Paradise in the forest

The journalist Rupi Mangat recently paid a visit to us in our camp site in the middle of the forest in the Mathews Range ... and she was delighted!

You can read her impressions on our study site on the following link. Enjoy (and be envious, maybe...)

http://mobile.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/Paradise-in-the-wilderness/-/1950774/2001024/-/format/xhtml/-/8835cfz/-/index.html

Forest still shrinking in the Taita hills

Lawrence Wagura, one of our students, is in the Taita hills, the last tiny refuge of Taita apalis, one of the rarest birds in the world. Together with Lawrence, and Kenyan ornithologist Mwangi Githiru, we have been working on this species for four years, trying to save its habitat and rescue its population, which we estimate to be between 200 to 300 individuals.

Unfortunately, as human population in the Taita hills increases fast, pressure on the last natural habitats grows. The Taita apalis is particularly at risk, because this species occurs in shrubby habitats along forest edges, which are often the places where cultivated fields encroach.

See below one photo I have just received from Lawrence. This site was occupied by one territory of Taita apalis no more than one year ago, but has been turned into cultivation now. With such a rare species as the Taita apalis, the loss of even a single nesting pair is causing a serious threat to the survival of the species. And this trend does not seem to ease down. Bad news for Taita apalis.

Taita apalis territory transformed into cultivation (photo L. Wagura)

A new forest discovered in the Taita Hills!

The Taita Hills of Kenya are a small range of mountains and a paradise of biodiversity. The forests in the Taita have evolved in isolation for perhaps 10 million of years, and evolution produced numerous species that can only be seen there and nowhere else in the world. One of these species is a small bird, the Taita apalis, whose population is reduced to just a few hundred individuals.

The Taita apalis, Apalis fuscigularis

Lawrence Wagura is one of the students that has been sponsored by our small fellowships. Lawrence works with the National Museums of Kenya, and is studying the details of the life history of the Taita apalis, which is a critically endangered species, because it is estimated that more than 95% of the original vegetation of the Taita has been lost. Currently less than 500 hectares of forest remain, scattered in twelve small fragments, some of which are less than one hectare in size. In September 2011, Lawrence and I, during a week of field work in the Taita, stumbled in a most astonishing and welcome discovery. A new forest, never visited by scientists in the Taita! The site, called Msidunyi by local people, escaped detection up to now as it is completely surrounded and hidden by a large plantation of non-indigenous trees. Msidunyi contains about 7.2 hectares of indigenous forest with few signs of human disturbance.

Lawrence birding in Msidunji, October 2011

Preliminary data suggest that Msidunyi is one of the biologically richest forest fragments of the Taita Hills, one of the most important findings was that of a new population of the Taita apalis. We do not know exactly how many individuals of the apalis might be in Msidunyi, but in any case this is a very important news for a bird whose entire population might be now less than 200 individuals! It is surprising that it escaped detection up to now considering that several biological surveys have been carried out in the area in the two decades. Based on size alone, Msidunyi is the sixth largest forest in the hills. More detailed biological surveys are needed to confirm the conservation value of this small forest patch, but the presence of a diverse flora and fauna, including endemic and globally threatened species, suggest that Msidunyi is an important refuge for rare species and a stepping stone for preserving biological connectivity between the isolated forest remnants of the Taita Hills.

News from the Mathews range

Hello everybody! August is vacation time here in Kenya, and as usual I am in the Mathews range with my team and we are busy busy busy on our forest bird research.
The big news is that birds are again in trouble this year, another big drought is impacting the forest very strongly and our data show that bird populations this year are hitting another the all time minimum more than -50% decrement since 2005, the year when we began this study.
Lawrence and Sammy as usual are using mist nets to obtain very accurate information on the biology of the forest birds, and their results are clear - some species, even common ones like the Grey-backed Camaroptera, this year did not breed at all, as it shown by the fact that the number of juveniles that we caught this year was more thna 50% than the number we got last year. Clearly, the drought is hitting very badly on the birds, and one wonders what will be the long term consequences of this.

