James Mwang’ombe is the project manager for the Sagalla Caecilian (Boulengerula niedeni) conservation project in Kenya. One of the projects activities is the planting of indigenous trees in an effort to rehabilitate the habitats that the sagalle caecilian uses. Here, James gives us an update on how the project is progressing.
Tree planting season launched
Following the ongoing rains, tree planting begun in the whole of the project area. The first week of April 2011 has been the tree planting week for all the primary schools in the project area. Each school offered a site on which its pupils/students undertook tree planting. This also applied to community land and also private land. The project provided tree seedlings through purchase from community nurseries and distributed to the farmers for planting. At the closure of the schools for the April vacation, the primary pupils had participated in planting 6,098 seedlings in five schools.
A Caecilian Expert Boosts Awareness Creation Efforts
Senior researchers from the National Museums of Kenya led by Dr. Patrick Malonza visited the project area for more awareness creation and ecological survey of the Sagalla caecilian for a period of about two weeks. During their stay, they will visit the forest area and private land for their surveys.
In one of the school visits Dr. Malonza mentioned that although they were yet to draw conclusions, they have noticed through their survey that there are indications that the population of the species may have risen. He promised to share more of the results of their survey work once firm conclusions have been drawn.
If you would like to help support EDGE amphibians such as the sagalla caecilian you can do so here.