Tag archives for Kenya
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We have the knowledge that can contribute to finding solutions to the crisis of climate change. But if you’re not prepared to listen, how can we communicate this to you? — Marcos Terena, Xané leader, Brazil. The precipitous rise in the world’s human population and humankind’s ever-increasing dependence on fossil fuel-based ways of living have…
A few days ago I visited the Kerio Valley in northwestern Kenya. It was a hot, sunny day so I decided to stop and rest in the shade of some giant fig trees by a stream…I was blown away by what I found – one of the most bizarre and wonderful insects in the world.
My name is Dino J. Martins, I am a Kenyan entomologist and I love insects. The Kiswahili word for insect is dudu and if you didn’t know already, insects rule the world! Thanks to the amazing efforts of the ‘little things that run the world’ I was humbled to be selected as a National Geographic…
Posted by As modern communication technologies become more ubiquitous in the developing world, increasingly working their way into once disconnected rural communities, opportunities to use mobile phones to collect and share valuable (and often critical) information grow. In this edition of Digital Diversity, Joel Selanikio – a practicing pediatrician, former Wall Street computer consultant and former Center…
Students learn about bees in Kenya…
Posted by Dino Martins on November 17, 2011 My name is Dino J. Martins, I am a Kenyan entomologist and I love insects. The Kiswahili word for insect is dudu and if you didn’t know already, insects rule the world! Thanks to the amazing efforts of the ‘little things that run the world’ I was humbled to be selected as a National Geographic…
As modern communication becomes more ubiquitous in the developing world, increasingly working its way into the lives of rural communities, opportunities to use mobile phones to connect people with each other and the outside world continue to grow. In this edition of Digital Diversity, Clare Salisbury – a recent MA in Multimedia Broadcast Journalism at…
Desert in Northern Kenya Filled With Bees!
Posted by Dino Martins on October 3, 2011 
A recent rainstorm has brought out the flowers in the desert of northern Kenya where I am currently based and teaching for the Turkana Basin Field School. With flowers of course come bees, and an incredible diversity of them. See some of the amazing species the students here have been able to see and study.
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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President Obama, and other world leaders today paid tribute to Professor Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and one of Africa’s foremost environmental campaigners, who died on Sunday. She was 71.
By Mary Rice, Executive Director, Environmental Investigation Agency The aim was to document what was happening on the ground – there have been so many reports of poaching and seized ivory, in and through the country and at the airport – so when we arrived in March we immediately headed north to Samburu National Reserve,…
Leaf-cutter bees in action!
Posted by Dino Martins on August 20, 2011 My name is Dino J. Martins, I am a Kenyan entomologist and I love insects. The Kiswahili word for insect is dudu and if you didn’t know already, insects rule the world! Thanks to the amazing efforts of the ‘little things that run the world’ I was humbled to be selected as a National Geographic…
2011 Buffett Award Winners
Posted by Andrew Howley of NG Staff on June 21, 2011 
This year’s winners of the National Geographic Society/Buffett Award for Leadership in Conservation are a community leader of the Huaorani people from the Ecuadorian Amazon, and a Kenyan wildlife conservationist who uses blogs to connect conservationists with supporters around the world.
Kenyan Chainsaw Gang Thwarted
Posted by Amy Bucci of NG Staff on June 4, 2011 National Geographic Big Cats Initiative grantee Anne Kent Taylor continues her updates from the field in Kenya this weekend. Her adventures this week include a giraffe rescue and an encounter with a chainsaw gang. Taylor has been using funding from the Big Cats Initiative to provide wire fencing to Kenya’s Maasai herders, on the basis…
In today’s installment of the special series Digital Diversity, Amy O’Donnell takes a look at how radio is being combined with mobile phone text messaging to better connect smallholder farmers with local agricultural programmes in Kenya. Digital Diversity is a series of blog posts about how mobile phones are being used throughout the world to…
A serious poaching upsurge in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, prompted Africa’s top rhino experts to meet to assess the status of the horned pachyderms across the continent and to identify strategies to combat the crisis.
National Geographic Big Cats Initiative grantee Anne Kent Taylor continues her blogging from the Maasai Mara, Kenya. Her project to fence traditional livestock enclosures is designed to keep lions, leopards, and hyenas at bay. Now she finds that honey badgers are also being thwarted.
National Geographic Big Cats Initiative grantee Anne Kent Taylor sent another dispatch from the field in Kenya’s Maasai Mara region. Her account details life among Africa’s wild big cats and the growing conflict between humans and animals competing for the same resources. Anne Kent Taylor’s National Geographic grant supports her work in providing chainlink fencing…
Anne Kent Taylor continues her reports from the field in Kenya, where she and local collaborators have been providing chainlink fencing to farmers to shield their cattle, goats and other animals from big predators. In the face of “horrific” predation of livestock, the fencing program has been achieving very encouraging results. One farmer reported watching…
Anne Kent Taylor reports from rural Kenya that her project to help livestock farmers fence their animals at night has put barriers around 200 bomas–and so far there have been no reports of predation in the protected enclosures. The work is supported by the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative, an initiative by the National geographic…
After witnessing the world’s greatest wildlife migration along Kenya’s Mara River, the author reflects on the role of rivers in nurturing entire ecosystems. This post is part of a special National Geographic news series on global water issues. By Mark Angelo As an avid paddler and long-time river enthusiast, I’ve always marveled at the ability…
Great Migrations: Running With the Herd
Posted by Ford Cochran on November 2, 2010 Wildebeests traverse the Serengeti’s plains each year in numbers nearly too vast to count. But research shows that by forming enormous herds, they manage to make themselves scarce to free-roaming predators. By Ford Cochran The largest programming event in the ten-year history of the National Geographic Channel, Great Migrations premieres in the U.S. beginning at…
Vultures and Eagles Poisoned in Masai Mara
Posted by Ford Cochran on November 2, 2010 Nairobi, Kenya – WildlifeDirect reports that 25 vultures and 2 eagles have been poisoned with an agricultural pesticide suspected to be either Furadan (a carbofuran) or Marshall (a carbosulfate), both manufactured by the American agrochemical company FMC. The 25 Ruppells Griffon, White Backed, and Hooded vultures, a Tawny eagle, and a Bateleur eagle were discovered…
Continuing her blogging from the field, in the Maasai Mara in Kenya, National Geographic Big Cats Initiative grantee Anne Kent Taylor reports that to date some two hundred livestock enclosures have been fenced against predators–and thusfar there has not been a single report of a protected animal taken by a big cat. “This is so…
Into Africa, Outside the “Bubble”
Posted by Stuart Pimm on September 14, 2010 Managing Africa’s wildlife means taking care of animals outside national parks and, vitally, taking care of the people there, too. By Stuart Pimm Mara National Park, Kenya–I’m sitting in the bar of a game lodge perched high on a koppie. The view is outstanding, for I can see better than 180 degrees of land stretching…
With a hundred bomas, the traditional livestock enclosures of East Africa, now fenced against predators, it’s time to set the baseline of data to be collected to monitor the success of a National Geographic Big Cats Initiative project to reduce the conflict between wild lions and herders in Kenya’s Maasai Mara region. Big Cats Initiative grantee Anne…
Building better bomas
Posted by Stuart Pimm on August 25, 2010 National Geographic Big Cats Initiative (BCI) scientist Stuart Pimm ventures into East Africa to study bomas, the traditional shelters constructed to corral livestock. He visits two BCI grantees working with local herders to fortify bomas with wire and spiny plants in so-called ”living fences.” The hope is that if farm animals can be protected their owners will have…
