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A Rocha India and the COVID crisis

You will have seen ongoing reports from India where a crisis of historic proportions continues to unfold. The A Rocha India team have not only lost close personal friends, but several have themselves been seriously unwell with COVID-19. Medical infrastructure in Bangalore, where the centre is located, has completely collapsed and daily deaths in the area run to the hundreds.

The team are doing night-time elephant patrols to reduce crop raiding as most Forest Officers are not working, and many have been impacted by Covid. Villagers are now to a great extent dependent on A Rocha for prevention of human-elephant conflict, which has grown worse as wildlife has gained confidence during lockdown.

A Rocha India has also responded to the request to undertake Covid relief work by local government. Avinash Krishnan, who heads up A Rocha India, writes, ‘We are actively campaigning to meet the needs of people and help save lives. I am hoping this call for humanity will render justice in serving the needy through the work of A Rocha India.’

Throughout this terrible time, A Rocha India’s relationship with the local community and government has been strengthened and their reputation enhanced. Please pray this will bear fruit in their ability to carry out impactful work in the years to come.

Read more of A Rocha India’s work during the pandemic.

Photo: Distributing relief supplies to frontline staff of the Karnataka Forest Department. (A Rocha India)

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Securing a future for Dakatcha

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Dakatcha Woodland, on the coast of Kenya, is home to a number of globally threatened species, including Africa’s smallest owl, the Sokoke Scops Owl. Yet this woodland is being destroyed at an alarming rate due to rampant charcoal burning and the uncontrolled expansion of pineapple plantations. Now with COVID-19 hitting the local economy hard and people losing their jobs, the pace of forest destruction has picked up, making the situation even more urgent.

With help from others, A Rocha Kenya has been buying blocks of forest from willing sellers and creating a nature reserve to conserve this unique landscape and safeguard its precious inhabitants. But the recent initiation of land adjudication by the government has led to intensified demand and a rapid escalation of land prices.

Already A Rocha Kenya has acquired 1,517 acres of the planned 10,500–acre A Rocha Dakatcha Nature Reserve, but there is an urgent need to secure 500 acres immediately before they are bought to be burnt for charcoal or ploughed for marginal agriculture.

Throughout the process and as part of A Rocha Kenya’s community conservation approach, the team are involving people adjacent to the reserve in the sustainable management of their land, teaching in schools and churches and introducing restorative farming and income-generating activities such as honey production.

Read more about Dakatcha and how you can help.