The Milgis Trust

Category: Grevy's Zebra, Matthews range, Water holes, elephants | Date: May 05 2009 | By: milgistrust

Yes I have not been blogging lately, as if I use too much energy writing I will chase off those clouds…[ not a good excuse but feasible?? also I have been away!] and one just keeps on thinking it will rain and then we can talk about good news rather than bad… But no…. not yet… Yes there has been the odd sporadic storm, and of course this is helping the very worrying situation because luckily the people are still nomadic…People with their livestock and wildlife are moving from here to there, to keep themselves, alive… Thank goodness they still are nomadic, and the land has not been divided up, and fenced… But the situation is quite grave, as far as water for the wildlife is concerned… In 20 years, since I have been in this region, we have never got to May, and not had a huge flood or 20 down the big luggas, Laana Nikan, Parsaloi… Milgis.. We keep hoping, that because they, [the rains], are late, that it will come with vengeance!! … The other evening, while the scouts were opening up the well below Elkanto for the Elephants to use during the night, they suddenly saw a group of eight elephants, who were thirsty, and were not going to wait for the night… Every one scattered, and they moved in to drink…The site of a hot thirsty herd of Elephants taking a long cool drink is extremely satisfying, especially when you’ve spent the after noon digging!! This was the managers comment!!… It has been hard work keeping the wells for the Elephants as they do tend to destroy them every night… Not their fault they are so big!!…

Little snippets of news… The mini matriarch Lesanju, our first elephant that was rescued out of a well, and taken by helicopter to DSWT back in October 2006, has been taken to Voi, on her path back to freedom…We are delighted with this news!!.. The little Elephant mentioned in my last blog is also doing well, which is such great news considering the well water was very deep, but we keep our fingers crossed for her… Last week we had another young elephant about two years old, that was deserted by its herd down at the same place as the last one was rescued.. It was still alive, desperately thin, when the scout arrived, sadly it died before our team could get there…… We do not know if its mother was poached or he was sick..

The Grevy Zebra are in trouble again, to the west of the base, with another disease outbreak in the donkeys, the main symptom being constipation, they have found one Grevy dead so far.. One more bit of bad news, and almost can’t bear to bring this up, as so far we have not been part of this, but the bush meat trade has reared its ugly head in the area, with the scouts reporting, dikdiks, and guinea fowl being killed and sold in the towns, and missionaries buying warthog meat… This is not the first time we have heard of the missionaries involved in killing and eating wildlife…!! ?? YES, Im afraid so..

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Category: Desert warthog, Grevy's Zebra, Matthews range, Water holes, Wild Dog, elephants | Date: Mar 31 2009 | By: milgistrust

Just wish we had our dam project up and running, but thank goodness this morning there are exciting clouds billowing over the Matthews Range.. Finally we REALLY hope for rain throughout.. All I am getting news of, is wild animals desperately in need of water… Just to mention a few of the problems…. Two young Grevy Zebras died trying to get to water, on the east side of the Ndotos… And many more animals falling into wells, and not being able to get out .. On the lower Milgis a big elephant spent the night battling to get out, which it did luckily as we did not enjoy the thought of having a repeat of the one in September! Elephant in desperate situation is saved…. PHEW!!! I have added some pictures on the blog which you may like to see….. Another very pregnant Elephant that was going down a very steep path having drunk in the Langata Nanyuki to the south of the Ndotos, slipped down the rocks and landed badly, her front legs were under her body, all her weight was on her neck, and she could not get up… She died before the scouts could find help.. A warthog, which died sadly but two wild dogs where pulled out of a well in Nairimirimo, and released I am happy to tell you… Unfortunately we have got no further with our investigations on our wild dog that was tied up for two days, and supposedly taken by KWS?? [See my last blog] I’m afraid the plot is thickening, and please be patient, we are determined to find out what is going on… But have discovered that there is a trade in wild dogs, going to markets where rich people want these beautiful animals as pets!!..Which explains why we have heard of people looking for puppies… Going back to our ‘poor’ dog… It sounds like she was pregnant, somebody who tried to get a job with us a few years ago, with a letter from the KWS, [ who knows how genuine] suggesting we took him on to look after the wild dogs!!, He made the phone call, and refused them to let it go… What we haven’t managed to establish is whether the dog died or was taken… Our scout has been taken on a ‘wild goose chase’ and he will go back to investigate… He was told the dog died, but when he asked to see the body it did not seem to exist!!… Yesterday a young genet cat was found in a well near the base, which was brought in…Its too small to release but we will as soon as its ready to go… LETS HOPE IT POURS WITH RAIN… PLEASE EVERY ONE WAVE YOUR MAGIC WANDS!! We need the rain so badly..

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Category: Conservation Awareness, Education, Errosion, Grevy's Zebra, Livestock, Northern Frontier District, Overgrazing, Rendille, Samburu, Turkana, Water holes, elephants | Date: Nov 11 2008 | By: milgistrust

A REQUEST FOR

FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR A WILDLIFE WATER DEVELOPMENT PROJECT….

