Conservation Program Update - Meetings & Collaborations

As you may know from our previous posts, the Conservation team here the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust has been extremely busy in the last few months. Not only has the lion collaring process been at the forefront of the efforts, but tremendous amounts of other work has occurred.

A large part of the success of the Conservation Program, is the collaboration that occurs with various partners and organizations. Over the past few months, the following meetings and works of collaboration have taken place:

MWCT Conservation Managers were invited by Stefano Desperati from IMMap to attend the International UNEP-Interpol conference on Wildlife Crimes in Nairobi on the 7th and 8th of November. At the conference, Stefano Desperati gave a presentation on data management and its' implications for conservation management. In this presentation MWCT was featured as a case study.

Further, Chris Tuite from Conservation International (CI) visited MWCT on the 24th of November to discuess the progress of the Chyulu Hills REDD+ carbon project. During this visit, Chris announced that the international law firm, Freshfields, is willing to do pro bono work to assist the partners in the development of the necessary legal agreements.

Joseph Lairumbe (MWCT Outreach Officer) speaking to the community about the Chyulu Hills REDD+ carbon project
at one of the Free Prior and Informed Consent meetings. During these meetings, community members were
informed about the project, and consent and support was given for the project. Community members also said
that they see the importance of the project and that they would refrain from charcoal burning and help MWCT
rangers to prevent charcoal burning and illegal logging on the group ranch. 

Christina Ender from Wildlife Works visited MWCT headquarters to gather information and to work on the Project Development Document (PDD) of the Chyulu Hills REDD+ carbon project.

And finally, a total of 18 community meetings were held across Kuku and Rombo Group Ranch to inform the community members of the Chyulu Hills REDD+ Carbon Project. In these Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) meetings the community and the local leaders gave their consent to the project.