Initiative: Community Involvement

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A dead Grey Crowned Crane lies below a transmission line in southwest Uganda.

A sudden movement causes a Grey Crowned Crane pair to flush, leaping upwards until one of the cranes unknowingly collides with a powerline near their roost site. The bird later is found below the line with a wing injury or is killed immediately from the impact or electrocution.

Initiative: Community Involvement

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On a recent visit to the flats: To get an idea of where the birds were, we visited a fishing camp. The fisherfolk said, there and there and there! The Ranger helped us get there. And there and there. And behold. Congregations of water birds of global significance. In the Kafue Flats. The vision of the Kafue Flats Restoration Partnership is “A Thriving Wetland For All.” — Mwape Sichilongo

The Kafue Flats in Zambia is the most important floodplain in Africa for Wattled Cranes. More than 3,000 of these majestic birds (a third of the total population) depend on the Kafue Flats for their breeding, feeding, and roosting needs. Local communities who share this floodplain with Wattled Cranes call them, Nakaala, meaning “the one who lays only one or two precious eggs.” They are the most wetland-dependent of Africa’s cranes and important indicators of the health and ecological functioning of this enormous floodplain.

Initiative: Community Involvement

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Kingwal Wetland Field Assistant Eva Bii, left, shares soap, handwash and masks with members of communities where we work. Our entire Kenya team – Maurice Wanjala, Dr. Joseph Mwangi, Eva, Damaris Kisha and Vivian Nekesa – participated in the COVID-19 supplies distribution.

Like a devastating bushfire, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread with alarming speed, unleashing both an economic and health crisis, unlike any experienced in the last century. In March this year, Kenya reported its first case of COVID-19. The pandemic is much more than a health crisis, as it is affecting the socio-economic life of every individual and country. The number of reported infections in Kenya is still rising, attributed to, among others, poverty, poor access to essential services such as clean water and sanitation, and poor hygiene practices. Measures put forward by the government to curb the spread of the virus have focused on ensuring basic hygiene and social distancing, requiring every individual to wash hands frequently, sanitize and wear masks in public places.