Safaricom Foundation will provide Rhino Ark Ksh 155 million for the restoration of the Mau Eburu forest and its wider ecosystem.

The funds will be rolled out over a four-year period starting with immediate effect.

The grant was announced on April 3rd 2012 at a press conference in the Michael Joseph Centre at Safaricom House, Nairobi.

Amongst the activities in which the funds will play a role are:

Construction of the Mt Kenya fence is planned to begin in April 2012.

A stakeholder meeting to prepare for the construction of the Rhino Ark Mt Kenya fence project was held at the Isaak Walton Inn, Embu on 1st March 2012.

The meeting was aimed at informing immediate stakeholders including forest adjacent communities on the comprehensive fencing that Rhino Ark has developed in the Aberdares that is now being launched in the Mt Kenya Ecosystem. Among those in attendance were Colin Church, Chairman, Rhino Ark, Robert Njue, Assistant Director, Mountain Conservation Area in KWS, Susie Weeks, Executive Officer, Mt Kenya Trust and Wilson Ole Saaya, Deputy PC, Eastern.

Co-ordination of the project has been led by the Kenya Wildlife Service and with the full support of various stakeholders including Rhino Ark, Kenya Forest Service (KFS), the Mount Kenya Trust, Greenbelt Movement, Kengen, fence line communities and community forest associations in the Castle to Chuka area.

In January 2012, Rhino Ark facilitated a 6-day community forestry training course in the Aberdares. The training team, comprised officers from Kenya Forest Research Institute (KEFRI), Nyeri, was led by Adam Mwangi, Rhino Ark’s Bongo Programme Coordinator. The team trained six (6) Aberdare fence line community groups namely: Mugagu (Othaya), Bondeni, Kiamboga, Soko Huru, Geta/Bush and KEKIKA.

A day was devoted to each group and the training ran from 9 am to 3 pm. Community members were trained on: Seed collection, processing/treatment and storage and testing for seed viability before sowing; Tree Nursery Management; and Vegetative propagation of Bamboo using culms/stems. Bamboo is fast gaining popularity owing to its ability to tolerate repeated harvesting, its short growing cycle and ability to restore degraded sites, and it will greatly benefit communities and the ecosystem if groups adopt bamboo cultivation within the forest and on their farms.

After the training Rhino Ark’s Adam Mwangi observed that, “… the training was very interactive, participatory and practical.”

The community members trained found the sessions to be very helpful and expressed gratitude to the Rhino Ark for the support.

Greensteds International Schools’ 2nd annual Run-a-Ton relay race is scheduled for Saturday 11th February. Students of different ages from the school will run or cycle in relay style in teams from Narok town to Nakuru in a race to raise funds to support Rhino Ark’s conservation work in Aberdares and new projects in Mt. Kenya and Mau Eburu ecosystems.
The event will be flagged off at 6:30 in the morning from Narok District Hq. The route will traverse the hilly and fertile Mau forest an on to Nakuru town. Event coordinator, Nick Martyn, hints at a possible scenic detour through a wildlife conservancy in the last 10 or 15km to spice up the event.

The 14th annual Hog Charge event raised a record of Ksh 4,201,346 for the Mt. Kenya and Mau Eburu fence projects and maintenance of the Aberdare Fence Project.
A total of 130 teams battled it out at the Brookside sponsored event staged at Peponi Secondary School, Ruiru, on Sunday 15th January. Children from over 15 schools participated in this event and hundreds of supportive parents and friends attended.

The highest cash sponsorship was raised by Team 120, Hog Rovers from Peponi House. The team raised a whopping Ksh 239,000. They were followed by Team 2, GP-Karting Hot Wheels with  Ksh 150,000. In third place was Team 114, Horrid Hogs, from Peponi House/ ISK with Ksh 145,000.
Pembroke House emerged the best check-point sponsor.
The Hog Charge has now raised over Ksh 28 million for Rhino Ark since the first event in 1998.

The 14th Annual Hog Charge cycling relay event will take place on Sunday 15 January 2012 at Peponi School in Ruiru from 9a.m. to 12 noon.

