The Milgis Trust

Category: Conservation Awareness, Desert warthog, Livestock, Northern Frontier District, Overgrazing | Date: Nov 19 2009 | By: milgistrust

Hi every one, sorry to have disappeared! Just back from a beautiful camel safari through the green hills of the Northern Frontier District!!… Its beautiful up there, we’ve had to cross flooded luggas, and slip and slide through mud, and best of all just watch the grass grow, and watching all the animals gain strength, and even to run away…

Crossing the Seiya Lugga.. Nov 09.. Camels know too well how dangerous it can be, as they can fall into pockets of air under the sand and sink in up to their heads, in water

Green grass… You probably wonder why I took this picture but its an unusual site in the N.F.D… Its incredible!! I took too many pictures of green grass..I’ll only bore you with one!!

..Desert warthogs, taken early Oct. 09,with a very simple camera, surviving on the only grass available, which is like thorns, very dry and hard, too weak to bother to run away… now you won’t see them for dust… The wildlife has suffered very badly, but if it hadn’t.t been for the Milgis Trust scouts many more would have perished, through lack of water..

Compared to the rest of Kenya so far, we have been very lucky with rain, although it is very patchy… But in the last year hundreds and thousands of trees have been cut down, and uncountable livestock has died… We came across people that have lost almost every thing they own… Its hard, but they now need to think why…. Too many people trying to live off too little, brings disaster… Are the pastoral people going to change their principals!??? As you know one of the most important mission of the Milgis Trust is to ‘conserve the peoples way of life’ in this magical country… But one thing has to change and that is the amount of stock that can live off this semi desert land… Actually, as I say, Nature has done the job, this time but its caused a lot of suffering…

Just for fun… 1st Picture taken 9 th October 09 showing tree chopped down for a hungry goat …. 2nd Pic taken end October… Same area!!

The Manager, with the area scouts are at the moment out to do a massive awareness campaign, not so much to tell the people but to see if they have learnt something… In the managers words… ‘In general the response from all the people we talk to is indicating that the last drought has opened the eyes of many in terms of the numbers of livestock we keep and the destruction of the environment. Many report that they went all the way to Marti and eventually came back to the Milgis lugga, [where people do not cut trees any more!] which rescued their animals. LOTS TO DO!!…

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Category: Conservation Awareness, Milgis lugga, Northern Frontier District | Date: Oct 21 2009 | By: milgistrust

With your support the Milgis Trust would love to own night camera traps to capture the nocturnal activities of the wildlife within the busy Milgis ecosystem. Each and every morning the Milgis team identifies countless tracks and spoors of highly timid creatures of the night such as the Lion, Aardvark, African Wild Cat, Porcupine, Civet, Ratel and Leopard as well as numerous other mammals, reptiles, insects and birds that dwell within this land. The Aardvark above all is an important animal for the Samburu - one sighting of this incredibly shy creature means you are blessed with luck for life.

But without the necessary equipment sightings are seldom recorded. To collect, record and share such physical information on these nocturnal animals would support the awareness and understanding of the Milgis Trust’s work whilst encouraging communities to continue in their conservation efforts and aid the Trust’s scouts in providing further security for the wildlife where it is needed most.

I n d o n a t i n g o n e n i g h t c a m e r a t r a p the Milgis Trust can implement an unobtrusive and sustainable surveillance unit, collecting much needed data to help substantiate the amazing successes the Trust is receiving in the increase in wildlife species and numbers to the area, not to mention the unidentified species we believe to exist within the Trust’s habitats.

1 Night Camera Trap Uk £ 199 only!

*As part of the donation the Milgis Trust would be proud to issue you with regular prints or digital copies of the very best photos that your donated camera has captured*

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Category: Conservation Awareness, Education, Health, Overgrazing, Rendille, Samburu, Turkana | Date: Sep 15 2009 | By: milgistrust

Milgis Trust

Vet Unit, northern Kenya

In a place as remote as the Ndoto Mountains and Matthews Range of northern Kenya where do the people turn when their animal is in trouble?

