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| Research in the slopes of Kili |
Now that classes are officially over in Kenya its time for Directed Research to begin. Directed Research, or DR is a part of SFS’ 5-year research plan that allows us to design a research project, collect and interpret data in the field, and learn to write a scientific paper. There are 3 research projects, 1 for each class, Wildlife Ecology, Wildlife Management and Economic Policy. After a few DR introduction classes and hearing what each project entailed we got to rank our top choices and then the professors assigned 8-9 people per group. I got chosen for Economic Policy (EP). For EP we get to assess how land use changes and land tenure influence human livelihoods, environment and wildlife conservation in the Amboseli ecosystem. Each DR group then divided into their groups and Ekisa is my DR professor. The way the schedule works is we have 8 days of fieldwork (tomorrow is our last day), 3 days of data analysis, and 4 days to write our research paper. Then we present our findings to the local community on May 2nd. And before you know it the semester is over and my time in Africa is coming to a close, very quickly I must add.
For my DR we visit different regions all over Kenya, one in the slopes of Kili, Kimana (where we live) and Kuku group ranch. Each student is has a specific focus within the DR based on agriculture changes. Some are looking into more sustainable agriculture, others are focusing on nutrition and the livelihoods of the local people, one is looking at waste management and the impact on the environment and me I’m looking into the topic of human-wildlife conflicts. There are 7 students in the EP DR and so we have 3 groups going out into the field conducting interviews with local farmers based off a questionnaire that we created. The interviews cover everything from types of crops grown, to studying the livelihood of the local farmers and the impact the environment has on the land use changes and my personal favorite, current wildlife conflicts. 2 students and one local guide are dropped off at different locations along the group ranches to conduct at least 10 interviews in the 8 hours we spend out in the field. In the past 7 days we’ve collected over 150 interviews, which is not bad considering we have only 7 people in our group.
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| Elephant's footprint |
Our guides and translators are Benson, Jonathan and Moses. Jonathan is my favorite guide to go with because by now we are pros at doing the interviews quickly and have met our quota every time, and I must say he has swag. (yes, I did tell him this). From these interviews I’ve learned more Maasai in the past few days then I did at my homestay, which makes the people I interview shocked. Sometimes they laugh a little cause they don’t expect a mzungu to know Maasai, but my guides are great helping me expand the language barrier. I’ve also noticed the frustration I can see in these farmers eyes when we talk about the damages wildlife, (mainly elephants) does to their crops. An elephant can destroy several acres in one night. They yell furiously hand gesturing everywhere showing us the destruction done to their fields.
I’ve learned to listen and hear what these people are saying and the hardest question they ask me at the end of the interview is what are YOU going to do about this destruction? Me? Put on the spot, well I want to help them in everyway possible their suggestions are to electric fence either the parks or their farms which I think is wrong because, a) your trapping the animals in one location and soon that area will reach carrying capacity or b) by electric fencing your farms your limiting an animals migration pattern plus it’s extremely expensive to fence each farm, and based on the interviews I’ve learned that these people struggle daily just to make a living and provide for their families, especially with current environmental degradations done to their land.
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| A Maasai man we interviewed |
So what’s the solution here? I love the wildlife but by the end of the day they provide almost no benefit to the locals. I can see their aggravation as they try to stop the wildlife from destroying their property and killing their livestock. I want to help them, I can see the difficulty they have with an increase in droughts and limited water resources. For some reason there is never enough water to provide to their families or crops. I hope by the end of this research us 7 students can provide feasible, sustainable solutions to benefit the wildlife and to the locals to help improve their standards of living. So after 8 days of hard field work, packed lunches, roaming around in fields=sore feet, I still can’t complain because each individual we interviewed took time out of their day to stop working, stand in the hot sun with us and answer all 56 of our questions and for that I would like to say Ashe oleng (Thank you very much)
Sere (bye)
-Dee
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| Our EP group (missing Sean) |
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| A typical Interview: Natalie & Jonathan |
For my DR we visit different regions all over Kenya, one in the slopes of Kili, Kimana (where we live) and Kuku group ranch. Each student is has a specific focus within the DR based on agriculture changes. Some are looking into more sustainable agriculture, others are focusing on nutrition and the livelihoods of the local people, one is looking at waste management and the impact on the environment and me I’m looking into the topic of human-wildlife conflicts. There are 7 students in the EP DR and so we have 3 groups going out into the field conducting interviews with local farmers based off a questionnaire that we created. The interviews cover everything from types of crops grown, to studying the livelihood of the local farmers and the impact the environment has on the land use changes and my personal favorite, current wildlife conflicts. 2 students and one local guide are dropped off at different locations along the group ranches to conduct at least 10 interviews in the 8 hours we spend out in the field. In the past 7 days we’ve collected over 150 interviews, which is not bad considering we have only 7 people in our group.
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