Saving Stripes

Category: Rangeland management | Date: May 31 2009 | By: savingstripes

In the last few days, we’ve started working in earnest on the “background research” phase of our project to develop a rangeland monitoring handbook for this region. Our “team” consists of me and Siva, Jayne Belnap – an ecologist from the US Geological Survey, Jeff Herrick – an ecologist and soil scientist from the US Department of Agriculture, and Jeff Worden – an ecologist with the African Conservation Centre here in Kenya.

After a day of meetings in Nairobi, we set off for our first field trip early on Friday morning. Our destination was Magadi, a lake in the Rift Valley, about 3 hours south of Nairobi near the Tanzanian border. The road to Magadi drops dramatically from a green plateau into the dry Rift Valley. Along the way we saw first-hand how large areas formerly part of “Maasailand” have been subdivided into small parcels in the greater Nairobi sprawl. Historically an important part of the Maasai grazing lands, these areas are now effectively unavailable to migrant pastoralists (something that certainly exacerbates the effects droughts like the one we are experiencing right now).

After a long drive over a very pot-holed road, we reached Lake Magadi. There we found flamingos! This soda lake is in a beautiful setting and is full of birds – as well as the dredging scars from the Magadi Soda company, which harvests salt and soda from the lake. We stopped briefly in the industrial town of Magadi (where Jayne took advantage of cell phone coverage to check her e-mail on her Blackberry while a curious Maasai man looked on) before we drove across the northern part of the lake and continued westwards.

From there the landscape became more and more stark. In many places, there was nothing but rock on the surface of the soil. In other areas, there was sand, but very little grass and a lot of evidence of erosion. Then we started noticing something very unusual: zebra carcasses. After the third or fourth carcass, we began to shake our heads. It must be very, very dry for zebras (plains zebras, here) to start dying.

This opinion was confirmed a little later, when we met with members of the Ol Kiramatian community. The chief and a number of “community resource assessors” (who are employed by the African Conservation Centre) shared their thoughts on the current drought, the changes they’ve seen in their rangelands over the last few decades, and how they recognize or monitor these changes. In fact, we learned that “Ol Kiramatian” is a Maasai name for a grass species that is very good for livestock but is no longer found in the community’s land.

After this most interesting and informative meeting, we continued on to see more of the landscapes of Ol Kiramatian and neighboring Shompole communities. These included some enormous termite mounds, some stunning views, and a lot more bare, bare land. We also encountered an interesting local sign in a small village we passed through.

It was sunset by the time we looped north again past Lake Magadi. Time to reflect a bit on this fascinating landscape and the people we had met there. It put things in Laikipia into a bit of perspective, to see this place that was so much more dry and barren, and so much further removed from tourism opportunities. And yet, the wisdom and positive spirit of its inhabitants left me, at least, feeling a sense of hope and opportunity within the place’s great challenges.

-Corinna

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Category: News | Date: May 25 2009 | By: savingstripes

On Saturday afternoon, we went down to the river in front of our house and noticed something very strange: it was black!

Lately the river water has been various shades of brown — full of silt and soil from upstream areas where rain has caused some erosion. But black? That didn’t seem normal at all.

On closer inspection, we realized what it was: lots and lots of tiny, charred particles. Back in late March, there were fires burning on Mount Kenya for about a week. We can only guess that it has finally rained in the burned areas — washing lots of ash and charred material into the river. It must have been a very heavy rainfall. Sadly, this means a lot of the nutrients released by the fire have now been washed into the river. We do hope the vegetation will recover, nonetheless!

On another note entirely, we are leaving tomorrow for our tour of various parts of Kenya, doing background research for our rangeland monitoring manual project. We will be in southern Kenya until next Monday and then in northern Kenya for a couple of days. Our internet connection will be sporadic, but we’ll try to post some updates when we can!

-Corinna & Siva

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Category: Ranches | Date: May 22 2009 | By: savingstripes

Yesterday morning we were driving from our house to the research centre when we came across a touching and remarkable scene. In and among the bushes, in a little area where the grass has actually greened up, there was a group of about 50 Grevy’s. The first remarkable thing about this scene was the sheer number of animals in one place. At first we counted about 30 animals, and then more came wandering out of the bushes, and then more…

The second remarkable and rather sad thing was that the group was divided by a fence. The fence runs along the edge of the road. The zebras were all inside the fence from us – except for one poor female. She was heavily pregnant – thick veins showing along her belly. Perhaps that is why she got separated from the group and missed the opportunity to cross the fenceline at one of the gaps (which are intended to be wildlife crossings) in the fence. Whatever had happened, one thing was clear: she wanted to be part of that group as much as the group wanted her.

