Rising from school wildlife clubs to parks conservation champions

When 16-year-old Abdulrahym Godhana joined the Wildlife Club at Maranda High School, he thought it was just another extracurricular activity.

His simple choice would plunge him into becoming part of a team of students tasked with finding solutions to counter the changing environment in his home in Tsavo.

Godhana is one of the first five cohorts of Young Conservation Scholarship champions, a conservation education programme where students will be running programmes targeted at conserving critical biodiversity and finding solutions to existing challenges within the Tsavo ecosystem.

“A lot is currently happening as seasons change. Areas like Tsavo are becoming drier, and water is becoming scarce. Human-wildlife conflicts are increasing, as is poaching. We cannot watch as these trends continue, given that we can do something to reverse them, especially if we utilise innovations as young people,” said Godhana.

The programme is a collaborative initiative between the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya and the African Wildlife Foundation. It leverages existing conservation clubs in schools to scale up conservation education in the seven counties bordering Tsavo National Park.

The Tsavo ecosystem covers 48,000 square kilometres and stands as the country’s largest conservation area, housing Tsavo East and West national parks. It represents four per cent of Kenya’s landmass and hosts critical wildlife species, including over a third of Kenya’s elephants and black rhinos. Tsavo also hosts endangered wildlife species like African wild dogs and Maasai giraffes.

“Tsavo is a critical ecosystem that is rich in biodiversity. However, the changing climatic conditions are impacting more wildlife species and resulting in human-wildlife conflicts. When water becomes scarce, it creates a lot of competition,” said Kenneth Kimitei, a landscape manager.

According to the 2021 National Wildlife Census, the Tsavo ecosystem hosted 14,964 elephants, accounting for 38 per cent of the national elephant range. Besides elephants, the ecosystem also hosts over 17,900 common zebras, buffalo, giraffes, hirolas, elands, among others.

Kimitei says that given the high populations of elephants, coupled with dwindling water sources, human-elephant conflicts in areas like Tsavo are rampant.

“There is a need to invest in solutions that reverse the trends that we are currently experiencing in such landscapes, besides awareness,” he said.

While climate change has continued to impact the ecosystem, high poverty levels have also been flagged as a major challenge that has led to a surge in poaching and charcoal burning within the ecosystem.

“We conducted surveys within the ecosystem and realised that the majority of young people and school-going children were heavily involved in these illegal activities,” said Margaret Mereyian, a conservation education officer at AWF.

The rolling out of the conservation education project within the ecosystem aims to leverage wildlife clubs in schools bordering the parks.

Under the new project, learners from local schools with competitive solution-based ideas receive support through secondary school scholarships. They will also receive assistance to implement their conservation projects within their communities.

“This initiative targets schools with existing wildlife clubs within the seven counties that border both Tsavo East and West national parks,” said Mereyian.

Produce materials

Under the initiative, two schools will be selected to serve as centres of excellence for conservation education and training. The project will also produce materials to support conservation awareness in schools as well as develop a conservation education curriculum for the schools.

The selected champions will also be trained on incorporating technologies in their projects.

In December 2024, the organisations issued a nationwide call for applications, attracting over 200 candidates, upon which five students were selected and officially onboarded to the programme.

Swabrina Esmael from Kombeni Girls Secondary School in Kilifi said she has been engaging in tree planting in her school as part of promoting afforestation.

“This opportunity gives us a chance to scale up what we have been doing as a wildlife club in school. My project will hopefully inspire students from other schools to undertake such activities and compete for such opportunities,” said Swabrina.

Conservation Programmes Manager at the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya, George Njagi, notes that while the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya have equipped many learners with conservation skills for decades but funding remains one of the biggest challenges. Currently, 20,000 schools across the country have enrolled in the programme.

“We have many schools spread across the country. However, a few staff members have to go around these schools. In most cases, one officer covers almost ten counties, making traversing these landscapes very difficult,” said Dr Njagi.

 Among the regions where learners are highly engaged in wildlife clubs are areas within the wildlife hotspots of Laikipia, Maasai Mara and Tsavo ecosystems.

While the coastal region leads in the number of schools that have active wildlife clubs, schools in the North Eastern region have the lowest enrollment, despite being wildlife hotspot zones.

AWF Kenya Country Director Nancy Githaiga says equipping learners with skills and resources, as well as strengthening wildlife clubs within the schools, will help them reconnect with nature and actively engage in biodiversity conservation.

“This effort will enhance human-wildlife coexistence and improve species conservation across their landscapes,” said Githaiga.