Mara Elephant Project uses EarthRanger (ER), a cloud-based tool to improve, simplify and facilitate protected-area and wildlife species conservation and management. In response to a need for advanced analytics of complex data-streams, MEP developed Ecoscope – an open-source python geospatial library designed to accelerate and democratize the conversion of raw ecosystem data into actionable information to support management and policy decision making. To ensure its adoption and deployment, Ecoscope must be further developed and made accessible, its users trained, and its methods applied to solve global conservation issues. With support from the Basecamp Explorer Foundation – Kenya (BCEF-K) and Paul G Allen Family Foundation and led by Dr. Jake Wall, MEP is driving the development and implementation of Ecoscope so that datasets can be easily accessed and used to answer compelling questions and there was much progress made in the second quarter of 2024.
Through support by the Paul G Allen Family Foundation, two software developers were engaged to build Ecoscope core features, tasks and workflows to advance functionality, and three Kenyan data scientists began their training on the use of Ecoscope with the goal of engaging with conservation partners and tackle specific analytical challenges of our partner organizations. The team met with three partner conservation organizations and hosted a workshop in Amboseli to engage them on identifying the types of analytical challenges currently faced in conservation and how Ecoscope could best help the conservation community. These meetings provided critical insights into the crafting of the project roadmap.
Through support from BCEF-K, MEP also enhanced the development of core features and the operationalization of Ecoscope as a critical component within organizations that utilize EarthRanger as a data management platform in ecosystem conservation. At the Wildlife Research and Training Institute (WRTI), MEP continued to work closely with them on data cleaning and supporting the aerial elephant census in June 2024. WRTI Senior Research Scientist Steven Ndambuki attended the Ecoscope workshop in Amboseli which was a vital experience for advancing the collaboration on implementing this software.
“The training had a massive impact on the WRTI team, and we gained the much-needed knowledge and understanding of EarthRanger as a conservation tool. We are now awakened to the power that will come with these tools in supporting our ability to process our data programmatically.”
WRTI Senior Research Scientist Steven Ndambuki
The Greater Mara Management Framework (GMMF) has been officially adopted to monitor ecosystem health and assess progress with the Greater Mara Ecosystem Management Plan. This framework is essential for evaluating elephant habitats and other ecosystem health indicators, including environmental, human-wildlife interface, and socio-economic categories. Ongoing work on the GMMF involves collecting data and performing analytical processing for many indicators.
The second quarter at the MEP Coexistence Farm started with a high level of rainfall and in April the Mara River running alongside the farm almost flooded four times so by the first of May when it breached its banks, the team was prepared. They had to evacuate the farm and despite the flooding there was minimal damage to equipment. Unfortunately, the rains caused a lot of crop damage, and the latter half of May was spent replanting and cleaning up.
The kitchen garden and subsequent community trainings continue to make an impact. The farm team trained a total of 79 women in two villages, Ormeoshi and Ntulele, in June, and for the first time two men joined the training. It was exciting because another woman who has previously received the training and kitchen garden kit attended and testified that today she is feeding her family and selling the surplus vegetables. She encouraged the other women to plant their gardens and how important the training is and how vital it would be to them and their families when they get home.
Given the success of the kitchen garden, the MEP Coexistence Farm team planted one at Emarti Primary School, one of the schools that participates in the coexistence education program, in the first quarter. Now flourishing, Department Manager Abigael Pertet and her team made frequent visits to the school to check in on the garden and provide additional seeds for a variety of crops. In the second quarter they established the second school kitchen garden at Enkipai Primary School and the kids were just delighted with the opportunity after seeing their peers at Emarti benefit from it.
“After setting up a kitchen garden at the nearby Enkipai Primary School, the ladies that attended one of our trainings showed lots of gratitude to MEP for bringing development to their doorstep and empowering them and their children.”
Coexistence Department Manager Abigael Pertet
In terms of the education activities in the second quarter, in April, the team held an Earth Day celebration at Enkipai Primary School, and they collected litter and discussed the impact of plastic on our planet. The students learned about the harmful effects of plastic pollution on our environment and explored ways to reduce their plastic footprint. In May, the team held a World Biodiversity Day education activity at Nabulu Grace Academy with 40 students. They partnered with Women in the Wild and planted 50 trees on school ground as a pledge to restore our biodiversity. These young change-makers now have the knowledge and motivation to make a difference, one step at a time., thanks to support from Kampur Travel Diaries.
The Coexistence Farm team is now undertaking the economic study to determine the marketability of the low predation crops they’ve identified. Master’s student India Taylor-Hicks is assisting the team and in June they interviewed 78 participants including 11 maize farmers from Transmara, 37 unpalatable crops farmers (tea tree, rosemary, chili, citriodora, and lavender), 16 processors, and 14 retail companies. The information gathered will help MEP understand the economic viability of the non-palatable crops compared to maize and help us educate the farmers and further promote coexistence.
As mentioned in the CEO report, MEP received government approval to collar or re-collar 25 elephants across the Mara. The team didn’t delay, and six elephants were re-collared in June, all sporting the latest Savannah Tracking collar model, and their real-time movements will be used to keep them safe for another three years.
