Dominic Kimani: Annual Report (Sharpe’s Longclaw and education in Kinanagop)

Breeding-plumaged Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei. Kinangop, February 2009. Photo copyright Charlie Moores

 

Non-breeding Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei. Kinangop, June 2008. Photo copyright Charlie Moores

In June 2008 I was fortunate to photograph the Endangered Sharpe’s Longclaw Macronyx sharpei (or Gathonjo ka wer-ini in Kikuyu), a pipit-like species entirely restricted to the rapidly disappearing grasslands of the 77,000ha Kinangop Plateau (an hour’s drive from Nairobi). I offered the photographs to any interested conservation organisations and – unexpectedly – within a few months found myself in a position where I was actively supporting conservation in the region and had begun working with local NGOs (in particular the Friends of Kinangop Plateau (FoKP)) and local stakeholders.

I was able to visit Kinangop a number of times and collected my posts. photos, and updates on a ‘gateway page which can be found at Sharpe’s Longclaw/FOKP. My support has continued and here is the latest Report from Kinangop, written by inspirational conservationist Dominic Kimani who lives locally and has been funded by David Fox to go into local schools to educate Kinangop’s future landowners about the requirements of unimproved grassland for the Sharpe’s Longclaw.

Introduction

This programme was carried out in Kinangop schools between August 2010 and July 2011. A total of 5500 pupils were reached in the 11 primary schools and 2800 students from secondary schools were reached.

10 pupils and 10 students from Primary and secondary schools respectively were selected randomly to take the proposed ten questions before the lesson and after the lesson. This report begins by highlighting May – August 2011 and thereafter summarizes what was done in one year project (‘Teaching conservation in Kinangop Grassland’).

The following schools were visited

• Karima Seconadary school
• Kitogo Secondary school
• Mkungi Secondary school
• Plain Hill Secondary school
• Kitogo Primary School
• Mkungi Primary
• Kirarwa Primary
• Soweto Academy
• Kambata Primary
• Wheatland Secondary Schools
• Hanjo Academy
• Mugumoini Primary

The above schools were visited between May and July 2011. This was not the first time to come to these schools but the initial visits were brief.

The following topics were covered during the visits, we had proposed.

1. Sustainable agriculture – the practices of agriculture that are friendly to our biodiversity (more emphasis was based on Grassland and riparian ecosystems) (Agriculture that is compatible to grassland conservation) the Agriculture teachers were very useful in this topic. Most of the children had some knowledge about agriculture, but they were not aware that unsustainable agriculture was driving Sharpe’s Longclaw to extinction.

2. Importance of Sharpe’s Longclaw as a bio-indicator of Change in Grassland ecosystem – I did demonstrations in the school compounds Nature Reserve and in Mbae’s Dam grasslands.

Survey and Monitoring Demonstrations at FOKP 
 

Due to logistical challenges I decided to conduct the lessons where students and their teachers were easily found, i.e. most schools have set club days and games times which are normally after classes. As a rule of extension training the classroom is where the audience can be easily reached.

On average I had between 40 minutes to 1-hour contact time with the students.

During my teaching and in consultation with the teachers we came to an agreement that pupils preferred practical lessons to classroom work.

Summary of the project activities 

Schools visited during the Project

Primary Schools

1. Murungaru
2. Ndunyu
3. Hanjo
4. Ndaracaini
5. Kambata
6. Soweto
7. Mugumoini
8. Kitogo
9. Mkungi
10. Kirarwa
11. St. Paul’s

Secondary schools

1. Ndunyu
2. Karima
3. Mkungi
4. Plain Hill
5. Kenya Wheatlands
6. Murungaru
7. Kimuri

There were some adjustments to the schools visited. Only schools from North Kinangop were visited this was again due to logistical problems. 7 out of the proposed secondary schools were visited. Both primary and secondary schools were the feasible number that I managed to visit. 
 

Methodology

1.Field demonstrations

Pupils from respective schools were engaged in a range of simple field techniques that are used in grassland bird monitoring.

Flash and count method (for grassland birds)

I demonstrated the flash and count methods to various schools in the Kinangop Sharpe’s Longclaw Nature Reserve. This was in line with our proposal to use various methods to reach and teach the students in Kinangop.

Waterfowl census techniques (water birds)

Four schools were involved in this exercise. I demonstrated counting methods during the World Migratory Day.

The reasons for carrying out these demonstrations was due to public demand from schools especially by the club patrons who wanted their student to have exposure to various techniques and methods that they learn in their biology and agriculture classes.

Results
 
 
 

NB Not all dates are included since some schools were visited more than twice depending on the needs. 
 

Questions evaluations

In the proposal I prepared 10 questions that were distributed to school to measure the level of understanding our programme.

Each question was given a score of 5 marks.

For convenience I presented the questions to ten students in each school, i.e. 5 boys and 5 girls.

In total 100 pupils in primary schools were tested and fifty student in high school did the questions administered to them.

The results are summarized in the table below: 

Primary  schools 

Before the lesson

After the lesson

Secondary schools 

Before the lesson

After the lesson

Discussion

Primary Schools

Hanjo academy was the best Primary school before the lesson followed closely by Kambata. Hanjo is a private school, the pupils are well exposed to emerging issues and they have better facilities. The school population is small and manageable.

Kambata on the other hand is a public school. It became the best school after the lesson. The school administration prepared the pupils efficiently and they were generally well-behaved pupils. The pupils were seen making notes during the lesson hence they were likely to refer to the notes
later.

In all primary schools there was a better improvement after the lesson, it can therefore be concluded that lessons are very important in order to bridge the knowledge gaps that exists.   

Secondary Schools

In Secondary schools, Plain Hill emerged the best school in terms of test performance both before and after the lesson. Kimuri was the second best. These two schools were very active all through the programme and they remained focused. There was also better support from their respective administrations. 
 

Challenges

There has been continued cultivation of the grasslands but we have done our best to work with the pupils who will be the future users of land. I strongly believe that we will have a change if we have informed citizens.

Next programme is intended to work more closely with the farmers.

I cannot forget to mention that I experienced some logisitical challenges and IT failures in what I had proposed. I’m happy that all of you understood my predicament and I now promise to work very hard in the future.

Conclusion and Recommendations

This was a very interesting programme working with kids. In all 11 primary schools and 7 secondary schools we worked with, there was a general feeling that outdoor activities were preferred most by the pupils and students.

Acknowledgements

When implementing this work I have benefited from intellectual support from numerous individuals and institutions. I am particularly indebted to David Fox Family from UK, Luca Borghesio  (Italy) for their kind financial support.  I say a big thank you and God bless you. Dr. Muchai has been providing guidance and moral support. All this work is based on your research’s
recommendations on future of Sharpe’s Longclaw.

I am very grateful to all schools that we worked with; they have remained my inspirational. FOKP provided space for lecturers and demonstrations fields, I am particularly grateful to Andrew Mwangi for his unwavering support. 

Thank you.