A Grey-backed Camaroptera in the nets. This year we caught almost no juveniles of this species. A clear sign that the breeding season was a failure due to the harsh drought conditions

Talking of global climate change might seem like shooting too far, but the fact is that the most recent research suggests that droughts like the one of this year (and the one of 2009) will become more and more common in East Africa in the future. No doubts that this will have a very bad impact on the forests and their fauna.

Tree planting resumes in the Aberdares! Hooray!

Hello everybody - as you know our friends of the Kawama Youth Group, who are planting trees in the Aberdare mountains, had all sorts of problems in the last year due to a terrible drought that killed almost all the trees in their nursery and made all plantings impossible for many months (see the story here). Fortunately the rain has now come back to Kenya, and the Kawama people have at last been able to resume planting trees!
I pasted below a short email that I just received from Sammy, the leader of the Kawama. This is a very welcome update on their recent activities.
All the best wishes to the Kawama Group and to their dedication to this difficult enterprise! We all hope to be able to continue helping their work in the next year

Luca

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HERE IS SAMMY'S EMAIL:

Hi Luca,

How is the family, now that you are back home?

We did plant trees at last on Sat 15th May. It was quite challenging due to the heavy rains but everybody was happy. It was an achievement that we have always looked forward to.

We transported all the seedlings at the first nursery but we were not able to plant all of them on the day. We managed to plant about 2,000 seedlings and we hope to plant the remaining, also about 2,000 on June 5th.

We had difficulties in transport due to bad road conditions, we were stuck several times before we even got to the nursery to pick the seedlings, we however managed after long hours of struggle. The second batch of seedlings, which we did not plant yet, was kept in a safe place in the garden of one of the neighbours to the forest. The rangers of the Kenya Forest Service collaborate with us and are regularly visiting the home to see that the seedlings are safe.

We drained all the financial resources that we had, so we are thinking on how to go about planting the remaining lot. It wou'nt take much since the element of transport is done with now. We only need fare for the members and refreshment.

I am not able to give you a more detailed report but I will soon, and am yet to receive the photos.

Best Regards,

Sammy.

News from the Aberdares

I have just received an email from the Kawama youth group, with some updates on the tree planting in the Aberdare mountains. As you can read, things are going on - despite the total lack of cooperation from the climate which in the last year has cursed us with the worst drought that Kenya had in the last 30 years (or maybe more!). Here is the update from the Kawama Group:

"In November we saw it good to plant some of our seedlings together with the Green Belt Movement which was planting in Ragia, a forest next to Kiburu where we have our planting site. The event was very successful, and we involved 15 of our members while GBM had 10 members from the adjacent community. We also had the District Forester with us and the Division Youth Officer as the Kenya Government representatives. This was a good opportunity to make good working relationships with the GBM as well the Government representatives. At the end of the day, we planted more than 500 trees, which are now growing fine as rain has been good in the last weeks.

We are now going to expand our two tree nurseries at Mwendandu and Njabini. As you can see from the photos the nurseries are growing big, At Njabini we have now more than 5,000 seedlings of several species such as Olea africana, Prunus africana and Dombeya cordata.

The older nursery at Mwendandu has more than 8,000 of the slow-growing Juniperus which is now at an advanced stage of growth and almost ready for planting, plus other species including more Dombeya, Prunus, and Olea, all of which have survived to the drought of the last months thanks to the hard work of the members who had to carry water on their shoulders from the well that is almost one kilometre from the nursery. This good availability of seedlings will ensure that we are set with a good diversity of trees to plant in the next season. We are also working on other species such as Solanecio which are not difficult to raise and are growing very fast. This process of raising seedlings might appear to be taking long but at some point people will see what we are doing. Unfortunately the bad effects of the prolonged drought have severely affected and slowed down the growth of our small trees. Now that rains have resumed we are looking forward to the next planting season in 2010.

