Te Ipukareia: Protecting nature is for the benefit of humanity

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently hosted a learning exchange programme on protected areas and conservation sites in Africa and the Pacific in Malindi, Kenya.

Twenty representatives from Pacific NGOs and government were invited to the programme, including representatives from Te Ipukarea Society and friends from the Nature Conservancy Fiji, Samoa Conservation Society, Tonga National Youth Congress, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati and Vanuatu. Representatives from Africa included colleagues from East and Southern African countries such as Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Madagascar.

The program includes a series of field trips, starting with Mida Creek, a protected area in Watamu, Kenya, where 22 organizations come together to share resources and funding. This supports guided ecotourism to generate sustainable funding, mangrove restoration projects, and supporting alternative livelihood options for communities. This will alleviate some of the harvesting pressure on people within the mangrove reserve by providing alternative livelihood options such as beekeeping.

For example, the reserve stores food and mangrove wood that would otherwise be used to make fires for cooking. Interestingly, at the edge of the mangrove reserve, women were scattered along the edge, waiting to scare off baboons that had escaped from the mangrove reserve into the community’s precious cornfield. This is an area rich in biodiversity!

Mida Creek Conservancy is unique in that it has been able to successfully market itself, attracting 80,000 visitors per year to the conservancy to visit the community-led mangrove restoration site. It is a great example of how efforts to protect natural resources can create eco-jobs for people, rebuilding happier communities and a better environment.

Another point of visit was the Arabu Kosukoko Forest Reserve, one of the last remaining dry forest ecosystems in Africa, covering three countries: Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania. The forest reserve is home to endemic birds, plants and mammals, including the reserve’s mascot, the golden-rumped elephant shrew, a small African mammal. The reserve is jointly managed by the government and non-governmental organizations, with the Kenya Wildlife Service playing a vital role in protecting wildlife and forest timber from human logging. The Fijian delegates were impressed by the official uniforms of the wildlife monitoring and protection team. The officers further explained that the training they receive is similar to that of the military, as they may come into conflict with armed poachers.

Pacific delegates participated in a five-day protected area study exchange program in Malindi, Kenya. TIS/24062801

At Kuruwetu Coast in Kenya, the Pacific Ocean has introduced the concept of a co-management scheme, whereby communities, government authorities and civil society make decisions together. The Kuruwetu Coast is a particularly popular tourist attraction, providing spawning grounds for fish, shellfish and corals. Most communities here depend on fishing for their livelihoods. It was explained that the Kuruwetu co-management scheme has resulted in better management of marine resources and, hopefully, better protection of the marine resources that originally came from the community. This has resulted in improved user compliance with fishing regulations, leading to sustainable management of the resource.

The women of Kuruwetu were interested in hearing about waste opportunities in the Pacific because there is a lot of waste in their communities that either washes up on shore or just sits there. Te Ipukarea Society shared examples of innovation from the Cook Islands community, who are turning trash into fashion by making wallets and bags from packaging waste, or jewellery such as earrings from plastic or aluminium cans.

Overall, participants from the Pacific and Africa heard similarities in the challenges and solutions facing protected or conserved areas. For example, the need for sustainable financing was commonly mentioned, with initiatives such as exploring public-private partnerships, carbon credits currently being piloted in Samoa, and marine conservation credits already launched in Niue being mentioned.

It was also considered useful to explore the success in Africa in incorporating co-management plans into legislation as a way to achieve ownership, compliance, and sharing of resources and expertise between communities, NGOs, and government departments.

Te Ipukarea Society thanks IUCN for the opportunity to participate in a learning exchange dialogue that reminds us that nature exists not to be exploited for human benefit but to be conserved for human benefit.

Thank you very much Kenya.