“What does conservation mean to you?” “What do lions mean to you?”
These were questions posed at Ewaso Lions first ever Wildlife Conservation Symposium held at the University of Nairobi, Chiromo Campus in September. The event attracted students from over 10 universities who are passionate about wildlife and wanted to hear speakers expound of everything from community conservation to seedballs.
But the beauty of the symposium was that it was not simply preaching to the choir. The event drew students studying architecture, construction management, maths, quantity survey; a resounding success in terms of our mission to have a multi-disciplinary discussion about conservation, with everyone playing their part.
The event, a Kenyan sponsored event for Kenyan students, was an attempt to engage students in current conservation affairs, shaking the rigmarole of classes and getting them excited about a career in the field, taking in the sheer breadth of what that might mean. We also deliberately chose for it to be locally supported, to stir the need to more Kenyan organisations to invest in conservation. We worked hard to get seasoned career professionals to talk to students about the challenges in the field and share their experiences – this was us showing them the level of commitment we have to Kenyans leading the conservation charge in the country.
Our symposium, the first of many, was graciously funded by Ewaso Lions, the Kenya Wildlife Trust and Uvumbuzi Africa. It featured John Kamanga, Director of the South Rift Alliance of Land Owners (SORALO), Dr. Irene Amoke, Executive Director of Kenya Wildlife Trust, Moses Kamau, CEO of Uvumbuzi Africa, Teddy Kinyanjui, Sustainability Director of Cookswell Jikos, Sarah Chiles, Ewaso Lions’ Landscape Infrastructure Advisor and Resson Kantai Duff, Deputy Director of Ewaso Lions. We also had lots of conservation friends in the room, from our close allies Grevy’s Zebra Trust, to Action for Cheetahs and the National Museums of Kenya. We can’t thank them, or our hosts enough for such a great event!
