This is A Rocha Kenya.
22nd August 2022
Introduction
It has been a minute since we did an update about A Rocha and what it is that we do. A Rocha Kenya is a non-profit Christian organisation whose primary goal is conservation. It is one of the 23 A Rocha organisations distributed globally. As an organisation, we are concerned with conservation because we believe it is a responsibility given to us by God. From the very beginning, God instructed us to preserve and take care of His creation. Conservation therefore, is not just a responsibility of a few people, but all of us. The fact that destruction of the environment has gone up in the recent years instead of conservation is something that should jolt us into action.
Location and Area of focus
A Rocha Kenya is located in three different places. The main offices are at Mwamba along the coast. Another office is at Kuvuka where we have the tree nurseries while Karara, the other office is in Nairobi Kenya. Our efforts cover the whole sphere of conservation ranging from marine, terrestrial and environmental education. Our main area of focus include Watamu Marine Protected Areas, Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, Dakatcha Woodlands(where we are aiming to build a nature reserve), the Mida-Creek and the communities neighbouring these forests.
Inside Arabuko-Sokoke Forest
The departments
A Rocha Kenya is broadly divided into three departments. These are; Community Conservation, Science Conservation, and Mwamba Ecolodge. Since we are Christians in conservation, Christian disciplines and beliefs form the basis of everything and guide us in all that we do.
Community Conservation
The war between nature and people has been around for a long time. It is difficult to separate the two as they are closely and deeply connected. Man is surrounded by nature while nature is affected by everything that man does. In our conservation efforts therefore, we can’t exclude or assume the role played by the community surrounding our areas of interest. Be it land purchase in Dakatcha or protection of the Scoops Owls in Arabuko-Sokoke Forest or our Sharks and Rays surveys in Watamu Protected Areas, for these efforts to bear fruit, then the community must be on board.
Some of the programs we have put in place to help us achieve this include;
- Environmental Education, where we teach the community about the importance and the need to protect the environment. We also teach them of the other ways of benefitting from the environment without necessarily cutting down trees or hunting wild animals.
- The ASSETS program through which we help sponsor students surrounding the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and the Mida-Creek through high school. Thereby reducing the pressure on the forest resources.
- Providing the community with other livelihood options through projects like tree planting, alternative sources of energy like the fireless cookers and kitchen gardening.
- Farming God’s Way and Care of creation. Here we teach the community about economical and environmental friendly farming techniques that require lower input but put out higher outputs. Farming God’s Way also helps them farm even during dry seasons.
During one of the ASSETS camp
Science Conservation
Our Science department is further divided into two major groups; Marine and Terrestrial research. In the Marine sector, these are some of the projects that we have;
- Sharks and Rays survey through which we monitor the distribution and habitat of the 16 endangered species within Watamu Marine protected areas .
- Micro-plastics and beach clean-ups. Here we do regular weekly beach clean-up, micro-plastics research and Nurdle hunting.
- Coral bleaching through which we aim to establish the effects of climate change on the coral reefs. We research of how change in surface temperatures affect the bleaching, mortality, recovery, and recruitment of corals.
In Terrestrial, we focus on; bird surveys and ringing, GBIF, Wader bird counts, Butterflies and Moths, and the study of trees.
A healthy coral
Mwamba Ecolodge
Mwamba Ecolodge is our guest house. It is located together with our main offices at Watamu. This is place where we get to host guests and volunteers from all over the world. Mwamba is located a few metres from the shores of the ocean and surrounded by a beautiful nature trail. The environment is quiet and tranquil, full of love and warmth. Our guests are more than welcome to take part in everything that is going on around the Centre. The guest room has a capacity of up to 18 people and accept single booking, double booking, triple booking and even booking for 4 people. In addition, we have a vast space for camping.
We are also able to accommodate 5 volunteers hosted within the Centre at the same time. We have slots for general volunteers, who just help around the volunteers. There is also slots for volunteers who want to help out in a specific field, either because of passion or educational needs. We are happy to receive volunteers from all walks of life, and all ages.
Mwamba Ecolodge