Alternatives To Charcoal

So we are all aware of the problems associated with unregulated, inefficient and ilegal charcoal production. It's easy to sit back at point a finger at the people undetaking these activities, but as our work in Tsavo West with former wildlife poachers has taught us, the real issue is a lot more complicated.

We have been conducting research in Shimoni forest for four years now, and working with the community based organisation Friends of Shimoni Forest for two years. Through this we have had first hand experience of the issues of charcoal production and had a number of meetings, both organised and impromptu with the charcoal burners themselves. In the majority of cases those involved do not particularly want to be involved in charcoal production any more than we do, the difference is that we have the luxury of choice.

The majority of people in this area live in poverty and are despertaely poor, faced with families to feed and school fees to pay for. They know that their charcoal production is ilegal and they know it is destructive; many of them have openly said that they do not want to be engaged in ilegal activities or destroying their forest, but when it comes down to putting food on the family table they feel they have no choice. If a choice was offered to them, they would happily give it up.

So that's our mission. The solution to this problem is clear; find an alternative to traditional charcoal production. However we also have to consider that the majority of local households use charcoal to cook with. So we not only need to find an alternative livelihood for the producers, but an alternative domestic fuel for the consumers. The obvious solution is to combine alterntive livelihoods with an alterntive, forest friendly, domestic fuel... fortunately, we're not the first to encounter this problem and there are success stories in Africa for us to learn from... so watch this space!

Alternatives To Charcoal

Charcoal Burning

If you cast your eyes back through the many blogs we've posted about our coastal forest research you'll see plenty of references to charcoal burning; we're talking here about the production of charcoal using pit kilns. So our forest officer Matt has come up with the facts and figures to help explain quite why it is such a wasteful use of the forest resources...

About 47% of Kenyan households use charcoal and total annual production in Kenya is about 2.4 million tonnes (over 67 million bags weighing 36kg each). This preference is explained by its affordability; it is the cheapest form of household cooking fuel (Kwale Management Team, 2009).

In Shimoni and surrounding areas the majority of charcoal production is for subsistence purposes and therefore on a relatively small scale, however their methods are basic and highly inefficient, using an earth-mound kiln. This begins with digging a shallow pit, which can be from 4 sq. metres to 25 sq. metres from what we've seen in Shimoni.

Trees are then felled, cut in to small pieces, and piled in the bottom of the pit. A wall is constructed around the pit using rock tightly packed down with earth. An earth roof is constructed to seal the structure and starve the combustion process of oxygen with a few small holes to allow the smoke to escape. Fuel poured over the wood helps to light the pile when ready, with grass stuffed through holes in the wall and roof lit, to ignite the wood inside.

It is usually the old mature hardwood trees that are felled for this process, and a relatively small portion of the tree itself will actually end up in the kiln. Around just 10% of the wood that does go in to the kiln will actually come out as usuable charcoal. And of the charcoal that does come out, 80% of the enrgy from the wood has already been lost in the combustion procees to turn it in to charcoal. The rest of the tree, its wood and energy, goes to waste.

Charcoal Burning

Tour guides training

My name is Mohamed and I was a volunteer with GVI as a national sponsored student for 10 weeks last year. Before coming to GVI I was trained by Kenya Wildlife Service on fisheries and aquatic sciences and currently studying coastal and marine resource management. Now a friend of GVI and a big fan of their conservation efforts.
GVI Kenya with the support of Kenya Wildlife Service did a training of tour guides from the tour companies operating within the Kisite Mpunguti marine protected area. The main objective of this training was to teach the guides on the biology, ecology and identification of the local marine species, but at the same time how to improve the dolphin watching tours with less negative impact on the marine ecosystem and its inhabitants.
GVI had observed the way the tours were being offered and how they were affecting the environment, so we thought it was necessary to do this training. Basically the training was conducted for two days and we covered more on:-Tour trips-how they were being offered, what were the numbers of the tourists from different parts of the world, among the tourists who were the majority and what the tourists thought of the tours. So we trained the guides on hospitality to improve the quality of the tour through interaction, making the trips more enjoyable.Code of conduct-we stressed on the do´s and don’ts while watching dolphins and marine animals. We explained why it is important to follow the set code of conduct and how it can be destructive to the ecosystem if neglected.Identification of reef fishes, marine mammals and reptiles-we trained the guides on how to identify the different species of dolphins, turtles and the reef fishes; the biology and ecology of these creature. All this was to equip the guides with interesting facts and the required knowledge the tourists would like and enjoy to know.Measures on how to minimize the impact of tourism on the marine ecosystem-using reference from research done on bottlenose dolphin in other parts of the world we showed them how irresponsible tourism could threaten the dolphins and in turn their source of their livelihood. We explained to them the measures they could take to ensure there is sustainable balance between tourism and conservation.
All in all, we are so glad to say that our training was effective as we can see that the guides have learnt something from it and this is true because as we go out on our daily research routine we can see that the trained guides are adhering to the rules in the code of conduct and putting in practise whatever they learnt.

