WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY: VOLUNTEERING AT NARETUNOI CONSERVANCY

This year we celebrated the 47^th World Environment Day, on 5^th June. The theme for this year was “Ecosystem Restoration” . What better way to celebrate than volunteering at Naretunoi, a community conservancy bordering Nairobi National Park dedicated to wildlife conservation.

I had the opportunity to join Young Muslim Association in an event that took place at Naretunoi Conservancy. We had three main activities: Parthenium hysterophorus uprooting, lion lights installation and seedballs throwing.

On our way to Naretunoi Conservancy

My sisters and I arrived at 6:10 am on a chilly Saturday morning at our pick up point which was at KFC Mombasa road. Together with other volunteers we waited for about 20 minutes for the bus. We all boarded the bus, there were two buses, one for ladies and one for the gentlemen. We all followed the COVID 19 protocol; maintaining social distance and wearing of masks.

We had a smooth journey, there was barely any traffic along the way. This is quite unusual for Mombasa road especially with the ongoing construction of the expressway.

A few meters in the park we were able to witness the majestic wildlife roaming through the grasslands. I saw zeal of Zebras, Ostriches, Wildebeest, Giraffe and antelopes. At some point the driver had to stop for the Zebras to cross and foals with their beautiful brown and white stripes will hop across and stop to stare at the bus. Taking photos and videos of such beautiful moments was tough because of the dusty roads which compelled us to close the windows. After all our eyes were glued to the window admiring the beautiful wildlife, that most never bothered to take photos .

It was just a few minutes left to arrive at the gate and the road was impassable, the road must have been washed off by seasonal river flowing or heavy downpour.  The wardens and some volunteers went to carry stones to make the road wide enough for the bus to pass through.

The event started officially

We had opening speeches by the area chief, Community Warden, Tegla Loroupe from Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation, representative from Sukuma Twende Trust, representative from Trees for Birthdays, Vivienne from 3E’s Experience and Secretary of Young Muslim Association.  It was indeed a great way to begin the day with great speeches and words from such dedicated individuals.

First Activity: Parthenium hysterophorus uprooting

Immediately after the speeches we all grabbed sacks and headed outside the gate of the conservancy offices, where the weed has taken over. Parthenium is a noxious weed here in Kenya and it has detrimental effects such as:    

• It can poison livestock which in turn can affect humans that feed on the livestock or its products such as milk.
• It negatively impacts agroecosystems and natural biodiversity.
• In humans they can cause dermatitis, asthma, hay fever and bronchitis.
• It has detrimental effects on crops as it has allelopathy effect. It has chemicals that are reported to inhibit germination, radical growth and activity of nitrifying bacteria.

It is advised to uproot them especially in parks as opposed to spraying them with them herbicides. Uprooting is quite laborious and unpleasant especially when one develops an allergic reaction. However herbicide, can cause environmental hazards, like ground water contamination and death or damage of wild plant species.

Overall we covered enough area but due to time constraints we couldn’t continue further. We were able to collect about 500 kilograms of the weed, a great achievement I would say.

Lion light Installation

Lion lights are special kind of lights that flash to scare away predators such as lions. They are installed around the boma facing outwards, they trick lions into believing someone is moving around carrying a flashlight. They are solar powered, hence economical and eco-friendly too. These technology was invented by Richard Turere a  Maasai boy at the age of  11 when he was looking for ways to protect his family’s cattle from attack by lions. He is the youngest Kenyan patent holder, unfortunately he never did it soon enough so he never fully benefited from his invention.

We installed lion lights in a boma (enclosure for animals) and learnt on strategic places to place to keep the lions away from attacking the cattle.

Seedballs throwing

We had the opportunity to disperse seedballs in the area. Seedballs also known as seed bombs are seeds that been wrapped in clay, compost, bio char or a mixture of all and then dried. Seedballs are known as one of the best way of dispersing tree seeds and it also saves on costs of planting.

Departure

We left the place at around 4:30 pm, it was a great experience to volunteer and spend my day at the conservancy especially during World Environment Day, it was also a great way to reconnect with nature! It was a day to remember, to savour.

A big thank you to The Wildlife Foundation, Young Muslim Association, the organizers, sponsors of the event and all the volunteers!