Mount Kenya Trust

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 30 2009 | By: mountkenya

I took this from a small aircraft recently, I think it might be hard for people to picture the peaks and the forests of Mount Kenya but this gives an idea of the change in habitats as you go up the mountain. Ironic that I was in a plane because we have had some support from a local airline to offset their carbon emissions. Helping us to plant trees is an excellent way to reduce your carbon footprint! Tropical forests absorb more CO2 than those in temperate climates and we are really expanding our indigenous tree planting projects right now. Our integrated approach to managing our projects means that this will help communities to have alternative incomes.  I’m very excited about how many different projects we have running concurrently now.  It means my travel to and from Mount Kenya has increased substantially. I’ll be basing myself in the north by the end of the year hopefully so that I can minimize my travel time and the time spent in Nairobi.   

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 21 2009 | By: mountkenya

The current economic and political climate means there is more pressure on Mount Kenya than usual. We are facing escalating levels of logging and poaching and we are now fighting a rising tide of problems which have been further exacerbated by the drought. Although the rains have finally arrived, fires have been raging on Mount Kenya and failing crops in surrounding shambas mean that people are turning to the forests for survival. Reports of more snared young elephants, buffalo, eland and other species keep coming in and phone calls about fires and tree felling are coming in on a daily basis. More than ever the Trust needs the means to help the communities and keep the forests and wildlife safe. We help the communities by putting up fencing to prevent elephants trampling their crops and we give them advice on alternative sources of income and fuel. We are working with women’s groups and community based organisations to help them grow and sell trees. We need to keep up the pace of our work despite the setbacks and the global economic situation, it is vital we fight harder until times are better. The good news is that we finally have enough pledges to deploy the Joint Wildlife Protection Team. This has taken a long time to materialize but it is better late than never. We are grateful to the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife for making this possible at a time when donor support is difficult to source. With more help we can secure the lives and welfare of more people and animals in the future.  

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 17 2009 | By: mountkenya

We are now ready to tender out the first underpass for elephants to use along the Mount Kenya corridor thanks to funding from Virgin Atlantic. We’ve completed 18.4 km of fence out of a total of 28km. The thee photos below show some of the corridor fence in detail, some of the fence line looking towards the Ngare Ndare Forest and then the point at which the underpass will go in. Above the picture is the main Nanyuki - Meru Road which the elephants will walk over. We are fundraising for the last 9km of fence and the second underpass which will complete the project.   

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