Tour guides training

Friends Of Shimoni Forest Spread Their Message To The Minister Of Forests And Wildlife

Yesterday I sat down for a chat with Athumani Fadhili Ali, the secretary of Friends of Shimoni Forest (FSF), and some absolutely incredible and momentous news was revealed to me! He had spent the last five hours in discussions with the Permanent Secretary to the Minister of Forests and Wildlife, concerning the plight of Shimoni forest!

I was speechless and massively excited, because as it turns out, the Permanent Secretary had come all the way down to Shimoni specifically to talk to Athumani about the issues concerning the communities, and community conservation, of which the forest is a major part.

Athumani had described to him all of the damage being done in the forest, and the alarming rate at which it is happening. He talked about the issues of illegal loggers and their power saws, the charcoal burning, and the huge development occurring on the coastal plots. He also discussed the efforts of Friends of Shimoni Forest and other community members, who are doing their best to raise awareness amongst the communities, and halt the irreversible damage being done.

The Permanent Secretary was shocked and concerned by what he heard, and offered to raise the issue with the relevant authorities, and even the Minister himself! This is such an incredible turn out, and we couldn’t really have asked for a better audience to discuss these issues with, and the assistance he could provide could potentially change the tides of this ongoing battle.

What the Permanent Secretary asked for ASAP, were all of the reports that FSF and GVI have ever written and submitted, so he could get a better understanding of the issues and have some hard data with which to argue our case.

We are rushing to compile all of this information and get it to Athumani, so he can pass it on. We’re all very excited by this, and we will let you know as soon as we hear anything! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

To help support Friends of Shimoni Forest and the work they are doing, please visit www.justgiving/shimoni

Friends Of Shimoni Forest Spread Their Message To The Minister Of Forests And Wildlife

MKWIRO: STIMA IKO! (Mkwiro: There's Electricity!)

As this expedition is coming to an end, I have found myself looking back at the things I have accomplished with GVI and realized that being here has made a lasting impression on myself and those people I have been privileged to work with.

This week saw the finish of two of very rewarding projects: finishing the library and the set up of the solar panels in Mkwiro Primary School!This was ongoing for numerous weeks due to the large amount of work involved in getting it up and running.

Library Shelves constructed and painted by GVI volunteers

First of all, we needed a place to get started. After numerous discussions with some of the elder villagers, the final agreement was a room in the school, a place that had a roof and a floor. A good start considering that one of the options given to us didn’t have these two basics.
Once this was organized, a fresh lick of paint on the wall and chalk board instantly made it look a whole lot lighter and brighter, giving way to the creative talents of some volunteers who transformed white wall canvas into a wonderous working environment with a “tree of knowledge” painted art work in one corner and old bee hives given a new lease of life, nailed together as the book shelves.Not too long ago, a previous volunteer with GVI gave a considerable donation towards the school, which helped give them one of the greatest tools possible: power!

Computer Corner at the Library

Without this, the introduction of solar panels in the library supplied by GVI would not have been possible. With the recent installations, the library now has lights and 2 electrical sockets for computers that were donated by a ex GVI Kenya volunteer who raised money trough a charity program. This opens up completely new avenue for this remote village on an island without electricity or running water.

Four Solar Panels in Mkwiro Primary School

It has been a combined effort by a group of dedicated volunteers and staff and is something that I have been privileged to be apart of and an experience I will take with me for years to come.

Thanks to everyone involved, it has been great!

Virginia Corbelet

MKWIRO: STIMA IKO! (Mkwiro: There's Electricity!)

Just Giving: Jenni Continues To Support The Tsavo West Communities

Just over a month ago, we launched a Just Giving page with the aim of providing our friends, families, volunteers and anyone else interested, with an easy way of contributing to the development projects we are running in the Tsavo West region. The page outlines our objectives for the future in the ex-poaching villages of Kidong, Kasaani and Mahandakini and allows an easy way for people to make donations to these projects.

