Colobus Trust

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 10 2008 | By: colobus

Catherine, our Office Administrator, is now 8 months pregnant  and as of next month will be taking her maternity leave. This will be her second child and we would like to take this opertunity to congratulate her again, and wish her the best of luck! 

This leaves us with a huge hole in our workforce as Catherine is responsible for our accounts as well as so much more. We are now looking for a volunteer who can join us for some, if not all, of Catherine’s absence and help us out. 

Basic computer skills are required as the main task of Catherine’s job is to use Quickbooks to keep a tab of our accounts. This is not as hard as it sounds, and can be taught. Unfortunately the remaining staff cannot cover for her as we all have our own areas of responsibilities. Apart from the main task of keeping the books up to date, the input our volunteer can give will be dependent on how they feel they can help. Below is a brief list of what we are looking for help with:

Accounting (keeping our Quickbooks System up to date can be explained if needed as Catherine lives near by) 

Website Maintainance (as well as contributing to our blog)

Marketing (working alongside Hamisi, our Marketing & Education Liason to improve such things as our Adopt A Colobus program)

 Fundraising (as well as helping me organise some upcoming fundraising events, help with writing proposals would be greatly appreciated)

…and so much more!

We really need long term volunteers to help us in many ways. So if you are interested, or if you know anyone who would be interested, in coming out and helping us please get them to contact me at gwili@colobustrust.org  

Please tell your friends!

Gwili 

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Category: Habitat Restoration/Conservation, Human - Primate Conflict Resolution | Date: Sep 10 2008 | By: colobus

We had a fantastic day yesterday, together with Camp Kenya & KPLC we started insulating and covering powerlines in two areas where previous fatalities have occurred!

Firstly we had to prepare the PVC piping by cutting it laterally. Students and Colobus Trust staff were doing this for most of the day and together cut over 200 meters of piping…all this with only little improvised saws!

We took advantage of a planned power outage for the whole of the south coast to allow us to get a whole days work done. Once the pipes were prepared the KPLC team put them in place covering two of the four lines, thus insulating the span. All together we insulated over 100 meters of lines in two key areas. We hope the success of this pilot project will lead to great things! 

Many watched as this momentous occasion occurred and we hope to get more of our hotspots done next week.

Below is a photograph of the piping in place 

We will keep you updated!

Gwili

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Tags: colobus, diani, electrocutions, kplc, primates

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Category: Habitat Restoration/Conservation, Human - Primate Conflict Resolution | Date: Sep 01 2008 | By: colobus

As many of you will already know, the un-insulated power lines that run through Diani Forest are responsible for numerous wildlife fatalities. In the last 4 years The Colobus Trust has recorded over 60 confirmed cases where arboreal primates have been killed instantly by power lines that pass through the forest. Shockingly 46 of these cases were Angolan Colobus Monkeys, claiming more lives than any other threat, natural or manmade. Even more are wounded, where the grounding of current can cook flesh to the bone and result in the loss of limbs and frequently, infection that leads an agonising death.

Arboreal (tree-dwelling) primates natural instinct is to avoid coming down to the ground (where they are more at risk from predators) and they use any available material, natural or otherwise as pathways through the forest. Therefore if human encroachment on a forested habitat is to be non-detrimental to the environment, all power-lines should ideally be underground. But this is expensive. Suitable short-term solutions have been found by trimming back branches allowing access to power-lines. This has been a core part of our Electrocution Management Program for the last 10 years. Where Colobus Trust teams have worked in collaboration with the Kenya Power & Lighting Co. Ltd. Another “longer”-term option we have always considered is insulation. A project we have long been pushing KPLC for.

Thankfully there has been a breakthrough in our work to combat this horrible situation. This was in the form of an idea brought forward in a meeting initiated between the Colobus Trust and KPLC. Joseph Njoroge, Managing Director and CEO, Mr Huko, head of KPLC’s Diani Branch as well as a high-powered team from Nairobi represented KPLC. Also in attendance were the, the Chairperson of the South Coast Residents Association, Volker Bassen & Nimu Njonjo (local resident conservationists who run the East African Whale Shark Trust) and the Colobus Trust’s management & two of the Trust’s Trustees. 

During the meeting Volker suggested a novel idea to combat electrocutions. Using PVC piping, which can slide over the power lines, without need for them to be lowered, then fasted with ties. This would act to insulate the lines and considerably reduce the decline of the species! The initiative steps in this wonderful idea have now begun and we hope KPLC will insulate their pilot project area (one of our identified electrocution hotspots) soon and will update you on progress!

Below is a picture of those in attendance (except one who is behind the camera!)

This has been a landmark achievement for all involved and we hope that working together with KPLC & other organisations we can really tackle this pressing issue.

The Colobus Team

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Tags: colobus, diani, electrocutions, kplc, primates

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