South Rift Game Scouts donation

Some of the 'bull-dust' common in the Rift Valley during the dry season. The dust is the texture of cornsilk and billows like water - and enters any possible crack and settles on everything.

We arrived at the South Rift Resource Centre in southern Kenya yesterday afternoon after a spectacular drive from the moist highlands of Nairobi down the Great Rift Valley wall, and today spent the day with the South Rift Game Scouts from the two nearby communities.

We brought with us 5 lightweight tents donated by Sierra Designs, and waterproof binoculars and GPS units (and a solar battery recharger) donated by ConserVentures members and supporters.

Jonathan showed the scouts how to pitch the tents and set up and use the binoculars.

The equipment is just the start of a support program we are developing for the community conservation area game scouts in the region. Over half the famous East African wildlife in Kenya exists outside the parks, in community owned lands like the Maasai. They have developed their own scouts program to guard against poaching (which they are very effective at), and act as liaisons with the community when there are wildlife conflicts such as lions eating cattle. Not too long ago these young men would have been 'employed' in their communities as warriors; now they are warriors of sorts, but on the front lines of conservation.