communally owned ranches, contributing to unsustainable water use, deforestation, land degradation, and overgrazing by livestock, putting the Samburu in direct competition with wildlife in a region where most of the land falls outside protected areas.
Working through a partnership with Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, you will help investigate the ecology of precious watering holes or the behavior of endangered Grevy’s zebras, helping local communities and conservation organizations reduce conflict between wildlife habitat needs and human land-use practices.
Against the backdrop of phenomenally rich wildlife habitat, you will participate in two of four ongoing projects aimed at reducing competition between wildlife and local communities. You will spend time in either the unprotected Wamba Division or in the protected Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, or both depending on your team. Lewa is home to a population of 400 endangered Grevy’s zebras as well as all of the classical African wildlife.
You may conduct field surveys of wildlife and vegetation, and map your findings to augment satellite images, locate and record data on vital local water resources and assess their aquatic ecology, or determine the population status and habitat needs of threatened Grevy’s zebras. In addition to your daily encounters with Kenyan wildlife, you will go on game drives to see all the classical African wildlife in Samburu, Buffalo Springs, Shaba Game Reserves, or Namunyak Wildlife Conservation Trust.
Please note: volunteers will participate on two of the four different projects below per expedition depending on dates available. Please contact us for more information regarding the individual projects.
The Samburu people have coexisted with a diversity of wildlife for hundreds of years, but these traditionally nomadic pastorals now live on communally owned ranches, contributing to unsustainable water use, deforestation, land degradation, and overgrazing by livestock, putting the Samburu in direct competition with wildlife in a region where most of the land falls outside protected areas.
Working through a partnership with Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, you will help investigate the ecology of precious watering holes or the behavior of endangered Grevy’s zebras, helping local communities and conservation organizations reduce conflict between wildlife habitat needs and human land-use practices.
Against the backdrop of phenomenally rich wildlife habitat, you will participate in two of four ongoing projects aimed at reducing competition between wildlife and local communities. You will spend time in either the unprotected Wamba Division or in the protected Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, or both depending on your team. Lewa is home to a population of 400 endangered Grevy’s zebras as well as all of the classical African wildlife.
You may conduct field surveys of wildlife and vegetation, and map your findings to augment satellite images, locate and record data on vital local water resources and assess their aquatic ecology, or determine the population status and habitat needs of threatened Grevy’s zebras. In addition to your daily encounters with Kenyan wildlife, you will go on game drives to see all the classical African wildlife in Samburu, Buffalo Springs, Shaba Game Reserves, or Namunyak Wildlife Conservation Trust.
field conditions
Costs include a spectacular charter flight from Nairobi to the two field sites, Wamba and Lewa. In Wamba you will stay in shared rooms in a basic but comfortable cottage in the scenic foothills of the Mathews Range. The cottage has electricity, indoor plumbing, hot showers and flush toilets, and a kitchen. An experienced cook will prepare meals for you to enjoy in the dining area, with a largely Western menu, from eggs and sausage for breakfast to roast chicken with rice for dinner. While at Lewa, you will live in a small house set in a whistling-thorn woodland and enjoy meals on the veranda overlooking hillsides frequented by grazing wildlife. Please note: volunteers will participate on two of the four different projects below per expedition depending on dates available. Please contact us for more information regarding the individual projects.
- Grevy's Zebras: Ecological Monitoring on Pastoral Land, Wamba - Establishing the ecology and habitat use of endangered Grevy's zebras to limit impacts from human activities
- Grevy's Zebras: Ecological Monitoring on Conservation Land, Lewa - Understanding the ecology of grazers and grasslands
- Wildlife Habitats of Samburu Comparing - crucial wildlife habitats both within and outside protected areas to improve conservation.
- Communities, Water, & Wildlife - Comparing temporal and spatial distribution of water resources in the Samburu region
how this holiday makes a difference
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Since water is the single most critical environmental resource in Samburu, the information obtained from this project will be of direct benefit to the local communities, conservation institutions, and policy makers involved in formulating strategies for rational and sustainable use of this resource.
By identifying when and where water resources have become critical, intervention measures including provision of alternative water sources (e.g. boreholes, piped water etc) can be explored as viable alternatives. Human-wildlife conflict can be anticipated and preventative measures put in place. Identification of contaminated water will reduce related health hazards for humans, livestock and wildlife. Detection of heavy metal and pesticide residues will lead to formulation and enforcement of policies that encourage use of less persistent and biodegradable agro-chemicals. How this organisation makes a difference We are a not-for-profit international environmental organisation committed to conserving the diversity and integrity of life on earth to meet the needs of current and future generations. On any one of our 130 projects round the world, you are certainly not a tourist. You will be working as a field assistant helping world renowned scientists on real environmental projects and learning about conservation issues. We give people the knowledge and the motivation to do something positive towards helping the environment, regardless of experience and background. The data that you will help to collect will be used to inform conservation decision makers around the world. Since 1971 our research has led to: We are aware that many people travel to their project by air and recognise the impact of this on the environment. In an effort to minimise this, we have teamed up with an organisation that offsets emissions from your flights by funding renewable energy, energy efficient and forest restoration projects around the world. |
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