The Hog Charge is a race using mountain bikes, for teams of 4 persons each, between checkpoints on Sukari Ranch, which is adjacent to Peponi School.The event features three Entry Classes: Under 12; Under 14; and Open. Each Class will have three sections: Boys, Girls and Mixed. It is a fund raising event that is held every year to raise funds to support the Rhino Ark Charitable Trust’s conservation work in Kenya.

This year’s event follows a brand new format, which features a separate Gauntlet Competition on a special course that will be set up nearby. This is a departure from previous years in which the Gauntlet section was part of the main competition course.

The 2011 event featured 125 teams, and raised a total of Kshs. 3.5 million towards Rhino Ark’s conservation work in the Aberdare ecosystem.

Finlays, the agribusiness with tea estates and flower farms bordering the Mau forest complex have donated funds to build over 2kms of fence in Mau Eburu.

“Finlays is aware of the threats of climate impacts if forest cover is lost to uncontrolled logging, illegal cultivation and excisions and other threats,” said Simeon Hutchinson of James Finlay Kenya.

“We are making a specific donation of Ksh 4.6 million for the fencing of Mau Eburu,’ he said.

“It will form the start of an ongoing support policy for the fencing of Mau Eburu and is in line with our enduring commitment to sustainability,” Mr Hutchinson added.

The Mau Eburu fencing project under KWS and Rhino Ark management will start next year.

Finlays has traditionally donated to entrants to the annual Rhino Charge as part of an ongoing effort to support Rhino Ark’s national conservation initiatives.

Since announcing the plan to fence Mt Kenya and Mau Eburu on December 8 last year, there has been an outpouring of support from Rhino Chargers, corporations and the Kenyan Government to a total value of ksh 128.6 million to date.

The target for completion of the two projects is ksh 1.2 billion over a five-year completion period for Mt Kenya and 18 months for Mau Eburu. The Mt Kenya and Mau Eburu fences to start in 2012.

Materials to the value of ksh 100 million to start the fence build programmes for Mt Kenya – a World Heritage site – and the highly endangered Mau Eburu – one of the 22 forest blocks in the Mau Forest Complex have been committed by the Ministry of Finance in the current annual budget.

In a letter to Rhino Ark signed by the Permanent Secretary of Finance, Mr Joseph Kinyua stated, “The Government is fully committed and will continue to embrace a holistic approach to environmental management.”
Rhino Ark’s Trustees have confirmed a commitment of ksh 24 million from the 2010 and 2011 Rhino Charge funds.

Rhino Ark also confirmed that the two projects would be undertaken using the existing process of technical partnership agreements with fence build partners – the Kenya Wildlife Service and working in close collaboration with the Kenya Forest Service through regular joint meetings.

Resource mobilization and materials procurement is in progress with a plan to start construction work as early as possible in 2012 for both Mt Kenya and Mau Eburu.

Rhino Ark is re-launching its plastic fence post initiative in partnership with Finlays, the horticultural export company.

Rhino Ark pioneered the conversion of plastic waste from flower farms in 2000 after it purchased a 20-year-old agronometer and extruder to make 4-inch posts from a well-established plastics company in England.

Naivasha flower farmer, the late Mike Higgins of Kijabe Ltd put the machine to work on a voluntary basis as an added contribution to Rhino Ark’s conservation efforts.

As a result of the success with the first machine in 2003, the same English company, KweenBee, donated a second larger unit that extrudes 6 inch posts.

Both units have now been installed at Finlays’ Kingfisher Farm in Naivasha and are producing posts to be used in Mt Kenya and Mau Eburu. Under an agreement with Homegrown, the posts are being provided at cost to Rhino Ark.

Plastic posts have proved their resilience and have an indefinite life span as compared with wooden posts that do eventually disintegrate.

Plastic posts have other benefits – they are cheaper than wood, do not need pricey plastic insulators as current flow using U nails creates no electricity transfer in plastic. The posts bend back upright once impacted by an angry elephant or other threat. Wooden posts snap and have to be replaced.

Since 2000 when plastic posts were introduced into the fence build process the completed Aberdare fence – nearly 400 kms long – contains one in five posts made from plastic waste.  The entire fence contains 100,000 posts of which 20,000 were of plastic.

“We have set a challenge to the flower industry to create value out of waste”, said Colin Church, Chairman of the Rhino Ark Management Committee. “Rhino Ark is a living demonstration that where there are alternatives to wood from trees, they can be used effectively”, he added.