We watched, saddened, as the lone zebra repeatedly trotted up to the fence, only to stop and anxiously flick her ears at the zebras on the other side. Some members of the large group seemed to grow restless, and a long line of animals started walking up the hill and away from the fence. But a dedicated group of about 15 zebras stayed by the fence facing the lone zebra, repeatedly trying to reach her. Their anxiety was just as great as hers.

Grevy’s zebra are not supposed to form strong group bonds. Unlike their cousins, the plains zebras, they don’t live in stable groups or harems. Groups are constantly splitting and coming together. So, the common wisdom has always been that they must not have strong social ties to one another. But this scene we witnessed, as well as other things we’ve seen (for example, small groups of females that consistently stay together) suggest that Grevy’s social ties may be a lot stronger than people have realized.

Watching this scene was an example of some of the complexities of trying to conserve multiple species at the same time. The fence was put up about 5 years ago to keep rhinos inside that particular property. Black rhinos are highly endangered (only about 300 left in Kenya) and at high risk of being poached for their horns. The fence is not very tall and has gaps in it every couple of kilometers (with posts arranged so that rhinos can’t pass through the gaps). But, driving up and down the road nearly every day, we have seen so many scenes of animal distress along that fence. Elephant babies unable to pass through the posts, gazelles getting tangled in the wires, panicked animals unsure of whether to run towards or away from it. Only the impalas seem unaffected by the fence, gracefully jumping over it (while their young run awkwardly beneath it).

All of this makes us wonder: what is the cost of conserving one species – rhinos – to all the other species that live here? Are fences like this really a solution to the rhino poaching problem?

In the case of our lone zebra, we left the group slowly walking up the road towards another gap in the fence. We hope that the pregnant female found her way across and joined back up with her circle of friends.

-Siva & Corinna

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Category: Communties, Rangeland management | Date: May 15 2009 | By: savingstripes

Lately, we’ve been seeing a lot of Samburu pastoralists and their livestock migrating up and down the main public road here. I’ve been talking a lot about the breakdown of traditional migration practices, but it’s important to note that pastoralists here do still migrate – albeit on a much restricted scale than in the past. As ‘Sauwah’ points out – people are now forced to herd their livestock along public roads (where they have only a 50 m grazing zone on either side of the road). Their movements are constrained by private property lines, fences, major roads, etc. – much in the same way that wildlife are constrained.

Two mornings ago, we met this large herd of cattle moving north, away from Mt. Kenya. Other groups of animals are heading south, towards Mt. Kenya. All trying to find somewhere with a little grass! (See how skinny the cows are – all ribs and hip bones).

The people we saw on the road the other morning probably got a lucky break; it has rained pretty well every day for the last two or three days, and it looks like the rain reached even further north into Samburu District. Already with this little bit of rain, green blades of grass are pushing up through the red earth. Soon, we hope, it will be lush and green and everyone – wildlife, livestock, and people – will be a bit less stressed.

-Corinna

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Category: Rangeland management | Date: May 11 2009 | By: savingstripes

“Sauwah” raises some good points in his comments on my post about monitoring. Pastoralist people – people who live off of their livestock – have, in the past, relied on a vast store of cultural wisdom and local knowledge about the land. But how much of that knowledge is intact? And, how much of it applies to contemporary circumstances? There may, for example, be a great deal of knowledge about when and where to move your herds to keep your animals fat and healthy. But does that necessarily help people to manage their land and livestock when they no longer have the freedom to move or migrate?

In the past, aid and development organizations, and even local governments, have operated on the premise that pastoralists’ land is suffering from a “tragedy of the commons” situation. That is, a situation in which everybody grazes their livestock in a free-for-all, trying to maximize their gains at the expense of the communally-owned land. The solution to this problem – or rather, the approach policy-makers have taken – is to privatize the land. The idea is that people will take ownership of private land and manage it better.

Often, however, this approach has also failed to promote conservation and development. In part, this is because land privatization has taken away people’s ability to migrate with the changing seasons. Instead, people are left to graze their livestock year-round on small parcels of land – a very different management strategy than the traditional strategy (and the one pastoralists know best) of migration over vast areas of land!

Now, there is a big movement afoot in the conservation, aid, and development worlds to encourage pastoralists to return to a more nomadic lifestyle. How would this work, politically, socially, and economically? Is it feasible? Is it compatible with the goal of “development”?

