Description

Experience Kenya - a land of majestic beauty, epic landscapes, tribal magic and entrancing wildlife. Animals roam across vast Rift Valley plains, white sandy beaches fringe the turquoise Indian Ocean and ancient tribal communities practise traditional customs little changed since the dawn of time.

* What Will I Be Doing?

The work will be interesting, challenging and exciting and will contribute towards important efforts to monitor and conserve the area. You will be working on community lands close to the borders of two national parks and within a large and important wildlife corridor.

Whilst monitoring the elephants you will move around the region visiting local villages, camping in the bush where you can listen to the sounds of the animals, hike some of the local mountain ranges and take part in other conservation activities. To a degree there is some flexibility in what you can do but this is at the discretion of the project managers.

The Frontier-Kenya research programme is run in association with a local community conservation organisation. The aim of the project is to provide local community stakeholders and government bodies with scientifically valid information, which will be essential for developing strategies to ensure the future protection of this important ecosystem. Local people in the area are already keen to conserve their natural heritage and the project aims to support them in doing this.

As part of your project work you will survey and monitor threatened animal populations, such as elephants, on community lands where they are not protected. You will learn how to interpret animal tracks and signs and how to conduct ecological surveys to establish what flora and fauna inhabit a little-studied ecosystem. You will also get to know the local community and will conduct socio-economic surveys to help understand the way in which precious natural resources are used. By engaging with local people you will also help to investigate how a balance can be found that will allow animals and local communities to live in harmony.

Specific activities you might be involved with include tracking and monitoring animals, identifying individual animals and numbers present, collating data, updating reports, and interviewing local people. You'll help to produce plans showing habitat and wildlife distribution patterns, levels of human disturbance and the locations of human-wildlife conflict. You'll also help to compile species inventories by carrying out extensive surveys of large and small mammals, frogs and butterflies in the areas surrounding the camp and in the nearby forests and woodland refuges. You will be involved in setting up several survey sites to collect species using a variety of scientific techniques, from bucket and canopy traps to leaf-litter searches, depending on surveys taking place at the time.

As well as the daily treks to research sites and field surveys you will help to process the scientific data and assist with daily camp maintenance duties, taking turns to collect fire wood, collect and treat water and support the staff in a multitude of camp tasks.

If this is your first time doing field research and conservation work, don't worry! It will take only a short while for you to feel totally at home on camp and confident with your grasp of the scientific techniques. The work is intense and challenging but you'll get immense satisfaction from it and from having made a valuable contribution to the conservation of this important ecosystem. You will return home with new friends and a wealth of incredible memories from the experience of a lifetime!

You'll find your team to be young, fun and dynamic, comprising a mix of ages and experiences, with members who all share a passion for travelling in developing countries and saving endangered wildlife and habitats. Your staff will be passionate, friendly individuals who are highly experienced in their field and some may have volunteered with Frontier at the start of their careers.

Highlights

* Help monitor & conserve threatened African wildlife!
* Learn about the Kenyan way of life.
* Make lifelong friends.

Languages

• English

Cost in US$:

1900

Cost Includes:

• Food
• Housing
• Written materials pre-departure

Program Fees Include:

Before you go:
* Pre-departure support & documentation
* Travel & medical advice & documentation
* Equipment advice
* Discounted medical kit
* Free Frontier t-shirt
* UK residential briefing weekend

In-country:
* Food
* Accommodation
* Airport pick-up
* In-transit accommodation (volunteers joining on the first Monday of the designated months)
* Return from the project site to airport & any in-transit accommodation on this journey (10 & 20 week volunteers only)
* Project orientation
* Project equipment
* In-country emergency support
* 24-hour international HQ back-up

Experience Required

no

Volunteer Types

This Program is open to

Worldwide Participants. This Program is also open to Couples and Individuals.

Typical Living Arrangements

• Other

Participants Travel

Independently

Application Process Involves

• Phone/Video Interview

Frontier's Mission Statement

To conserve the world's most endangered wildlife and threatened habitats and to build sustainable livelihoods for marginalized and under resourced communities in the world's poorest countries. To create solutions that are apolitical, forward-thinking, community-driven, and innovative and which take into consideration the long-term needs of low income communities.

Year Founded

1989