Project description

Following efforts from the scouts and the entire community within the Milgis ecosystem, we have observed a significant and rapid change in the behaviour and distribution of wildlife populations over the last few years. Overall, both wildlife and local communities appear to have become more relaxed and wildlife, especially elephants have been opening up old movement routes into the Matthews-Ndoto Ranges which they used historically. This has benefited local communities living near the mountains, providing them and their livestock access along these new elephant routes to areas in the mountains. Also the elephants are now feeling safe enough to probe the areas north of the Ndoto mountains, in the hope to go back to mounts Nyiru and Kulal.. where they were almost completely wiped out of during the tragic poaching of the 1970s and 80s..Those that were lucky enough to escape south, are the ones probing to go back… What they don’t know is that things have changed and human populations have increased dramatically, and the water sources are not where they were when they had to run for their lives…

As a result of the increasing presence and movement of wildlife under the protection of the community scouts within the area, the opportunity for conflict with people and livestock over water and pasture during the dry season presents itself. Conservation efforts now have to strike a critical balance: Wildlife and habitat conservation needs to be clearly understood, and the benefits need to be recognised.by the communities.. Our conservation efforts need now to be even more vigilant as a result of our success, which leads to an increase in demand for resources. One of the major sources of conflict in northern Kenya is over water, the resource is scarce in this region and the little that exists is needed by all.

In the northern frontier district, there are huge tracts of land that are unoccupied because of lack of water. Opening up such areas would ease the population in those currently occupied as the wildlife and even nomads would spread out and reduce the damage to the environment that is caused by over crowding. This will also ease over stretching of the available resources. Opportunities for accessing water to the communities living in the drier parts are enormous, there are numerous pans and dams that are no good, because of silting, while there are plenty of dry streams where flood waters during the rainy season can be harvested by developing new dams or Haffir tanks.

We are therefore requesting for support… A water project that will involve accessing water to communities and wildlife in northern Kenya… Some wildlife species like the Grevys’ zebra that are endemic to this region, are threatened by lack of water. The Trust will continue its security and monitoring operations which have been responsible for the encouraging change in the behaviour and distribution of wildlife in this region and in gradually building positive attitudes towards wildlife. This stability provides the platform from which the Trust can implement its other conservation activities which will ensure that for wildlife and natural resource protection to be sustainable there needs to be real development opportunities made available.This includes education, security, health care, livestock marketing and water development.

The specific objectives of this project are; De-silting pans and dams that are dry, and opening up new dams in arid areas. Creating water resource conservation, use and management awareness among the communities…

Benefits…

• Mitigating human wildlife conflict within the Milgis Trust area

  The Trust is dedicated to conserving the environment and wildlife in the long-term through the provision of real economic benefits to the communities…, To this end, the Trust is taking steps to make water accessible to the people to try and reduce situations that cause conflict with wildlife. By making water available to both the nomads and wildlife, opportunities for conflict will be reduced, and the communities will start to see wildlife as bringing benefits to them. This will strengthen our conservation efforts and the people will start to be more accommodating to the wildlife..

• Easing the elephants water problems, as the Umbrella species for all wildlife..

  ‘The Elephant’ is under pressure from fences and human populations to the south, so they are probing routes to go to places with less pressure.. The presence and movement of elephants within the area naturally increases the opportunity for conflict between people and livestock over water during the dry season..

• Especially easing the endangered Grevy Zebras plight of travelling huge distances to water …
• Accessing to water to communities, and solving overgrazing, and erosion …

  Through the Milgis Trust community scouts and the Manager, continued awareness creation on the importance of conserving the available water and other resources in sustaining human livelihoods is undertaken. Meetings are arranged… discussions take place on local conservation concerns with particular focus on water resource use issues especially during the dry season. The communities will be trained on catchments area protection, the relationship between the environmental destruction and water shortage among other conservation issues.

  Methods:

The Milgis Trust would do this by purchasing equipment to undertake this activity. Purchasing our own equipment will ensure sustainability of this project.

Project Impact:

As an established field presence, the Milgis Trust scouts have made a significant impact on improving security for wildlife and natural resources within the Milgis Ecosystem, in the three year time frame they have been operating… The role of the scouts has therefore been instrumental in maintaining the momentum of conservation and awareness activities across the region. Once this program is under way the following benefits are anticipated;

ü Reduced erosion due to congestion in areas where water is available, once water is made available to other areas the community will spread out.

ü Reduced human wildlife conflict over water resource use.

ü Improved human wildlife relationship and co-existence.

BELOW IS THE FINANCIAL NEEDS….

Tractor, ripper and Dam Scoop, and Back up pickup…

1 x SAME LASER TRACTOR 125 4wd ..

1 x 3.5 cubic meter Dam Scoop

1 x Ripper

offer 7 free services to our customers however depending on where this tractor will be located we will negotiate what we are willing to do for you as soon as we have further details.

Training: We offer full operator training for your operators and service maintenance training for your mechanics. The training is offered free of charge with only incidental costs of transport, food and accommodation etc being charged.

1 x 4wd pickup backup vehicle..

Extras… camping equipment…

Total costs to set up the Dam unit… …………………………………………….aprox Ksh 10,750,000/-

aprox….. US $ 150,000.

Operating costs per month… Fuel, maintenance, wages, and food… aprox Ksh 200,000/-

per year x 12 = Ksh 2,400000/= US $ 32000.

I am putting this on the Blog, because especially after this last drought, we have decided this is one way we can hopefully ease many of the problems… I am not expecting just any one to come up with this sort of cash!, but if anyone knows of any organisation that may beable to help…We really want to get this project going…As a independent mobile unit… Run By Pete Ilsley.. a Milgis Trust Trustee….

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