We have set a target of raising 10,000 GB Pounds for the community projects we are implementing. The target is large, but we believe that with your help we can reach it. The rationale behind setting the target so high was that the funding will be split between development projects in at least three communities. Most people in the villages of Kidong, Kasaani and Mahandakini struggle to send their children to school and to pay for medicine when they are ill. Moreover, food shortages are a regular occurrence in the Taveta region and as such many people are lucky to eat one meal a day. We have a lot of projects to implement toraise the standards of living in these communities to an acceptable level for everyone. Any money which is contributed to this site goes directly to the communities and is greatly appreciated by the people living out here.

Thus far the site has proved to be very successful with a number of donations made already. On that note, I would like to say a big thank-you to Jenni L who made a donation just a few weeks after returning home from her 5 weeks on our Kenya Expedition. Jenny spent a week working with the community of Kasaani and wanted to contribute something to help them with the alternative livelihoods they are pursuing. Once again, thank-you Jenni!

If you would like to make a donation to support the communities of Kidong, Kasaani and Mahandakini please visit www.justgiving.com/GVItsavowest.

Just Giving: Jenni Continues To Support The Tsavo West Communities

FINDING NEMO IN MKWIRO, KENYA

When Monia first told us there were no classes during week 6, the immediate reaction was “Phew, no lesson planning or stroppy Standard 7 girls on Monday morning!” (or so we thought!), before thinking, “Actually, what will we be doing!”. We needn’t have worried though as Monia was full of fun and amazing activities to keep us entertained and was ready to crack the whip at a moments notice!

Children from Mkwiro Primary School


The week kicked off with a crash course in Marine Biology for Standard 7’s of all people! Unluckily for Tristen and Hamish they were unable to escape lesson planning, and despite Hamish having had no training, and Tristen only just managing to master 1st person personal they were awesome! The lesson kicked off with a Blue Planet Documentary, and even though David Attenborough tried to thwart our efforts by not having Ki-Swahili subtitles, the pupils seemed to understand a lot by the pictures, (which lead to a few giggles when anything relating to Sexual Reproduction appeared on screen – you gotta love teenagers!!).

After the documentary, Mr. Tris and Mr. Hamish did a series of lectures and Q&A sessions relating to Biodiversity of life within the Ocean, Trophic Levels and Food chains. Everyone was engrossed including Sergi who sat there eager with his notebook!! It was clear that the children loved it and were learning a lot as they sat for nearly 2 hours and there wasn’t a yawn in sight. My God, they were better than our Group when we were doing our TEFL training a week prior to this and we are meant to be English Speakers!!! Plenty of questions were asked and hats off to Mr. Tris who managed to deflect some rather probing questions toward the end, in graded language no less!! I think we would all still love to know who planted that random man in the audience who was demanding answers regarding boat use and pollution in the Ocean. Bravo Tristen for not throwing a piece of chalk at him!! Unsurprisingly we were all ecstatic when the next day the School asked the boys to do a repeat session for Standard 6 the week after, because unbeknown to us kids were clambering at the gate to attend the lecture but had to be turned away due to numbers. That was the first of many successes that week . . . .

GVI Presentation at GVI Mkwiro Base

. . . . At the other end of intellectual spectrum this week was the Girl’s challenge of putting on a Blockbuster performance of ‘Finding Nemo’ which we passed with flying colours. Excitement for the performance spread from Mkwiro to Shimoni without us even having to make a trailer – Result! All I can say is Angelina Jolie watch your back as Madame Katie, Chantal, Virginia and Priscilla will be hitting Tinsel Town any day now!. I would like to say we were method acting which is why our 5 year old behaviour was so convincing, however, I think we all secretly loved being able to revert to Kindergarten style behaviour and have an epic week of ‘Cut and Stick!!’. We were all amazed what you could actually do with a few old bed sheets, coloured card and a few finger puppets! We had 3 days to recreate the kitchen into the bottom of the Indian Ocean, write a script and make props and costumes for myself and Hamish. Luckily Pixar had done a lot to help in terms of providing a script, however whilst reading the book we quickly realised a revision of the script was needed as no amount of coloured card or graded language could help us act out the scene where Nemo had to throw a stone into the water filter to make the tank go green and mouldy so the dentist could remove him in order for him to escape! We settled for the introduction of Fatuma the Seagull who lifted Nemo to freedom, and who luckily for us was Vegetarian so dropped him into the Ocean instead of into her stomach for dinner!. At some points Tristen and Hamish couldn’t believe the inaccuracies in our Script and were like; “Did you even come to our lecture on Tuesday!”.