In the meantime, we are very greatful for your continued support. Please also pass our gratitudeto all the donors who have helped us in any way."

Il progetto Loretta Armida - ripiantiamo la foresta dei Monti Aberdare con il Kawama Youth Group!

La foresta dei monti Aberdares, in Kenya, è la principale fonte di approvvigionamento di acqua per la regione di Nairobi, e l’unico rifugio per molte specie di piante ed animali.

Negli anni passati, oltre il 50% della foresta è stato distrutto da commercianti di legname senza scrupoli. Ora, la gente del luogo ha capito che le foreste vanno conservate perché sono fonti di acqua e di molte risorse vitali per l’uomo e per gli animali. Ricostituire la foresta perduta è possibile. Servono buona volontà, i semi degli alberi e pochi semplici strumenti.

Questo piccolo progetto nasce nel 2007 grazie alla collaborazione di molti amici e soprattuto di mio cognato Davide, che si è fatto in quattro per questa idea ed ha contribuito molte risorse. Vogliamo collaborare con un gruppo di squattrinati ma volonterosi giovani Kenyani, il Kawama youth group, per creare e mantenere un vivaio di alberi autoctoni (podocarpo, ginepro, hagenia, olivo africano). Gli alberi, dopo alcuni mesi di crescita nel vivaio, sono messi a dimora a 10 chilometri di distanza dal vivaio, in un sito dove fino a venti anni fa cresceva la foresta. Con cure adeguate e olio di gomito, il nostro rimboschimento sta ricreando un ambiente naturale che sarà piano piano (gli alberi impiegano anni per ricrescere, non aspettatevi miracoli!) ricolonizzato dalle piante e dagli animali autoctoni.


Il vivaio del Kawama youth group si chiama “Loretta Armida” in memoria di una nostra amica e per sottolineare che molto aiuto è arrivato dalla Società Canottieri Armida (di cui Davide mio cognato è socio). Dopo due anni di lavoro il vivaio – sopravvissuto (per ora) a due siccità grazie all’impegno dei ragazzi che hanno portato a spalla per chilometri l’acqua per innaffiare le piantine– comprende quasi 10.000 piante, e 1000 di queste sono già state messe a dimora nel sito scelto per la riforestazione.


In questi giorni siamo di nuovo in piena emergenza. Il Kenya è colpito dalla peggiore siccità degli ultimi 20 anni e la mancanza di acqua minaccia di sterminare le piantine che sono ancora molto giovani. Per salvarle occorre andare a piedi fino ad un torrente che si trova ad oltre un chilometro dal vivaio, e portare l’acqua a spalla su e giù per i bricchi. Una roba da fare spavento, ve lo giuro.

Il sito che abbiamo scelto per la riforestazione è messo a disposizione gratuitamente dal Forest Service (l’organismo statale responsabile per la gestione delle risorse forestali del Kenya). I semi vengono raccolti nella foresta, e la manodopera naturalmente viene prestata dai ragazzi che non aspettano altro che un piccolo aiuto da parte nostra per mettersi a lavorare. Ciò che ancora serve è una piccola cifra (circa 500€ per il 2009) per acquistare semplici strumenti agricoli, concime, una recinzione per proteggere gli alberi nelle prime fasi della crescita e per pagare le spese per il trasporto delle piante fino al sito scelto per la riforestazione (occorre noleggiar eun camin perché le piante sono veramente tante!). I costi complessivi sono bassissimi, molto inferiori a quelli di progetti analoghi gestiti da organizzazioni internazionali. Il segreto sta nel fatto che utilizziamo esclusivamente manodopera e tecnologie 100% made in Africa. Niente consulenze costose, nessuna tecnologia spaziale, solo molta buona volontà e molto lavoro!

TOTALE PROPOSTA 2009 PER IL KAWAMA YOUTH GROUP : 500 EURO