Conservation Education & Citizen Science

LF has been the major conservation education player in the Laikipia landscape for over 15 years. Laikipia’s schools and pupils have benefitted from learning excursions supported by donors during this time. The model was highly valued, but not sustainable.

Access to information and education remains a cornerstone of conservation work, and the Forum has supported others and their activities – the Northern Kenya Conservation Clubs, the Northern Kenya Conservation Education Working Group, and others.

In order to increase the impacts of these clubs and working groups, the Forum has supported a landscape level association of conservation educators – the Laikipia Association of Conservation Educators (LACE).

LACE allows conservation education educators to benefit from materials and activities at scale. It supports the interaction of educators, allows members access to materials, expertise, and programs, and provides a forum from which fundraising, international/regional partnerships, and expertise can be accessed.

Citizen Science is a more recent addition to the Forum’s programs (5 years) and is exciting public engagement in conservation and natural resources management research.

Our Goal

To make the greater Laikipia landscape a premiere, sustainable conservation education and learning destination supporting formal and non-formal education, and citizen science.

“Welcome to Wild Class. Welcome to Laikipia!”

Purpose

To provide Laikipia conservancies with services that support the development of conservation education as a sustainable enterprise and viable land use. Moreover, the WILD CLASS program should become a financially viable and sustainable model for area schools to enjoy the same class of conservation education programs.

LF and Jacaranda Africa have embarked on an initiative to turn Conservation Education in Laikipia into a sustainable, income generating activity, and land use for ranches and conservancies.

This conservation education effort is designed to accomplish three objectives:

Encourage development of Conservation Education as a profitable income generating activity for Laikipia conservancies.
Demonstrate the effectiveness of conservation education as a land use in Laikipia.
Subsidise the offering of Conservation Education to local schools in Laikipia.

To advance Laikipia as a conservation education learning destination, Jacaranda Africa and LF have developed a sustainable Conservation Education strategy; thus pushing the limits on what has always been a heavily subsidised program in Laikipia.

This conservation education effort is designed to accomplish three objectives:

Encourage development of Conservation Education as a profitable income generating activity for Laikipia conservancies.
Demonstrate the effectiveness of conservation education as a land use in Laikipia.
Subsidize conservation education to local schools in Laikipia.

WILD CLASS is a collective effort of wildlife conservation education destinations in the greater Laikipia landscape.

Each WILD CLASS destination offers the potential to develop into a world-class facility offering progressive conservation education learning to Kenya’s middle-class youth.

WILD CLASS offers conservancies an additional income generating activity.

Each WILD CLASS visitor provides the potential to sponsor a similar visit by a pupil from an area school.

Each WILD CLASS destination features a special or unique offering about nature, land use, and conservation management in the landscape. These features have been captured on film as part of our WILD CLASS development and promotion.

We are joined by these 10 Conservation Education learning destinations in Laikipia to develop the concept of “WILD CLASS”.

Laikipia Association of Conservation Educators (LACE)

Wild Class is the brand that will accompany our conservation education enterprise efforts.

LACE is the mechanism by which conservation education is delivered through a unified approach, throughout the Laikipia landscape, that benefits all conservancies and advances conservation through education for behavior change.

Through WILD CLASS, the Association pursues a model that includes services needed to develop conservation education as an enterprise. The dimensions of these services include:

Sales and Marketing
Conservation Program Development
Business Planning
Capacity Building among Conservation Education Staff
Financing
Monitoring and Evaluation

CITIZEN SCIENCE

Citizen Science or “crowd” science is all about growing the role of public participation in scientific research. It is the next important step in demystifying scientific research, engaging people in the process of scientific investigations, and pulling them into asking questions, collecting data and its interpretation, and sharing the results.

Significant parts of the greater Laikipia landscape have embarked on a mission to be Kenya’s very own Citizen Science destination. We want residents and visitors alike to share in the science of discovery and to engage with us in asking questions that will focus our future efforts, both for scientific investigation and management of these key, unique territories and their resources. The essence of Citizen Science is that volunteers collect and share data (information) that can be analyzed by scientists and citizen participants.

This information then becomes rich material for public feedback, wider public information sharing, lobbying, advocacy, funding and the development of new projects. In essence, we’re increasingly talking about the “democratization” of science, scientific funding, and the use of scientific results.

The Great Grevy’s Rally was the first important step in this process. This scientifically supervised engagement of the public yielded the first, complete census of the endangered Grevy’s Zebra in Kenya. It has since informed additional rallies, discussions, and scientific research for the conservation of Grevy’s Zebras.

