Conserving Our Present
Saving Our Future
Our Projects
Since 2021, we have been actively engaged with several projects to benefit the conservation area and the community. See the descriptions of some of our projects below.
Project 1. Well Construction
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With the help of students from Eastern Nazarene College and generous donors, we were able to construct a well to provide clean drinking water to our village just outside the conservation area. Before this well was installed, the women of the village had to walk miles to get to clean water, or they made the choice to use the polluted water of the Nakhwana River instead. Now we have a source of clean drinking water not far from our homes.
Project 2. Tree Nursery
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In the past 30 years, many trees have been removed from our village, including the conservation area, because of increasing population density and agricultural practices. This resulted in the loss of many of our native trees. We decided to start a tree nursery in the conservation area to grow and replant the native trees. We started by planting 10,000 indigenous trees in the conservation area and the community, and now we are growing 6,000 more for planting later this year.
Project 3. Species Inventory
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We can't conserve species unless we know what species are there and what their requirements may be. We have been undertaking species surveys, or inventories, to find what species are present in our conservation area using a variety of techniques. We have used pitfall traps to learn about the insects, spiders, and other invertebrates on the ground. We actively search at night for frog species and make photographic records of the frogs, as well as making acoustic recordings of their sounds. By doing this we have found 12 species of frogs in the conservation area. We also actively watch for other species in the area, including the Nile monitor and other lizards, snakes, birds (such as the Hadeda ibis), and small mammals.
Project 4. Community Training
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In order to engage community members in conservation, we offer training in the basic principles of conservation, as well as about the species that we are protecting in our conservation area. With our partners, we have developed training modules about snakes, lizards, frogs, and leopards. These are currently offered every week on Fridays and Saturdays. We also have three teams of trainers that go out into the community one day each week to train other groups of people, particularly with regard to snakes and snakebite awareness.
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For more information about community training, CLICK HERE.