ZoologyMolly

Celebrating #worldelephantday

It’s world elephant day today, and I’ve just returned from Tsavo East national park, Kenya. This park is home to the largest group of elephants in Kenya, with over 12,500 individuals, representing around one third of all elephants in the country. It was breathtaking to see these animals. We saw them at the watering hole,…

Celebrating #MangroveActionDay with @MangroveProject

Here’s one of my photo entries for the MAP mangrove photo competition! This photo was taken at the Mikoko Pamoja book launch, where Mikoko Pamoja carbon funds earnt by the community were spent on boosting local education. You can enter the photography competition too by clicking here. Mangroves are community Mangroves are capable of storing…

How does mangrove carbon offset work?

I’ve worked with some exciting initiatives, and the community-based project Mikoko Pamoja takes the hat for one of the most forward-thinking of them all. It’s a mangrove carbon offset project that’s giving back to the people. In this article, I’ll show you how mangrove carbon offsetting works, starting with the basics of why mangroves are…

Measuring tree DBH with #mikokopamoja

Hundreds of Casaurina trees were planted in the villages of Gazi and Makongeni to provide an alternative livelihood for local people. These trees are fast growing and straight, ideal qualities for producing wood construction poles. This wood is hopefully going to provide enough income to reduce local harvesting of mangrove trees, which are often cut…

Casuarina Planting at Gazi Primary School

Originally posted on Gazi Mangrove Project:
Yesterday, 193 students at Gazi Primary School participated in planting nearly 300 Casuarina seedlings on school grounds. These seedlings will supplement the 3,000 trees recently planted as part of the Gazi Mangrove Project. The students learned that Casuarina trees are hard wood trees that can be used as a…

Shimba hills nature reserve

It was an early morning to begin our safari day, and I always enjoy watching the moon fade as the sky goes from starry black to blue. The stars here are incredibly bright and in the daytime the sky is so, so blue that I could stare up there all day and night. We arrived…

Romantic sunrise with the crabs

Sunrise in the mangroves is a dream! I’ve learnt so much about them over the past few weeks and it’s amazing sitting here watching all the burrowing crabs emerge from their burrows and sassily throw sand around!As soon as I move, all the crabs return to their burrows, so I have no photos… but now…

Sustainable livelihoods

Today we visited the fish ponds in Makongeni, South Kenya. There is a local group in the village (90% women) who run the fish ponds. They gain benefits for the community (from selling the fish product) whilst avoiding using and degrading the local mangrove ecosystem. There are five fish ponds, with milkfish of different life…

Mikoko Pamoja

We have had fascinating talks about the management of mangrove ecosystems and learnt all about PES (payment for ecosystem services) this week. Here in Gazi Bay, South Kenya, the two villages (Gazi and Makongeni) conserve the local mangroves by replanting new seedlings and protecting the existing forest in a project called Mikoko Pamoja, loosely translated…

WIO Mangrove Training

Today the two week course in Western Indian Ocean (WIO) mangroves started! We have had some fascinating talks already about mangrove distribution and services, threats to mangroves and then the general biology, ecology and phenology of mangroves. Somebody mentioned evolution of mangrove trees… I’m excited to read up on this later because there are visible…