Elephants and Bees Environmental Education Program Field Report by International Intern Annemarie Russ When I walked down the street where the bus was waiting for the kids early in the morning I was greeted by a feeling of excitement and lots of laugher. The kids were eager to start their trip to Taita Hills Sanctuary and so was I. The private reserve is located close to Tsavo West National Park…
Field Report by Community, Livelihoods and Education Officer, Victor Ndombi Our beehive fence farmers and Kileva primary farm club students visited the Mombasa Agricultural Show, from the 4th-8thSeptember. The purpose of the trip was to equip farmers and students with different agricultural techniques that could boost food security which is in line with government’s Big Four agenda and second SDG ‘No hunger’. Farming in Sagalla has been a mountain to…
Margaret is the first ever scholar from Tsavo to have successful joined the Elephant Scholarship Program, emerging as the top student at Kileva Primary school. Based in Mwakoma, Sagalla, the Elephants and Bees team have supported the school for many years, however 2019 was the first year for a student from Tsavo to receive an STE scholarship. Since joining the program, Margaret will be assured of her high school education…
Helping Farmers Live in Harmony with Elephants 🐘🐝 Today we want to highlight the Elephants and Bees Community and Livelihoods team who have transformed the Kileva Primary School permaculture garden into a green productive garden full of food! and we would like to appreciate the donors who have supported this project. A huge shout out and immense thank you to The Disney RTD fund, the Rufford Foundation, EKCT and all our…
Field blog written by our international intern, Alexandra Wall LEARNING FROM OTHER WOMEN’S GROUPS IN THE AREA The focus of my summer internship has been developing the groundwork for establishing a Women’s Enterprise Center in Mwakoma. Rather than start from ground zero and reinvent the wheel, we instead visited several women’s groups in the area to learn from their experiences. How and why did these groups start? What income generating…
Field blog written by our international intern, Alexandra Wall ELEPHANT CROP RAIDS AND POVERTY Save the Elephants’ (STE) Elephants and Bees Research Center is based in Mwakoma village, one of four villages in Lower Sagalla located roughly 10km from Tsavo East National Park in Kenya. Here, subsistence farming is the primary income-generating activity for households. In Mwakoma and surrounding communities, human-wildlife conflict is one of the leading factors contributing to…
The views, opinions and position expressed in this article belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy and position of Save the Elephants Report written by our International Intern, Acacia Jennings The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) forms international agreements that regulate plant and animal trade. Its purpose is to ensure that the trade of wild animals and…
The views, opinions and position expressed in this article belong solely to the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy and position of Save the Elephants Field Report written by our Kenyan intern Ephie Lumumba ELEPHANT MONITORING Our journey started at 9 AM from the camp in search of two collared elephants, Manolo and EQ at Lake Jipe. On the way, we got to see more elephant families and…
Report written by our Kenyan Intern, Peter Ochieng Sagalla is located in Voi Constituency, Taita Taveta County. The Sagalla community has a long history of human-elephant conflict. A community is a group of people living in a geographic area, with ties of kinship and marriage, have complex characteristics of knowledge and habitats and share interest and control resource. The Elephants and Bees Project has had a significant impact on the Sagalla…
Field blog by Kenyan Intern, Purity Mwongeli Before the introduction of beehive fences, communities in Sagalla area were in constant conflict with elephants. Elephants use migratory routes, some of which pass through the area. The farmers used every method possible to scare away the elephants and stop them from raiding their farms, sometimes resolving to use of weapons. In the process of scaring them away, some of these elephants would charge…