Kenya
EDUCATION
Certificate in Internal Quality Auditing,
Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS)
Certificate in Environmental Impact Assessment/ Environmental Audit,
School of Environmental Studies, Moi University (Kenya)
B.S. (Hons) in Wildlife Management,
School of Natural Resources Management, Moi University (Kenya)
M.S. in Environmental Biology,
School of Environmental Studies, Moi University (Kenya)
Ph.D. in Production Ecology and Resource Conservation, Faculty of Environmental Science,
Wageningen University and Research Centre (Netherlands)
TEACHING
- Techniques of Wildlife Management, EE371
- Wildlife Management Directed Research, EE492
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
- Reviewer for African Journal of Ecology, African Environmental Review Journal, Journal of East African Natural Resources Management
- Editorial Board Member, African Environmental Review Journal
- Member, Nature Kenya
FACULTY PROFILE
I joined, SFS Kenya in Fall 2009 as a resident faculty charged with teaching and directing research in wildlife management. Before joining the School for Field Studies, I worked for 7 years as a lecturer in Environmental Biology at the School of Environmental Studies at Moi University, Kenya and before that I taught as a Assistant Lecturer at the department of zoology, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya. Apart from teaching and doing research, I have also conducted consultants in environmental assessment/auditing and internal quality auditing. I have taught a variety of courses to both undergraduates and graduate students in the university all linked to savanna ecology, environmental biology and management. Some of the courses include: Animal Ecology, Wildlife Management, Environmental Biology, Restoration Ecology and Basic Ecology and Biometry. I have supervised over 10 students in their graduate research both at MSc and PhD level. Currently I supervise 3 MSc and one PhD students at local Kenyan Universities. At SFS I’m teaching, conducting research and advising students on various wildlife management issues facing East Africa.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research interests have centered around factors that allow for coexistence of wild grazer herbivores in a dense grazer assemblage in a closed ecosystem i.e. Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya, especially on how these grazers have been able to coexist in situations of high competitive interactions. Still on the assemblage, I have interest on how invasive plants can reduce forage quantity and quality for these grazers. SFS has however opened up new research dimension for me as I can now study coexistence in an open system i.e. Amboseli in southern Kenya. Coexistence is important among grazers especially in natural facilitation of one grazer by another, in proper ecosystem structuring and functioning and for wildlife management as a whole.
RESEARCH PROJECTS
SFS projects
Use and habitat suitability of wildlife sanctuaries within the Amboseli ecosystem, Kenya
The Amboseli ecosystem is located in the Southern Kenya region, an area famous for high wildlife diversity and a pastoral land use practiced by the indigenous Maasai people. The wildlife diversity and the Maasai livestock utilize similar resources (especially plant & water) for their survival. These resources are limited within the arid and semi arid lands which comprise the entire ecosystem. During the last few decades, human activities have increased within the ecosystem especially sedentarisation of the Maasai, intensive agricultural activities and urban development leading to degradation of wildlife habitats and blockage of migratory routes and fragmentation of wildlife dispersal areas which animals traditionally utilize when moving to and from Amboseli National Park to the Chyulu hills and the Western slope of Mt Kilimanjaro. Fragmentation of wildlife habitats within this ecosystem has been reported to cause a decline in wildlife populations and an increase in human–wildlife conflicts especially because the local people don’t significantly benefit economically from wildlife based tourism.
Wildlife sanctuaries have been established within the Amboseli ecosystem with an initial aim to benefit the local people economically. These sanctuaries have unfortunately been established without prior scientific information which could be used for proper active management. In fact, most of the sanctuaries lack any form of management regime, while others are poorly managed. It is with this background that this research was rooted with the overall goal of determining the actual utilization of habitats by wildlife within the sanctuaries, and the viability of these sanctuaries as wildlife dispersal areas. The findings of this study will be used to suggest management recommendations to ensure healthy wildlife populations persist in them. NB: This study started in September 2009 and is still ongoing.
The Amboseli National Park Exclosures project
The woodlands in Amboseli National Park have been greatly degraded over time by a variety of causes ranging from natural die-offs to damage by elephants facilitating possible secondary attacks by pests and diseases which eventually result into tree mortality. The woodlands are of two major types: Acacia tortilis and Acacia xanthophloea. The woodlands comprised a large proportion of the Park 50 years ago but their cover has since declined to a mere 10% being gradually succeeded by Suaeda/Salvadora scrub and grassland. Woodlands serve as shelter, hiding areas, forage and refuge for wildlife. With their degradation, ecological functions of woodlands are negatively impacted upon which may lead to wildlife emigration and local extinctions. Woodland degradation in Amboseli is definitely negatively impacting on wildlife diversity. In fact, a sharp decline in diversity of browsing ungulates in particular and a number of species extinctions, have been observed, a sure concern for wildlife managers.
Based on this background, a study to investigate plant succession processes and changes, herbaceous biomass production and productivity inside and outside plant exclosures will be conducted. It will also strive to understand the level of herbaceous biomass off-take by herbivorous mammals outside the exclosures and their impact on plant succession, edaphic factors (soil pH, soil nutrient content, organic matter content, soil fauna, bulk density and plant available water) and the seed bank. Results from this study will be used to inform the management of Amboseli National Park which has undergone tremendous changes in its vegetation communities and general environmental degradation since the late 1960s.
GRANTS AND AWARDS
Government of Kenya, Higher Education Scholarship Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education (NUFFIC) Scholarship Wageningen University and Research Centre, Education Grant
PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS (last updated June 2011)
Recent Peer Reviewed Publications
(i) Coetzee W. T. B., Lucrezia T., Z. Wodu & S.M. Mwasi (2007). Overgrazing and bush encroachment by Tarchonanthus camphoratus in a semi-arid Savanna. African Journal of Ecology 46: 449–451.
(ii) Ng’weno C. C., S.M. Mwasi & J. K. Kairu (2010). Distribution, Density and Impact of Invasive Plants in Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya. African Journal of Ecology 48: 905–913 Recent Conference Proceedings
(iii) Okalebo S. E., B. Mwasi, R. Musyoka, N. Karanja, C. Gachene & S. M. Mwasi (2009). Green Based” Planning that Integrates Urban Agriculture into Eldoret Mixed Landscape in Response to Climate Change. Published Proceedings of the Fifth Urban Research Symposium
(iv) Mwasi S. M., I.M.A. Heitkönig, S.E. Van Wieren, and H. H.T. Prins (2009). Habitat use by a dense grazer assemblage in Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya: facilitation, competition or habitat segregation? Published Proceedings of Moi University International Conference
(v) Mulama M. S., S. M. Mwasi, B. N. Mwasi & G. Aike (2009). The Relationship Between Faecal Nitrogen And Normalised Difference Vegetation Index in Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya” Published Proceedings of Moi University International Conference
(vi) Mwamidi D. M., S. M. Mwasi & H. Ododa (2009). The use of Indigenous Knowledge in conservation of biodiversity: The Case of Taita Hills forests. Published Proceedings of Moi University International Conference