Our conservation veterinary unit will not only offer desperately needed veterinary services to the livestock of the incredibly remote Samburu, Rendille and Turkana nomadic tribes, but will campaign without fail to improve quality rather than quantity of livestock in the hope of reducing the degradation of the land, the struggle for water and therefore the presence of human/wildlife conflict.

On top of this, because it is such a inaccessible area, with approval from the veterinary department of the KWS we will give first aid care to the young or sick wild animals, that we find abandoned…Either to nurture them back to being fit enough to return to the wild with the least trauma, or to arrange for them to go to further care.. Just this year we have had several animals brought in that needed help.. [The Greater Kudu calf, mother killed by hunting dogs, baby warthog, found stuck in the mud were perfect examples, of animals that may have survived if they had had vet care ]

This project will be life changing for the people, and their valuable livestock and the entire ecosystem of over 4,000 sq kms that the Milgis Trust team works tirelessly to conserve.

Very young greater kudu… his stomach lining was bleeding having been picked up after his mother was killed, by wild dog, and fed from dirty bottles…

This Vet Unit will practise standard veterinary care and help to coordinate referrals and transportation for wildlife to other wildlife care/veterinary units in emergency situations. It will be a permanent presence at the MT headquarters with a full-time qualified vet charging a small fee for services for community livestock. There would not be any thing like the amount of lose of stock this year if the animals were healthy before the drought begun.. It will also be a conservation campaigning unit that will offer advice and guidance on how to improve quality rather than quantity of livestock, as well as livestock marketing and work to combat land degradation, human/wildlife conflict and drought crisis.

Common scene every day…

The Milgis Vet Unit’s 4 objective S’s & how we can accomplish those objectives:

SPEED of response to emergency calls

(Patrolling scouts, vet on call, communication devices, vehicle)

SKILL of a trained field vet in handling calls and campaigning

(Permanent trained field vet located at MT HQ)

SAFETY of the animal whilst in our care

(Trained staff helpers, quality equipment, medical supplies, feed and resources)

SUSTAINABILITY of the aftercare of the animal its accommodation and its safe release

(Permanent veterinary building and enclosure, continuous collaboration and support from conservancies in the area)

METHODOLOGY:

1) Construction of Vet Unit building and enclosure at Milgis Trust HQ

· Building 1. Vets accommodation on site.

· Building 2. Veterinary surgery, feed store, medical store & equipment store

· Enclosure. 2 x Fenced Pens and 2 x Covered pens

2) Purchase of Vet Vehicle

3) Purchase of supplies

· Medical equipment

· Medicines and supplies

· Animal feed

· Transport resources and petrol

4) Hiring permanent government qualified field vet

· Interviewed by KWS and Milgis Trust

5) Set-up an efficient communication rapid-response radio system

· Connect Milgis Trust scouts, Mini Vet Unit & KWS

6) Create an Emergency fund & backup support

· Air transport backup if needed to DSWT or other in Nairobi

7) Create Community awareness and fee list for veterinary services for community livestock

· Communities would pay a fee to have their livestock treated

· Regular and continual livestock campaigns to reduce quantity of stock and raise quality

· Health checks and rabies vaccinations of domestic dogs

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Category: Conservation Awareness, Desert warthog, Livestock, Samburu | Date: Sep 11 2009 | By: milgistrust

Paula, thank you for putting my last blog on!… Weldone you!…You are right!.. After our disappointment of not getting the money, after weeks of work!, for a Rabies programme, and then the proposal was declined.!

!..Because this dog is starving and thirsty, people tend to think it has rabies, so will throw stones at it… In stead of helping it… Right now there are thousands of dogs in this same trouble..

