Community centered green capacity building in the Boni Forest in Kenya
In cooperation with the Transboundary Environmental Project from the Italian NGO Terra Nuova, Greeneducation4all supported the final information transfer to the local community by visual communication and joining the last phase of capacity building workshops.
The Boni Forest is located in north-eastern Kenya, bordering Somalia. Due to its unfavorable location in the mainland at the boarder to a conflict area it has not profited much from the economic development of the country. The adjacent community of the Aweer-hunter and gatherer tribe is a unique group of only 2000 members (in 2007), still owning their own rites and culture. The Project of Terra Nuova was focusing on the preservation of the tribes’ cultural heritage and installed additional income generating activities, like bee keeping and basket-weaving.
The tribe members have an invaluable knowledge about the occurrence of biodiversity in the region. That’s why a few amongst them were chosen and trained as tour guides for ecotourism as well as focal persons to alert illegal poaching activities in the region.
Lessons learnt: Illegal activities that are harmful to a sustainable development in the region were always undertaken by outsiders. The activities and sometimes the intruders were always notices by the local community members but there was no point of contact in the local governmental structures. It is therefore a necessity to have the willingness of the local wildlife authority to support the protection measure and take over once the project leaves the region.