Oppuntia stricta, “prickly pear” management and control is another example of citizen engagement in invasive species mapping and control. Using Apps, smart phones and local knowledge, Laikipia residents are contributing to the management of the invasive cactus in the landscape.

The “citizen science” approach to learning is one way that Laikipia Forum aims to promote Laikipia as a safe and fun learning environment for all. In keeping with its Wild Class program for conservation education, LF believes that Laikipia is a perfect ‘natural classroom’ because of its high concentration of research activities, learning opportunities, and conservation challenges, as well as its unique local communities committed to conserving them.

5 –Year Objectives
- Nurture and support the membership, operations and management of LACE
- Secure funding for the operations of LACE and its secretariat
- Secure the funding to operationalize WildClass
- Secure more opportunities to engage Kenyans in the science of conservation.

Activities

Role of the FORUM

Partnerships

Key partnerships working to support these theme are the GZT, MRC, Princeton, NRT, RCMRD, Laikipia County, LCA, all the logos from the LACE members,

Newsletter Articles

Innovative Approaches to Conservation: The Mazingira Conservation Fund Grant Rollout

Laikipia
May 10, 2023

Under the direction of the Laikipia Wildlife Forum, a new program called the Mazingira Conservation Fund (MCF) has been launched to promote practical conservation actions. The MCF’s mission is to channel funds to support local initiatives that result in benefits to people, wildlife, and their habitats, while its vision is to combine conservation, community, and…

WORLD WILDLIFE DAY: Joining Hands to Protect Our Ecosystem

Laikipia
March 3, 2023

To commemorate World Wildlife Day, we today joined our partners in conservation the Kenya Wildilife Service, The County Government of Laikipia, Ol Pejeta Conservancy, William Holden Wildlife Foundation, the Water Resources Authority and Likii and Nanyuki WRUA for a clean-up exercise of Rivers Nanyuki and Likii. In her speech after the clean-up, the Assistant Director,…

The Leo Project Brings Organizations Together to Tackle Waste Management and Climate Change

Laikipia
February 1, 2023

On Saturday, January 28th, 2023, The Leo Project brought together over 200 community members and a number of organizations to clean up the Jua Kali center. The organizations included Laikipia Wildlife Forum, BATUK, Maiyan, Pathways Policy Institute, Leo Local and El Karama Lodge. The event was a great success and aimed to address the growing…

Ontulili Primates Protection Controls Water Pollution

Laikipia
December 22, 2022

Ontulili river starts from Mount Kenya and joins the Ewaso Nyiro river, a lifesaving river in the entire North Eastern region. Like many rivers in the metropolitan cities, the river is lined up with different agricultural industries supporting the economy of Nanyuki town and beyond. For a very long-time, rivers have been used as industrial…

Tribute to Caren Tankard

Laikipia
November 11, 2022

Caren Tankard was Vice Chair and Co-Founder of the community based organization Ontulili Primates Protection (OPP). She passed away on Tuesday 1 November 2022. Caren moved to live along the Ontulili River in 2014 and immediately became a champion of protecting the habitat of the primates and wildlife as well as reforesting her own home…

Ontulili Primates Protection Celebrates International Primates Day

Laikipia
October 11, 2022

International Primate Day, September 1, is an annual event and has been organized since 2005 with the support of the British-based, Animal Defenders International (ADI). It is supported internationally and locally on an annual basis by various primate-focused advocacy organizations. The primates organizations speaks for all higher and lower primates, typically endorsing humane agendas where primates…

Kenya Shines at the Africa Conservation Awards

Laikipia
October 11, 2022

We take this opportunity to congratulate Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association for emerging as the best Conservation Supporter at this years African Conservation Awards ceremony held in Kasane, Botswana. The Awards were established to promote conservation and to recognize the efforts made by countries in safeguarding natural heritage by empowering rangers in conservancies. Simba Community Wildlife…

The Earth’s Freshwater Cycle has Exceeded the Safe Limit, Says Research

Laikipia
August 31, 2022

A comprehensive scientific assessment in 2015 found that human activity has already breached four of the planetary boundaries. Greenhouse gas emissions are brewing a hotter climate, the sixth mass extinction of species is unpicking the web of life that makes up the global biosphere, intensive farming is polluting the environment and natural habitats are being destroyed on a significant scale. Earlier in 2022, researchers…