Paula wrote me a note saying keep positive and keep those blogs flowing…The following is what I wrote back to Paula!.. I am sorry about my lack of blogs, I find it so hard when I really know the reason for all this suffering is abit beyond every one who reads thems’ help… natural cycle of weather event, although the over population of the land is not helping, but its not our readers fault!…BUT I suppose I have to remember that the readers are not enduring a drought, so they may feel more positive… Although they are experiencing their own kind of drought in the financial world!…

Talking about Droughts… We’ve seen them before, as I’ve mentioned in a earlier blog in July, they come in about ten year cycles here, and and its upon us again, but this time it seems the noose around our necks has got alot tighter than last… But maybe the reason is there are so many more people living off this semi desert land… Actually a land of plenty if the balance is right… I’ve said it once and I’m saying it again… Why aren’t we doing something about the overpopulation of our world, why is it a subject that people are scared to talk about, what do they call it? P.C.?!! But in the meantime we are going to strangle our selves, the suffering is going to be so severe, its too frightening to think of… why can’t we see it coming.??.. The suffering is already awful, you guys in America, Europe, the rest of the world must feel so helpless, in situations like these as all the blogs from Kenya are along the same lines, but sometimes maybe we need to help ourselves, when it comes to ‘THE FUTURE of this beautiful land its people and its wildlife’… Also this is the reason the Milgis Trust was started, and your support is invaluable….. We are trying!

At the last scout meeting at the end of the month of course every scout had sad stories of how animals are not coping well, as I said, funnily enough the desert warthog is suffering the most of all the animals… Many reports of them coming in to look for help from the humans, one Samburu guy reported a family of four that literally moved in with his herd of goats, ate and drank with them, but even these four have diminished to one…. Several reports of the Baboons and Monkeys dieing, but more of disease, obviously not helped by the dry times, any one have any ideas on what is killing the monkeys, in Northern Kenya.. But there is somebody out there in the dust, that is doing well!!… The predators are having a field day… They don’t know which animal to eat first…

We went for a walk to Latakwen, a small village north of the base of the Milgis Trust, and all the way there we came across dead and dieing animals, Samburu livestock that could not keep up with the herd, so have been deserted, but even worse on our way back we came across the carcasses of around 50 goats and sheep all strewn around a deserted manyatta, all perished from disease, lack of water, and food.. We were told the people left with 3 animals….. This is where our proposal for the new vet unit, with which we will be working with the people on ‘quality rather than quantity of live stock’ and this will include the Rabies programme, mentioned in the last Blog..

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Category: Conservation Awareness, Lions, Livestock, Milgis lugga, Water holes | Date: Sep 09 2009 | By: admin

 We are trying to raise funds for a very important project

Vaccinating and ensuring the health of just one domestic dog in northern Kenya can help save a family from rabies, help protect their livestock from predators and in doing so prevent the predators from being hunted and killed.

Our aim to run a sustainable yet basic pilot mobile and stationary vaccination unit that will immunize a new class of community guard dogs, which will not only benefit the communities, wildlife and dogs but help balance and conserve the whole ecosystem by helping to resolve the human/wildlife conflict.

Please consider supporting this work.

We are experiencing a terrible drought in Northern Kenya. We are watching in dismay in the North, as the poor people are slowly loosing their stock, to disease and drought, but too proud to admit it.. Its amazing how brave they are.   iI is so difficult to blog with so much hardship around. Sadly our lions are definitely no more, at least the ones in the higher Milgis area, we have no idea how they died, as it is so thick the bush, but no more tracks or sounds. I am very sad about it, but you can’t win as they kept on taking stock every day. We are trying very hard to keep the wells open for the Elephants, so at least every one can have a drink. The poor desert warthogs are the real ones that are suffering. It’s  terrible shame.

