The Milgis Trust

Category: Turkana | Date: Oct 10 2008 | By: milgistrust

GREVEY’S ZEBRA MEETING HIGHLIGHTS By Moses Lesaloyia.. MT manager

Following many reports of poaching incidents in sikira area of Baragoi, a meeting between the Turkana leaders and the Grevey ZebraTrust,[GZT], Milgis Trust [MT] and Kenya Wildlife Service [KWS] to discuss this issue was held at Baragoi on the 8^th of October 2008. The following is the proceedings of that meeting.

The meeting was attended by 22 leaders from the Turkana community, 4 staff of GZT, 2 staff of MT and the KWS district warden. The district warden was the chairman of the meeting.

The chairman introduced the purpose of the meeting and made it clear that it was not blame or accusation meeting but one to find out a solution to a problem that has become chronic in the area. He pointed out that KWS has all the necessary force that it could use to counter the poachers but the age of using force is past and the approach is now dialogue. He gave a blame ladder as follows, the government blames KWS, it blames stake holders like MT, GZT, they blame the community, the community blames the youth and the youths blame an individual. He said the government gave KWS mandate to look after the wildlife and it is their responsibility to ensure that all people play their role to protect the wildlife. He opened the meeting and pointed out that only two questions will be addressed by the meeting, what the problem is and what the solutions are. He invited the participants to be free and open in their deliberations.

What is the problem? Why are Turkanas killing the Grevey’s?

· No awareness creation among the community

· Grevey’s soup is cure for yellow fever, TB, and joints problems

· Europeans/colonialist introduced the killing to the Turkana, they shot them for sport and the Turkana learnt eating the grevey’s meat then.

· Clashes-raiders feed on them while in the bush, families raided also look for food from the wildlife

· Sport-youths play around with guns and practise target shooting on wildlife-even those who don’t eat them

· Killing for food

· Poor cooperation between GZT and other stake holders

· Competition for resources

· Youth defiance

· Scouts not reporting their kins-hiding the truth on poachers

· Invisible benefits from wildlife

What are the possible solutions to these problems?

· Strengthen awareness creation on the importance of wildlife

· Recruitment of more scouts among the Turkana community

· Frequent meetings with the Turkana community by the GZT

· KWS team in Latakweny to be more mobile and visit all places

· Arresting reported poachers to deter others

· Employment of intelligence techniques

· Enhance communication

· Improve team work among the GZ ambassadors-Turkana scouts to visit the Samburu ones and vice versa.

· Creation of a conservancy in the area

· Putting a KWS radio in Baragoi

· Access water to the grevey’s areas

· All elders to be educators for the youth

· Form a GZ committee in the area.

KWS promised that it will try and get funds for more awareness creation among the community on the importance of wildlife and will improve communication by setting up a radio base in Baragoi and try to increase the Latakweny team and the future set up another camp in Baragoi.

MT manager cautioned the participants that no matter how much support comes from outside the only time that this problem will stop is when the community accepts the wildlife as theirs and start taking care of them like their livestock. Whether they start a conservancy or KWS brings a thousand rangers or GZT give all they ask for, as long as their attitude towards the wildlife is not positive nothing will happen and the killing will continue. He urged the leaders to go out and create awareness in the community and try to change their attitude and this problem will be solved. The ambassadors were basically employed for this purpose and not just to provide security. He asked them not to think of employment of more scouts but think of themselves as the care takers of the wildlife in the area. The scout programme is not sustainable…