Beauty of taking nature lessons in the wild

By Harold Ayodo

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) is banking on the next generation to save Kenya from the nightmare of massive environmental degradation through conservation.

The organisation has developed an education programme that includes outreach to schools and learning centres at various game parks.

Tsavo East National Park warden in charge of education Grace Kariuki, says the programmes put students in the frontline of conservation.

The game reserve has revamped its education centre to include hostels that offer accomodation to students at subsidised rates. During the August holiday, 20 schools from different regions made use of the centre. "Students go for game drives to see, experience and attend lecturers on the environment and wildlife," Kariuki says.

Lectures include video shows, power point presentations and wardens field experiences. "We want the learners to have a feel of what happens in game reserves, why species become endangered and importance of conservation," she says.

The centre has a library stocked with reference material on botany, ecology, geography, natural history, marine and zoology.

Three dormitories are named after wild animals — impala, dik dik and eland. "Boarders carry their own food but we provide our kitchen – including a gas for cooking meals eaten in the dining room," Kariuki says.

The centre also runs an outreach programme that targets primary and secondary schools for two days a week. "We want to reach more students than just members of wildlife clubs who get free access to our national parks," Kariuki says.

She says KWS is targeting students because they are the majority and best placed to spread the conservation message.

Kariuki says boarding students are charged Sh100 per night and the same amount for entry into the park. Adults pay Sh300 entry and Sh250 accommodation fees. "The subsidised facilities are not for students," she says.

Kariuki says environmental degradation is fuelled by ignorance.

"Surveys found that revealed even adults were not aware of importance of conservation," she says.

The forest cover has decreased from 12 per cent in 1963 to less than 1.7 percent today following illegal human activities.

Poaching endangers the lives of mainly African elephants and the black rhinos. Elephants reduced from 167,000 in 1973 to less than 16,000 in 1990 following massive poaching.