Please support the project to vaccinate dogs and keep the project going    

Tags: drought, Helen dufresne, Milgis, Northern Kenya, wildlife, WildlifeDirect

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Category: Conservation Awareness, elephants | Date: Aug 26 2009 | By: milgistrust

What happened to all the birds in Europe?? Or were they never there?? .. Is a question I have been asking for the last five weeks!!.. I have just got back from my first holiday abroad for many years.. France, Norway, Spain and Portugal… living the high life, I’m afraid… It has been incredibly good for me, to see how the rest of the world lives, and to know how the people who come on safari live, and where!…We have been completely spoilt, and seen some lovely country.. My first problem was to get a visa… They wanted to know all my personal details, who, how, when and what!, and all I wanted to do was go on holiday!..We are not so used to that in Kenya!.. But I got one and off we went… My next problem was how to turn the tap on in the airport on arrival.. I pushed and pulled every thing I could, until somebody came in and I watched with interest that she put her hands under the tap and out came the water… Actually I thought that the water had run out, like our Kenya taps are doing all too often now!! But thats one thing Europe won’t do as quickly as us out here in Africa…Every where we went there was incredible amounts of trees, enormous rivers, and dams, and still snow on the mountains, feeding these rivers… No snow left on our Mt Kenya.. or very little I’m afraid, but thats because we are busy cutting our trees down, if we are not cutting we are burning them…..But thats another story, that I won’t get into now, over population of people.. In Norway they have over population of trees, if they don’t cut them down, they fear they will become over run !! …. BUT where have the birds gone…now I know why people make comments on safari, about how noisy the birds are! and even more disappointing was how few wild animals we saw… We covered many many miles on ‘remote’ roads, and spent most of our time in isolated places, but saw very little…Except 16 real mountain goats in the Pyrenees!, which our hosts were so chuffed about, but it was that African eye that saw them..! ANYWAY it made me feel proud of our wildlife, and birds, and makes me even more determined to give them a safe haven to live in… My thoughts go back to how we can catch the flood water..

While we have been away I have kept in touch with the Milgis Trusts day to day activities, and apart from a very sad find of another Elephant that had died of multiple wounds from bullets, and spears, but they don’t know where it came from, as its not the normal colour of our Elephants..[ their skin is a different colour, depending on the mud they wallow in, and as its a rocky place our Elephants have less crevices in the soles of their feet.. Our Elephants soles are well worn!] Basically the harsh drought is taking its toll, with the young Elephants, and other wildlife, and of course the live stock, but every one is persevering, hanging in there, and keeping a positive mind for some rain soon.. GOOD RAIN PLEASE!!

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Category: Conservation Awareness | Date: Jul 16 2009 | By: milgistrust

Over three months have passed in a colourful blur of wonderful experiences and this last week was no exception.

Having been fully immersed in this wonderful culture and land it was high time Helen decided, to ‘abandon’ me at the Milgis. Of course I was by no means on my own through I had the wonderful company of singing Samburu warriors, the welcoming communities and naturally the beautiful wildlife.

My first task was to begin our very first Eco-Screen event comprising of our new projector, some great conservation films dubbed in Maa, and a white cotton bed sheet (which the Morani warriors were all after to add to their handsome dress).

The screening was a huge success and the entire town of Latakwen turned out to grab their place to watch the films. The Milgis Trust knows how important it is to keep the people involved in its work throughout all its projects - only they can protect their land, their wildlife and their futures. We were also able to show them some filming we took of them during the water and school opening which went down a treat. This isn’t a one-off screening through, it is one of the Trust’s new awareness programmes and we will be travelling around all our communities showing them the different conservation themes from erosion to poaching intermingled with some fun films like the Lion King.

Next on my task list was to handover some supplies to the new primary school; a great selection of books on environment to art, pencils, crayons, paints…even a kit to create a little pawpaw shamba (garden) so each child has their own seed to plant, look after and water in the hope of some yummy fruits - a wonderful exercise to promote the growth of the land and reduce the felling. The teachers and children couldn’t have been happier and it just shows how such simple and inexpensive gifts such as these can really develop and lighten the lives of so many people. There are several other schools in our area that need similar materials and equipment to run effectively and of course such things only last so long - the need for educational support is always present and the Trust does as much as it can to provide to all the schools writing to us for help, which we couldn’t do without everyone’s continued support.

Latakwen Nursary children showing off their new books!

