Working with conservation organisations

A Rocha is a nature conservation organisation with a particular emphasis on involving local communities. Our research programmes are mainly long-term in sites of special value for fauna and flora. A Rocha has field study centres in Canada (2), the Czech Republic, France, India, Kenya and Portugal.

Dakatcha Woodland - Dominic show logs to ARI group. Photo: Dan Tay

In the Dakatcha Woodland, Colin Jackson (A Rocha Kenya Director) and Dominic Mumbu show timber felled for charcoal to Dr Connett Porceddu, Peter Harris and other A Rocha staff

Since A Rocha Kenya started, it has worked closely with NatureKenya, the national BirdLife partner. For ten years we have collaborated on guide training, bird surveys and monitoring, lobbying for conservation issues, eco-tourism promotion and other projects benefiting the local communities. We are now working together to protect the Dakatcha Woodland, an isolated fragment of a once vast coastal forest. It is still a biodiversity hotspot, important for globally threatened plants and animals, but is rapidly being deforested for the charcoal production industry.

The living standards of the people around Dakatcha are amongst the lowest in the entire Malindi district. They dependon the forest for food, fuel and medicine. In 2006 A Rocha and NatureKenya carried out some joint surveys and then employeda Site Protection Officer, Dominic Mumbu, to start up conservation groups (four so far). In 2007, A Rocha employed Gabriel Katana, from a Dakatcha village, as Dominic’s assistant.

The poverty of the villagers is causing them to destroy the woodland for short-term gain – we aim to identify the driving forces and, drawing on our experience with communities around the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, seek to address these issues, working predominantly through the church.

The partnership of Conservation International and A Rocha entered its second year in 2007. Conservation International provided funding for a pilot programme to engage Evangelicals in Brazil: a Christian study guide was developed with A Rocha Brazil and distributed to over 35,000 individuals and churches. Conservation International and A Rocha USA are working with Joel Hunter’s Northland Church and the Sierra Club to develop a Creation Care video series. The video draws on some of the best known Evangelical leaders in the country, many of whom have not previously spoken about their belief in the need to steward God’s gift of creation. By involving respected, credible leaders, this film hopes to depoliticise the issues around the environment and show that this is not an issue of the left or the right, but one that is central to Christian faith.

White Storks nesting in Portimao. Photo: Ken Kay, Avocet Photography

A Rocha's membership of the European Habitats Forum is valued as an opportunity to influence EU decisions which affect Europe's landscape and wildlife, such as White Storks

In May 2007 A Rocha became a member of the European Habitats Forum, a working group of 16 conservation organisations that includes WWF, BirdLife International and IUCN. The group shares information on EU policies and legislation concerning nature conservation to ensure the policies are implemented fully and to a high standard. The Forum meets regularly with the European Commission’s Environment Directorate-General. We are pleased to have this opportunity to share our experience with the group as the sites where A Rocha is working in Portugal, France, the Czech Republic and Finland are protected under EU law because of the importance of their wildlife.

Originally published in the A Rocha International Review 2007-2008.