Academic News 

Our summer II students arrived over a week ago and have completely settled down. Since their arrival, many academic activities have taken place. During the first week, the focus was to introduce the students to the present situation and future options available to those involved with wildlife management in Kenya. To do this, students were taken through current statutes and the policy framework governing land and resource tenure systems. This topic explored the complex interaction of traditional attitudes, national land tenure regimes and policy framework, international influences, economic conditions, natural resource potentials and constraints, and regulation on human-wildlife interactions. Students have also been introduced to the current approaches of involving local communities in development and conservation initiatives. This was achieved in two stages; first the students were taken through the principles and techniques of Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) and they later went on a field exercise whose objective was to introduce them to the use of these techniques.

Other topics that have been covered to provide students with an understanding of the Kenyan conservation scenario include an overview on the status of biodiversity and conservation initiatives that have so far been put in place or attempted to try and save the country's biodiversity, including challenges experienced towards this endeavor. This has been done in a series of lectures covering background information on the ecology, dynamics and threats to the ecological integrity of the Tsavo-Amboseli ecosystem, and their implications to wildlife conservation. Topics on taxonomy and the general behavioral ecology of selected mammalian species common in the east African savannahs were covered to provide students with a basic understanding of Kenyan wildlife.

So far the students have made one field trip to Amboseli National Park. During this trip, they conducted a field exercise involving mammal identification. While in Amboseli, the students received a lecture on the challenges facing the management of Amboseli National Park and indeed other parks in Kenya.

The faculty mounted a joint traveling lecture that took the students on a tour of various parts of the group ranches. The objective of this activity was to observe various developments, interventions, and land use activities and to discuss their impacts on the livelihoods of the residents and conservation of natural resources in the area. This activity generated a very interesting discussion on the conservation dilemma facing the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem. Dr. Simon K. ole Seno, Center Director

Student Reflections

I dreamed of Africa. Ever since I was a little, girl just seeing pictures of or watching a show on Africa fascinated me. The idea of seeing a giraffe stroll across the open grassland seemed unreal and now after seeing it, it still is. There are no words my fellow students and I could use when we saw a family herd of elephants encircle their sleeping young. Sure the cold shower and really huge bugs were hard to first adjust to (especially for this arachnophobic), but you easily look past it when you think of the amazing opportunities we have encountered every day we have been here. To try and compress my experience here is nearly as impossible as the thought of having to leave. Coming here was truly the dream come true. Jacqueline Nemeth, The Catholic University of America

It is sometimes hard to break the barrier of awkwardness between foreign students and local Kenyans, but I'm trying hard by employing two of my few Swahili words, “jumbo!” (hello!) and “habari?” (how are you?), in Kimana town and on outings to bomas and local farms. This usually gets quite a warm response. The people here are vibrant and beautiful. Traditionally dressed Maasai women don loads of beads on their ears, necks, wrists, and ankles and they often have a baby secured to their backs with a colorful piece of fabric. The past week and a half, we've spent a lot of time in class with our four professors, sometimes sitting on a hilltop with a spectacular view of the Kenyan landscape and Mount Kilimanjaro for lectures. Today we'll make our second trip to Amboseli National Park to drive around in our Land Cruisers and greet the elephants (who, as Okello would say, "make my cup of joy overflow") and other spectacular wildlife. Georgia Kirkpatrick, Reed College

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