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Wildlife Works’ Big Day Out!
Wildlife Works’ regional directors from around the world, with the REDD+ directors from the U.S. and Kenya offices, and the top performers from each department of our Kenyan Project, gathered for an educational day of exploration in and around the rural communities we serve! The aim of this big day was for the directors of REDD+ projects and Wildlife Works employees to experience the beauty of rural Kenya, to learn about the community projects we have already accomplished, and to get to know the local residents and hear their needs for future community projects. Everyone gathered at Camp Kenya, an eco-tourism site on our land, and divided into 6 teams…
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Tragedy strikes Rukinga Sanctuary
WARNING: The following blog post contains graphic photos of elephants killed by ivory poachers. View at your own discretion. As the new year kicks off, we take a look back at the challenges and accomplishments of 2012. We were proud to start the year by building a nursery for Wildlife Works’ employees’ families, and thrilled to be partners with PUMA for their Creative Factory project. We welcomed our first female Wildlife rangers and happily received validation and verification for the first REDD+ project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The greatest challenge we face going into 2013 is the growing threat to wildlife from the increasingly violent ivory trade, and we…
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A Journey into REDD+: Wildlife Works Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project, Kenya
By Rachel O’Reilly, part of the Wildlife Works Carbon Business Development team This October, I was assigned to visit our REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) project in Kenya to document the essence of the project through imagery with world-renowned “cause-related” photographer, Lisa Kristine. Lisa’s work is focused on the vast diversity and hardships of humanity, resulting in photos that connect audiences to the dignity that exists in us all, regardless of the conditions. The Wildlife Works Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project is located between Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks in Kenya. It acts as a vital wildlife corridor for a fantastic diversity of over 50 species of large mammals,…
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Students from Marungu Secondary School take a walk on the wildlife side
Part of Wildlife Works’ community enrichment strategy includes ensuring that underprivileged students get a chance to view their beautiful ecosystems and see wildlife in their natural habitat. Students in rural areas do not enjoy the comforts and opportunities that the more privileged students in urban areas regularly experience. The schools surrounding Rukinga, including the Marungu Secondary School, are located almost two hours inland from Mombasa, deep in the Kenyan bush. Students at Marungu are boarded for four years, and many of them never get the opportunity to travel or visit the most picturesque parts of Kenya. Last month, the Wildlife Works’ Human Resources Department organized a group of 30 Form…
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Rescued Lesser Kudu
The lesser kudu is an ancient species of forest antelope found in East Africa, the most primitive of all spiral-horned antelope. They live in dry thorn bush and forest, and are one of the many protected inhabitants of our Rukinga Sanctuary, Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project. Kudus, which range between 90 to 110 kg, are quite nimble; they can jump distances of more than 30 feet! Despite their agile nature, these beautiful creatures are on the decline due to illegal poaching, and have been marked as Near Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). While patrolling the sanctuary on Sept 24th, a team of Wildlife…
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Beehive Fences Help Protect Farmers’ Crops
As human development continues to expand and encroach on wildlife, there has been an increase in human-wildlife interaction and conflict over the years, particularly in areas within Kenya where humans and animals directly share the local land and resources. This phenomenon is further magnified by climate change, which causes the wildlife to change their migratory patterns in search of food. One such area is Kileva, a small sub-area within the Taita-Taveta County, situated a few kilometers from Rukinga. Here, the dwellers are prone to conflicts with elephants, which frequently destroy farmers’ crops during the dry seasons. As many of these farmers rely on their crop yield to survive, this has…
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Getting to Know our Female Rangers: Constance
Last week, we introduced a series on getting to know our four female conservation rangers currently working in the Kasigau corridor, in celebration of Wildlife Works’ first-ever hiring of female rangers in the spring of 2011. We sat down and talked to each woman about her experience working in the project area over the past year, and gained some pretty interesting insight into daily life on the job, which we’d like to share with you. Constance Mwandaa, a 22 year-old native of Sagalla, begins her day at 5:30 am with a shower and some breakfast, and then heads out into the bush to begin her duties patrolling the protected area…
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Meet Betty, Wildlife Works’ Enterprising Soap Maker
By: Cara Braund- Conservation Intern- 12th November 2011 In an area such as the Kasigau Corridor, where there are thousands of people out of regular work, Wildlife Works has been instrumental in providing jobs for hundreds of people in different sectors of the company. In order to reach as many families as possible, one important factor has been the diverse range of employment available. If you’re not made to be a cutter or sewer in the eco-factory, maybe you could be a ranger, or put those green fingers to use in the greenhouse or use your knowledge of mechanics in the workshop. Furthermore, by training local residents in the different…
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POACHERS-Caught on camera on Wildlife Works Rukinga Sanctuary
By: CARA BRAUND- Conservation Intern- 17th October 2011 As part of their efforts to track biodiversity levels on Rukinga and the rest of the project area, the Biodiversity Division have been testing out camera traps to photograph unsuspecting wildlife in their natural habitat. The first six test cameras are on day and night and the first trials have been going well, with elephants, lesser kudu, giraffe, kongoni civets and even aardwolf being captured. The team got a bit of a surprise, however, when checking the recent results of their work. Mixed among the shots of buffalo and kudu was the image of several men walking through the bush several hours…
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Wildlife Works Eco Tourism Partner Camps International Win Eco-Warrior Award
Camps International Win Eco-Warrior Award On Thursday 25th November 2010 Camps International (CI) and more specifically Camp Kenya were awarded the Eco-Warrior Award for the Most Sustainable Community Based Tourism Enterprise in East Africa. The Eco-Warrior Awards were launched by Ecotourism Kenya in 2005 as part of their drive to broaden industry understanding of responsible tourism and are assessed against four main criteria; outstanding innovation, real achievements, sustainability of the initiative and its replicability. This has to be achieved whilst respecting the environment, local people and cultures, and linking with communities to positively empower economies and promote self-sufficiency and environmental governance. In the words of Ecotourism Kenya; ‘Camp Kenya partners,…