During my stays at the Milgis there is always something happening; this day a camel was in need of rescuing; not just the elephants need support, this land is harsh and accidents can always occur for any animal. This camel had fallen down a rocky knoll and could not stand due to an injury to its back, unable to get to food or water it had to be moved to a safer place. On arrival at the scene in the midday heat the camel grunted irritably at us clearly suffering, but the question was how on earth were we to get a fully grown camel that can’t stand into our pickup?! But suddenly out of nowhere fifteen Samburu appeared - some warriors, some pastoralists and just some people nearby. After ten minutes of discussion they decided on their plan and working as a perfect team manoeuvred the camel as gently as possible into the pickup. I was delighted and so very impressed by the caring nature of these people - this is exactly what happens when any animal is in need of help and it’s wonderful to know these people are there and eager to lend a hand . The camel is now in a safe area with water and food - so let’s hope he finds his feet again!

My journey back down to the modern world was just as much an adventure. Driving down the snaking Barsaloi lugga we passed herds of goats, sheep and cows and their Samburu and Rendille owners - all flocking to the area where there is just a little water to ease the suffering of the drought. Having usually flown to the Milgis it was certainly eye-opening to see the changing of the land from the ground; the further we got towards civilisation the more the land was in disrepair, a ‘tree graveyard’ was my initial thought after a few hours of driving as we followed the dusty track towards Maralal. As clear as anything you can see the slow spread of the ruin of the land, pushing ever further north towards the Milgis - a swell of destruction that we must prevent before it consumes more beautiful ecosystems and that of the Milgis.

This was once forest.. Now its almost desert… Due to fires…

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Category: Conservation Awareness, Education, Errosion, Livestock, Overgrazing | Date: May 26 2009 | By: milgistrust

As I watch a herd of cattle crossing the lugga below us, with over half of the participants hardly able to put one foot in front of the other, and they still have miles to go, as the owners have decided to cut and run to try to save their ‘ love of their life ‘ [ cows] lives, by looking for greener pastures, is a very difficult situation, even the hardest person can not be happy to see that… Again three weeks ago there was a bit of rain on the west side of the Ndotos, and ‘every one and his goat’ left for the area with their livestock, on a last resort run to save their bank account from collapse!!! or to put it into context, try to save their lives,…They could not stop to wait for the stragglers, they had to leave them behind to fend for themselves, in this harsh country side… knowing that there was not much hope…who’s going to give them water out of the deep wells? and then when it gets dark, the predators will have a field day… I am not sure when it is that us humans will realise that our environment just can not hold any more??

Up here this year, thousands of trees have been cut down to save the animals, and to make new bomas [Koral’s] ,unbelievable over grazing until there is not even a spike of dry grass left…and then comes the erosion…

which leads to the thick, thick mud in the luggas..

It is an indication, that its time for the MILGIS TRUST to start a very controversial project, NOW… We need to start talking, and immediately after this dreadful drought I feel is a good time..’ QUALITY RATHER THAN QUANTITY ‘ of livestock is the way forward, although to persuade these Samburu people, is going to be interesting, BUT this year once again they have learnt their lesson, and plenty of people have lost stock… Out here a drought is like a bank robbery to us, the only difference is it slowly bites!!.. This problem, is a problem that we could ignore because it is controversial, it is untraditional, But it means in twenty years time we will call this area a desert… I have seen an unbelievable change in the last 25 years.. Imagine another 25 years with so many more people living off this parched land… Milgis trust is going to take the bull by the horns… so to say, slowly, gently, coaxingly…. Persuade… Funnily enough, already many people we have met lately under stand, its action that is needed, to move on!!

