General
For the most part June was dry, with a few days of very overcast, drizzly weather around the full moon – 8 -16th and again towards the end of the month. However, there was sufficient rain along the escarpment throughout June to hamper work on the road to Nigro-are. Very frustrating.
We completed our Annual Work Plan and submitted it to the Board for review. Some of the key points in our plan for the coming year:
· We don’t expect any significant income in the coming year;
· We have reduced our operating budget by 40%;
· We have sufficient funds to see us through to the end of November, if we are very careful;
· We will have a shortfall of at least US$ 700,000 by June next year;
· The staff have all taken a 30% pay cut and we have removed allowances and bonuses;
· We will require at least 25% of last year’s income to break even – very unlikely;
· There will be no capital purchases in the coming year.
We have so far received received around US$ 200,000 in donations; 150,000 from Wildlife Protection Systems (WPS) – a big thank you to them. The remainder has come from a campaign being run by Wildeye – again thanks. Ninian Lowis, a Board member, has worked very hard on a fundraising campaign and funds are beginning to come in. I would like to thank Ninian, Jonathan Scott and Goh Iromoto for all their hard work in preparing a short video and all those people who have so kindly donated to the Conservancy. Justin Heath is also working on a proposal to Conservation International (CI) that includes the Triangle and the Conservancies.
Collaboration Agreement
We now have a signed Collaboration Agreement with Narok County and have started working more closely with the management of the Main Reserve. We spent four days in the Reserve looking at work to be done, taking over machinery and installing radios in vehicles. We have also prepared a simple work plan and budget for the next three months and will start on the roads at the beginning of July. The first tranche of funds have been deposited in a Conservancy account and this will give us enough funding for the first month.
The Main Reserve now has five working ranger vehicles – although none of them have a speedometer sensor!! So there is no checking on mileage (One of them was driven into a river the day we installed a radio and requires an engine overhaul). They also have a small grader, a tipper truck and an excavator. The machinery all requires some repair and maintenance before we can start operations.
COVID-19
We are still experiencing rising numbers of positive cases – up to 278 in a single days. The total number of positives now exceeds 6,190 – from 167,417 tests. The deaths have risen to 148, giving a mortality rate of around 2.4%. The exponential increase in positive cases was to be expected and we have not yet flattened the curve – but people are getting restless and want to start travelling again. This presents a real dilemma for Government – do we continue the lock-down until we start seeing a decrease in cases, or do we start relaxing restrictions and hope that people will be sensible.
Tourism
There is no prospect of international tourism in the coming months and we will almost certainly miss out on the high season. The best we can hope for, is that lock-down is lifted in Nairobi and Mombasa in July and that locals will be able to travel and no doubt tour operators, hotels and lodges are banking on this in order to re-open. For us, we need eight citizen visitors just to bring in sufficient revenue for one non-resident. Even if all the camps were full of residents (extremely unlikely) it would only bring in 12-15% of last year’s income. Not enough to cover our greatly reduced budget.
One visitor went off-road and was stuck overnight without anyone being aware of his whereabouts. He had said that he was going to check on the migration but ended up near the escarpment – in an area that has been exceptionally wet – even by this season’s standards.
Staff
We have implemented an in-definite 30% pay cut for all staff. We hope that we will either be able to raise sufficient funding to lift the pay cut, or that tourism will pick up in the near future.
Wildlife
The burnt areas have attracted large numbers of topi, and in one area along the border, thousands of Thompson’s gazelle. Lion sightings have been excellent but cheetah and leopard continue to be very difficult to see. However, there were some unusual sightings this month – a pangolin was seen just across the river and there were two sightings of a shy caracal near Mugoro.
The main wildebeest herds are still some distance away and we can’t expect much before mid-July at the earliest.
Security
Twelve people were arrested in June, three of them for illegal logging in the Triangle. Two of the nine poachers were arrested in the Triangle, the remainder were in the Lemai Wedge. We are beginning to see wire snares and nineteen were recovered – two zebra were killed in snares, at least one hippo was speared and five gazelle were killed using dogs.
One person was arrested at Lugga ya Ngiri on the 2nd by Nigro-are team.
We received a report on the second that some poachers had entered the Mara to hunt hippo. We joined forces with the rangers from the Main Reserve on the 3rd and 4th to patrol all the likely areas in the Reserve. We then moved to the Triangle on the 5thand managed to arrest two people, from a gang of six. They had camped on the back end of Nyumba Nane and had killed a hippo. We set ambushes that night but the others managed to escape. We had arrested one of the two seventeen years ago at the Salt-Lick. Both poachers said that they had been artisanal mining for gold near Nyamongo in Tanzania but the recent rains had flooded their mines – forcing them to look for other sources of income – hence poaching. The two were prosecuted in Kilgoris and each jailed for seven years.
The Ngiro-are team collected nine wire snares near Lugga ya Ngiri on the 10th, the first snares we have found for some time. Two days later they found another 2 snares.
There were signs of poachers entering the Lemai Wedge on the 12th to hunt gazelle with dogs and torches.
Three people were arrested for illegal logging in the Triangle on the 16th. They had been cutting posts along the escarpment and were arrested by our teams from Kilo 2 and Nigro-are. The issue became politically charged when one of the prime suspects, the person who had commissioned the posts, tried to frame one of our community scouts – the very person who reported it – and had him arrested for stealing Ksh 15,000.
The Iseiya rangers went out on an all-night patrol on the 17th and managed to arrest two, of four, people at 4.00 am after they had been hunting gazelle with dogs. The poachers had killed five Thompson’s gazelle near Watu Kumi and were on their way back when arrested near Miungu in the Lemai Wedge.
The Nigro-are rangers arrested four people on the 26th. In the first incident, two people had killed two zebra and were butchering them near Kichwa ya Ndovu in the Lemai Wedge when apprehended at lunchtime. Two snares were recovered. That night the rangers joined forces with their Tanzanian counterparts and arrested two more people at Nyakita Tone in the Lemai Wedge. The two were part of a larger group of five who were on their way to hunt.
Six wire snares were recovered along the escarpment in the Lemai Wedge on the 29th.
Revenue and Accounts
The only meaningful revenue collected in May was in the form of balloon fee arrears from Governors and TransWorld amounting to US$ 21,275 (Ksh 2,127,500). Apart from that, we collected Ksh 163,100 in Park Fees.
Repairs and maintenance
We worked very hard on repairing the roads despite being hampered by evening showers and storms. We still have two roads to complete – the escarpment road to Nigro-are and the lower road to Purungat. Both roads should be open to traffic by mid-July, weather permitting.
We have all the cement and chippings on hand to make interlocking blocks and have made 800 of them. We would like to build four simple rooms for staff who have been living in temporary accommodation and tents. There should be no significant additional cost.
We have purchased a number of plastic culverts and installed some of them along the road to Nigro-are. They are very easy to install and certainly speed up road repairs.
Report on focus for June
Focus for July 2020
· Hold Board meeting;
· Start on Collaboration agreement;
o Maintain and service equipment;
o Work on Ashnil to Keekorok road;
o Start on road between Keekorok and Ololamutia Gate;
o Clean drainage ditches and culverts;
o Fix approach to bridge at Sand River;
o Clean dam at Keekorok;
o Take over workshops;
o Purchase uniforms; and
o Collaborate on patrols.
· Open lower road from Serena to Purungat;
· Grade road to Nigro-are; and
· Complete appraisals.