Ranger training
Community rangers trained in transect walking, species identification and standardised data forms.
Biodiversity
Kulal Biodiversity Watch
Citizen-science monitoring of birds, mammals and pollinators across the Kulal ecosystem.
- Location
- Mount Kulal ecosystem, Marsabit County
- Timeline
- 2021 - present · Scaling
- Partners
- National Museums of Kenya · Community ranger network
The challenge
Why this work matters
Mount Kulal is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, yet almost no continuous wildlife data existed for the massif. Conservation decisions were being made on the strength of anecdote and decade-old surveys.
Professional survey teams are expensive and visit rarely. The people who walk these slopes daily, herders, guards and guides, held the observations, but had no way to record them.
What we do
Activities on the ground
Quarterly transects
Fixed routes across four altitude bands, walked at dawn every quarter.
Pollinator plots
Monitoring of bee and butterfly activity in restored versus degraded blocks.
Data contribution
Records submitted to national biodiversity databases and shared back with the community in plain language.
Results
What has changed
3
Bird species newly recorded
16
Trained community rangers
4
Altitude bands monitored
20
Quarterly survey rounds
- Documented the return of greater kudu to the eastern slopes after years of absence.
- Pollinator counts in restored blocks are running roughly double those in adjacent degraded land.
From the field
Project gallery
“I have herded on this mountain since I was a boy. Now what I see is written down, and it counts for something.”
Downloads
Documents & data
Species checklist
Cumulative list of recorded species by altitude band.
Transect data
Raw quarterly observation records.
Requesting a document? Write to us via the contact page and we will send it directly.