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Category: Conservation Awareness | Date: May 07 2009 | By: milgistrust

After the week of fires, around the 25th March, The Milgis Trust, some of the chiefs and the councillor from Latakwen called a meeting of elders to try to understand what was in the mind of these burners and why… One month later, and BY THE WAY NOT A SINGLE FIRE SINCE!… we called the same elders to the scouts meeting to discuss further what can be done to prevent destruction, and understand what is going on… Every one understood the way forward is to work together to conserve the land…… Below is a report from Moses Lesoloyia… The manager

Conservation committee… On the 30^th April 09 we held a meeting with the committee mainly to discuss their role and the importance of conserving the environment. We had 5 men from different parts of Nkare Narok location, 4 from Nairimirimo and 5 from Latakweny location. Each of the men was asked to say how his area was when he was a child and now and give what he thinks has brought about changes. The following are the responses;

When I was a child there was;

· Plenty of rain

· plenty of water

· plenty of pasture

· Plenty of milk

· Plenty of wild animals

· Plenty of wild fruits and food

· Not many diseases

Nowadays;

• Rain does not come the right time
• All the rivers have dried and dams died
• Pasture does not stay for long
• No more milk
• Wild animals have reduced and finished in some areas
• Very many diseases
• Wild fruits and food very scarce

This change is because of;

• Too many people and livestock
• Burning of forests
• Change of leadership structure from traditional system to government system
• Introduction of guns to the Samburu
• Deterioration of culture due to influence from Christianity and formal education
• Too much use of chemicals, almost in everything there are chemicals including food,(one elder felt chemicals are contributing to this change, he called them Ldewai).

They all agreed that the only way out was to support conservation efforts and try and rejuvenate the traditional systems which were holistic, took care of everything. They expressed their willingness to join hands with us and the community and stop the habitat destruction.

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Category: Conservation Awareness, Education, Forest Fires, Samburu | Date: Apr 09 2009 | By: milgistrust

I just wanted to show you to what lengths the headmaster of Latakwen primary school took to show their appreciation of having water piped to his school, and for the New Nursery building… As I said before the people of Latakwen ‘pulled out all stops’ to celebrate, and these children, where no exception…. Below is the all the older pupils, about 300!, leading the youngsters about 100 past the old Nursery building before they lead them to their new building!!… They gave us a wonderful show of old Samburu traditional songs, and dances…

A goodbye dance past the old nursery school by by the primary school children…

Lesiantaam the nursery school teacher, could not resist a last sit, for old times sake!, with his pupils in the old Nursery school… This is how he has been teaching them for years!!… But I can assure you Lesiantaam, with his co-worker, madame, in the picture on the left, with their enthusiasm, eccentricity, superb supervision, and ability to make life fun in any circumstances, have never missed a beat even if the kids were sitting on the floor!! As he lead his little children, all having been dressed up for the occasion… [where they got it all from I don’t know!] down towards the new school, dancing and chanting sweet songs already you could see it in the childrens eyes… They were so excited!!

Lesiantaam, to the chorus of the children blessed the school, the people who gave it to them, TOTO TRUST, all the animals and trees in the picture above them, and last but not least a full tank of ‘VOSS’!!

The chief, sub chief, councillor, head master of the primary school, the chairman behind, Lesiantaam in front, and Madame in amongst the kids… It was such a show we were all speechless…

The crowds in Latakwen on this day… on this self pronounced holiday!, so that the people could celebrate, was larger than they have ever known… All to show their gratitude for the VOSS water, and TOTO TRUST Nursery building… What a wonderful day was had by all…

To round the days celebrations off, a little more of a serious moment, the leaders, the headmaster, the KWS based at Latakwen, myself, and others made use of the fact that there was such a crowd, and all had a few minutes to talk.. Having done all the thanking, and mentioning that ‘don’t forget us’, sort of talk, we went on to the most serious issue, the current fires being the most important one, we all sat under this tree, and each person that spoke ‘droned, and drilled’ on and on about the harm they are doing to them selves!! The response was good, and the meeting on 31st march was organised, which lead to the formation of committee members, who’s job it is to STOP the fire madness… So far so good… all quiet, and cold on the Northern front!! Nobody wants to have his wife taken away!!, or get a curse put on them!!..

TOTO TRUST have also paid for two other classrooms in the Milgis primary Eco-school… THANKS SO MUCH… Happy Easter every one!

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