Just some things I have been pondering… What do you think?

In other news, Siva just got back to Kenya! He’ll be writing about zebras again soon.

-Corinna

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Category: Communties | Date: May 06 2009 | By: savingstripes

Today I had lunch with the ranch and conservancy manager here at Mpala. We got to talking about the wind (it’s been very windy lately), the moon (growing, but not yet full) and the lack of rain. All of which are interlinked with another issue: illegal grazing. How so? Well, the moon affects the tides, which affect the wind and the rain. It’s more likely to rain when the moon is new or full. But right now we still haven’t really had any rain on Mpala, and now with the moon getting bigger by the day, illegal grazing is also becoming more of a problem by the day.

Where does the illegal grazing come from? Mpala neighbors on a number of community-held or “group” ranches – ranches where Maasai families live with their livestock. Lots of livestock. And because of all the livestock, or because they have too little land relative to people and livestock, these ranches are completely devoid of grass right now. Mpala – a ranch that tries to turn a profit, not just subsistence, off of cattle – has relatively more grass. So, at night, when the moon is bright, herders bring their animals across the Ewaso Ngiro river (flowing, but not full) onto Mpala to have a graze.

“Don’t they lose animals to lions, hyenas, and leopards?” I asked Mike, the manager. His response was, “Sure, but what’s losing one sheep to a predator, compared to losing all of them to starvation?”

It’s a hard situation, isn’t it? People who live on the group ranches live a pretty marginal existence. Their diet consists mostly of milk, maize meal, blood, and occasionally some meat. Food prices have soared in the last few months, and combined with the drought, people are on the verge of starvation. They need every drop of milk that comes from their animals. (Especially the children, like these young herders from a community a bit further north from here).

On the other side of the river, how is a ranch like Mpala supposed to stay afloat, if it can’t earn any income off of its cattle? There are other problems with illegal grazing, too. Diseases get spread, for example. Things get nicked from relatively wealthier “private” (“wildlife-friendy,” “white-owned” – however you want to call them) ranches. And of course, the land suffers – expanding the radius of overgrazing and land degradation. Which means, the wildlife also suffer, since private ranches are critical habitat for most wild animals in this region….

It all goes to show how interlinked our fates our, in a place like this. And how much those fates depend on cosmic things, like the moon and the sun, and the tilt of the earth, and ocean currents, and whether they’ll bring us some rain, or not!

-Corinna

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Category: Rangeland management | Date: May 04 2009 | By: savingstripes

Well, my work isn’t quite as exciting as capturing lions! But I thought I’d share a little bit of what I’ve been up to lately. I’ve been doing a lot of “getting organized” work on a project Siva and I are both working on. The project is to develop a manual that will help give pastoralists some tools to monitor the health of the rangelands they live off of.

Monitoring… it doesn’t get more dull-sounding than that, does it? But, from a conservation and management perspective, it probably doesn’t get much more important than that! Without some quick and easy ways for people to take the pulse of the land, how will they know if they are managing it sustainably? And if they aren’t managing the land sustainably, how will they – and their livestock – and the wildlife that shares the land with them – continue to live?

Of course lots of people – especially people who live off the land – already have some ideas about whether their land is healthy or not. They have probably noticed changes that have occurred in their lifetime; they more than likely have made some management decisions based on these observations. But maybe they would catch changes sooner, or see more clearly the consequences of their decisions, with a slightly more formal monitoring system.

That’s where we come in. Our goal is to put together a manual that will give people (particularly pastoralists) some simple tools with which to evaluate the health of their land and assess whether it’s improving or degrading.

The first phase of this project is to do a lot of background research – by visiting the landscapes and talking to lots of the people who make up our intended audience. This is where the organizing and planning part comes in… In late May and early June, we’re doing a blitz tour of a number of areas in Kenya. Then, we are also planning to go to Ethiopia, to meet with representatives of various NGOs and communities there. Originally we were supposed to go to Ethiopia this month, but organizing that has proven a bit complicated, so we’re trying to figure out where to fit this trip in…

 Regardless, we’re looking forward to all this travel, seeing new places, and learning a lot about rangeland monitoring. I’m particularly interested to see how different communities in Kenya and Ethopia view their rangelands – whether they see the same things, make decisions in the same ways, or whether they are really different. It should be interesting!

And when we do go to all these places, we’ll definitely take lots of pictures and have some more exciting posts than this one

-Corinna

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