Nemo traped in the acquarium

I will never forget Hamish’s face when he realised he had to say the line; “ Fish are like you and me, they live in houses and even go to School” Classic!! We all took our roles seriously hence why Virginia took one for the team and was the evil Diver who took Nemo – GASP!, and why I ended up wearing an anemone head dress which made me look like a cross between Sideshow Bob and Brian May. I was worried that I may have scared the kids but in the end they loved trying it on and many a good photo was taken!Both performances we did for the Kindergarten were amazing and I’m not sure who enjoyed it more, the Kids or the GVI Staff and Volunteers, who all joined in the song at the end and did all the actions!!

Katie acting in Finding Nemo

The Kids were so well behaved and a little too quiet at first, however after a bit of cajoling by ‘Anemone Katie’ it was adorable to hear the shouts of “Hello Mr Starfish” and “Help Nemo” as well as them joining in with the song at the end!. The children were all intrigued by the play and with a combination of translation by their teacher and kick ass acting by the girls behind the curtain, everyone followed the plot really well and everyone could shout by the end that “NEMO WAS IN SHIMONI!”. I felt proud to be part of such an amazing experience. Our Group worked really hard and there was a great sense of energy and enthusiasm all week which was all worth it when the teachers paid us thanks and told us that it was the first play that the children had ever seen. I think we all felt humbled when they sang us a beautiful African song thanking us which bought a lump to everyone’s throats and a few tears were even shed. I’m not entirely sure which song was more catchy, the ‘Thank you Song’, or our ‘Finding Nemo’ Classic as I have caught everyone humming both around camp ever since the Performance. Ha Ha, a Top 10 Best Seller is born me thinks! (Sorry Monia that was terrible grammar!!). As you can see our week was filling up pretty fast . . .

Finding Nemo crew

. . . . . . But there was still time to cram in more, as we still had 3 other projects on the go! (Yes Monia’s whip nearly broke under the strain of all the activity this week before you ask!). On Thursdays and Fridays we work with the lower standards with Creative arts and Music and Movement which involves a lot of singing and dancing. As not all of have great memories, or ever heard the songs in the first place we have been working on a songbook which can be used to access lots of nursery rhymes and songs which we sang from childhood. As if you couldn’t guess, the first song that was written was ‘Finding Nemo’, which goes like this; “Nemo is a fish that lives in the sea, he lives in the house of an anemone. Nemo just wanted to have lots of fun, but his dad was scared of everyone. One day a diver came and took him away, and from a fish tank he had to escape. Marlin and Dori swam across the sea, they found Nemo and LIVED HAPPILY!!”.

We had been given the task of decorating Standard 3’s Classroom with the alphabet, including pictures, a weather forecast and the Primary Colours, which may sound easy but it made me realise that I am definitely no Van Gogh or Rolf Harris! However, lack of artistic skills were the least of our worries as I never realised how hard it was to draw a straight line across a wall with a 30cm ruler when every other angle in the room was crooked. We had to resort to using ‘Trusty Tristen’ (My God that boy has more uses than a Leatherman!). We used his head height as a guide line which meant he had to take baby steps around the room so we could have a giant game of ‘Dot to Dot’ – Good Times!. Luckily for us, Monia is a very talented artist and spent many an hour sweating to death under her head scarf to draw amazing animals such as ‘The Flirty Ostrich’ and the Panda. The room is still a long way from being finished but the transformation from the start of the week is amazing. Monia’s painting skills far outweighed ours so we were relegated to painting the letters and the blackboard so not to mess up her handiwork! I couldn’t believe what a difference it made just painting the door and blackboard though. It was virtually white before, but now it looks amazing and it seems a shame to let chalk go near it again now!. Hopefully when the room is finished and Monia does her magic with the camera, the photos will have the desired affect and go a long way to help people want to fundraise more so we can paint the whole school. Nearly finished now . . .

Just writing about the week has made me tired. It has been the most memorable and amazing week on Community ever and everyone feels lucky to have been able to take part, as we feel we have been exceptionally productive and have made a huge contribution to the work that GVI does with the Local Community. We have loved working with one another and the Community and there is only one last thing to say . . . . aSANTE!

Group – Katie/Emily Ashford, Chantal Woodun, Virginia Corbelet, Tristen Murchie, Prescilla Tsang, Hamish Tin

Katie Ashford – Kenyan Community and Wildlife Research Volunteer

FINDING NEMO IN MKWIRO, KENYA