Project deep dive

Project Update January 2, 2025

Show and tell

Project Update November 25, 2024

[NANYUKI, Kenya] Here at the Wyss Academy, we often ask ourselves “who is this for?” concerning our work, and the answer is always an enthusiastic “for the benefit of Nature and PEOPLE”. But what does that actually mean? It means collaboration and co-design. It means an exchange of, and respect for, traditional and scientific knowledge. Most of all, it means ownership. Nobody has a better understanding of the challenges in a landscape than the people who live in it. It is our duty to act on the needs of the people, not supersede them.  In the last few weeks, the WA Hub East Africa has ramped up its women and youth-led community engagement activities in Laikipia and Isiolo counties of northern Kenya, which were positively received by various community leaders, groups, and residents.     Meetings were held jointly with conservancy managers, representatives from county government and women’s groups, and members of Community Land Management Committees (CLMCs) and grazing committees, who met to agree on pilot sites for activities of the up-and-coming women-led Powering Local Prosperity through Green Growth project. The income generating activities are all closely tied to ecosystem health and include bee-keeping and bee related products, Aloe vera, grass seed and fodder production, and African leafy vegetables. The meetings—one in Lower Naibunga Community Conservancy (Laikipia county) and the other in Nannapa Community Conservancy in Oldonyiro (Isiolo county)—concluded with agreement on a pilot site at each location, and to begin the process of defining the specific contributions from all the stakeholders and outcomes for participating women’s groups. These resolutions demonstrate the communities’ commitment to, and support of, women championing activities related to people-nature co-existence.    Separately, and in collaboration with community-based group Green Earth Warriors (GEWs), sensitization meetings were held in relation to the over 30,000 semi-circular bunds currently regreening the Naibunga Community Conservancy. Topics covered included implementation, governance, and sustainability of the bunds. As for how residents and community groups can participate in bund-related monitoring and management, an overview of the function of soil sensors that were installed at selected bunds was shared. The sensors monitor temperature and levels of moisture in the soil, and this data is transmitted in real time to expert data analysts through the explorer.land platform, after which synthesized results will be shared with the communities. This cycle of knowledge generation and sharing further strengthens co-design of solutions. By the end of the sessions, community participants requested updates on results every four months.   On an even happier note, our journey to 100,000 bunds dug and seeded by the end of 2025 is well on its way! The residents and several women’s groups in Naibunga Community Conservancy, mobilized by the GEWs, are hard at work to realize 55,000 semi-circular bunds dug by end of December 2024, while groups in Oldonyiro have a target of 40,000 bunds dug and seeded within the same period. We are so proud of this progress and commitment to healthier landscapes, and can’t wait to see what 2025 brings.  

The proof is in the poop

Project Update March 18, 2024

[NANYUKI, Kenya] It's not too often that we think about how our food is grown, just that it looks good and tastes even better. What if we told you that some of the best tasting mushrooms are being grown using elephant dung as a substrate? Yes, for real. Residents of the semi-arid Naibunga Community Conservancy, located in Kenya’s Laikipia county, have been testing out a new way to grow oyster mushrooms, a crop previously unheard of in their meat-dense diet. This novel farming technique uses treated elephant dung—which is largely semi-digested plant material—in place of soil to plant the mushrooms. The dung substrate is packed with nutrients that allow food to grow without any extra inputs, such as fertilizer. Processing elephant dung substrate is simple but time consuming. Once the dry elephant dung is collected, it is sorted, and then soaked in water for 24 hours to separate the substrate from other matter in the dung. Next is pasteurization through steaming, achieved using locally available materials like a large metal drum. Water is added into the drum and set over a fire to produce steam, and the previously soaked dung is placed above the steam—while covered—and left for four hours. This process kills any unwanted micro-organisms, and the resulting substrate is cooled before mushroom seeds are added to it. The planted mushrooms are then transferred to the “mushroom house” where light and humidity levels are kept constant, allowing for optimal growth. After 21-28 days, the mushrooms are grown and ready for harvest. This cultivation approach has been 13 years in the making, and finally came to fruition through a partnership between the Wyss Academy for Nature (WA), the National Museums of Kenya (NMK), and community group Green Earth Warriors.  Antony Wandera, Projects Manager at the Wyss Academy for Nature Hub East Africa, and originator of the idea, shares:“Working out in the field, and on various projects around rhinos and elephants, I wondered if in addition to conservation, food security could also be a consideration for the communities we work in. So I floated the idea of growing mushrooms on the readily available elephant dung to a few organizations, but nothing came of it until I joined the Wyss Academy, where the idea was embraced. Our partnership with the NMK, who also saw the potential in the idea, and are now deeply invested in its success.” The mushroom project began with a baseline biodiversity survey conducted jointly by the Wyss Academy and the National Museums of Kenya in August 2023. The survey determined the potential of mushroom farming as a local sustainable livelihood strategy, evaluated the viability of elephant dung as a substrate for mushroom cultivation, and identified the oyster mushroom as a suitable variety for trial farming and consumption. Victor Otieno, Lead Researcher specializing in mycology (study of fungi) at the NMK, remarked, “Thirteen years is a long time to have this dream, so imagine my joy at being part of making it a reality! Having been in the mushroom industry for at least 15 years, this felt very doable, and certainly scalable.”  Speaking on the scientific and knowledge impact of the project, Mr. Otieno said, “As a scientist, I was certainly curious about how elephant dung as a substrate would work out, and I’m happy to report that the experiment was a success on the first trial, harvesting within 21 days of planting. Now, the scope of work has evolved from purely mushroom-dung cultivation, to developing a biodiversity index of mushrooms in this area, seeing as there is no literature on mushrooms from Laikipia. We look forward to how much more we can learn from this.”