New Law on Sustainable Waste Management

Laikipia
August 31, 2022

Kenya now has a Sustainable Waste Management Act. Enacted by President Uhuru Kenyatta, the 2021 legislation provides for the establishment of a Waste Management Board, mandatory extended producer responsibility programs, recovery of household waste, and the closure of illegal landfills in all 47 counties of the East African country. These provisions were inspired by the…

OPP Supports the Control of Invasive Species

Laikipia
August 31, 2022

Kenya has had several invasions of alien plant species that have a negative impact on biodiversity, agriculture, and human development. As Ontulili Primates Protection is keen on expanding their tree seedling production, the women are keen not to produce seedlings that are listed as invasive trees species in Kenya. One of the trees presents along…

COLO BRIDGE: Ontulili Primate Protection partners with Mount Kenya Trust to Conserve Colobus Monkeys

Laikipia
August 31, 2022

The Ontulili River and Forest are home to several primates, and the common ones are the Colobus and the Blue Monkey. The Colobus Monkey is fast-moving compared to the other primates, and that is one among other ways in which the colobus monkey avoids their predators and enemies along the river, moving and sticking together…

East African Wildlife Society Pens an Open Letter to the President: Amendment Rejected!! Thank You!!

Laikipia
July 22, 2022

The East African Wildlife Society and the Kenya Forest Working Group, has called for the integration of Kenyan Forests standards along the Forest value chains to ensure sustainable productions and consumption of forest and forest resources in an open letter to the President of the republic of Kenya. The realization of this would definitely put…

“DUPOTO” – Soon a Household Name for Commercial Honey in Laikipia

Laikipia
July 22, 2022

DUPOTO Cooperative was registered on 26th February 2021, by the Commissioner for Cooperative Development with the name: “DUPOTO BEEKEEPING & MARKETING COOPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED”. Their objective focuses on bee products and the honey value chain to improve the livelihoods of the people bordering Mukogodo Forest Reserve. Its membership is derived from the 21 beekeeping community…

Grasses of East Africa; New book That Aims to Help Us Learn about Grass

Laikipia
June 9, 2022

Dr. Dino J Martins is an internationally renowned biologist with vast experience in biodiversity and natural history spanning 25 years. Many in our landscape have become familiar with Dino due to his work at Mpala. He has served as the Director of the Mpala Research Center for seven years, where he has shown leadership in…

Ontulili Primates Protection Awarded Second Grant by Over and Above Africa

Laikipia
June 6, 2022

The OPP – Ontulili Primates Protection – program is a community based organization set up by women along the Ontulili river in Nanyuki, Kenya. In 2021, OPP worked closely with Laikipia Forum (LF) and its donor, Over and Above Africa, to both monitor primates along the Ontulili and help reforest sections of the river. On…

Educating the Il Ngwesi Community through Tourism

Laikipia
April 11, 2022

Earlier this year, we were able to experience, firsthand, the remarkable Il Ngwesi Lodge. You can read more about our experience by clicking here. Apart from experiencing their exciting (and diverse offerings), we also learned about Il Ngwesi’s commitment to positively impacting the surrounding community. Il Ngwesi contributes to developing local communities by supporting education,…

Photography for a Cause: Promoting Conservation Education through photography

Laikipia
April 7, 2022

Seeing the beautiful smiles and elation on the faces of the young kids from Lokusero primary/secondary and Enaikishomi school as they received their certificates of completion of the Wild Shot Outreach photography program was indeed a sight to behold. Through the support from Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and the Laikipia Forum, Wild Shots Outreach founders Mike…

Laikipia County Climate Change Fund: Drafting the Regulations

Laikipia
February 2, 2022

The National Climate Change Act,2016, part 19 (4) provides for a county government to enact legislation that further defines implementation of its obligations under this Act, or other climate change functions relevant to the county or such other related purposes. In realization of the above, the County Government of Laikipia has established its own Climate…

Proposed Forest Amendment Bill Retrogressive

Laikipia
February 1, 2022

Conservationists across the country have faulted the National Assembly’s Procedure and House Rules Committee MPs for having the intention of repealing Section 34 (2) of the Forest Conservation and Management Act of 2016, warning that Kenya would lose more than half of its protected forest should the proposed amendments to the forest laws be passed.…

National Endowment Fund Seeks to Finance Conservation Efforts

Laikipia
June 10, 2021

Since the passage of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act in 2013, a national endowment fund to support wildlife conservation activities in the Country has been a mile too far for the GOK. This legal notice to the Public Finance Management Act is an attempt to realize the Fund and to finance its establishment –…