Kristel and Oi chick

Annual Review 2019/2020

Our new-look Annual Review is out now and available to read online.

Inside you will read of new leadership as Dr Simon Stuart becomes our Executive Director after some years as an International Trustee (page 6). Our African Forest Programme and Marine Conservation Programme have made great strides (pages 10-13), and national organizations have responded creatively and courageously to the challenges of COVID-19 (page 7).

We pray that you will read these stories – where Christian convictions are being translated into practical conservation – as signs of hope. For hope is now more needed than ever. Thank you for walking with us.

Log-piles-in-Dakatcha-cropped

Securing a future for Dakatcha

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.