Secure elephant corridors

Animals are endangered wherever human settlements start to spread. The city of Oldonyiro in Kenya is growing rapidly, taking possession of the surrounding land, cultivating it and fencing it off. This restricts the migration of elephants between nature reserves. With the help of the Wyss Academy for Nature, Save the Elephants and Northern Rangelands Trust, the district government has developed a comprehensive urban planning concept for Oldonyiro to secure corridors that allow elephants to move freely. It was important to understand the movements of the elephants and to analyze the dangers to the settlement. Representatives of the local government and the local population agree: The mutual understanding of all parties involved was strengthened by the joint exchange and participatory planning. Joint action brings about sustainable development for the protection of wild animals and the coexistence of humans and nature in the region.

Mushrooms on elephant droppings

The meat-heavy diet of the shepherds in Naibunga Community Conservancy, a nature reserve in Laikipia County, Kenya, could come under pressure in the future. As a result of climate change, livestock numbers are shrinking in the increasingly arid region. As a result, food reserves and the income base of the community are dwindling, which is why the community is looking for alternatives. The conservation biologist Antony Wandera developed the idea of growing oyster mushrooms on readily available elephant droppings. When he joined the Wyss Academy, he was able to implement his idea together with the Kenyan National Museum and the Green Earth Warriors, a local community organization.

The project empowers women in particular, whose position is strengthened as a result. The aim is not only to improve food security, but also to generate income. For example, the community has purchased a solar mushroom dryer in order to preserve and sell surplus stock.

Greener country

With 50,000 semi-circular bunds holding back water, the arid landscape of northern Kenya has become greener. Together with the local people and the Dutch NGO “Justdiggit”, the Wyss Academy aims to dig 100,000 such drainage basins. These transform hard, dry soil into fertile soil and also minimize soil erosion. Within just nine months, clear differences were detected on satellite images. Even elephants had come closer to the previously dried-up area. The Wyss Academy wants to expand the project and thus transform other areas in the region and across the country.