April & August. 1999 
29 
much legwork goes into the organising of any these 
events— just one a year would be sufficient to exhaust 
most voluntary groups, so well done FONA 
Succulcnta continues to he the group that puts the 
fight in •xerophyte’ A busy year has seen a number of 
intriguing succulent activities, including a visit to an 
Industrial Area sisal factory' The group has also been 
closely involved in establishing the living collection or 
succulents in the new Botanic Garden at the Museum 
I drive past these plants every morning and they seem 
to be doing well — this should certainly be an enduring 
achievement for the group 
In the last few months, the Mammals Committee 
has been showing distinct signs of coming out of 
hibernation, yawning and stretching and thinking about 
what to do next. Wfc await developments. The Bud 
Committee has met regularly and kept itself busy with 
various ornithological matters, including setting up a 
small grants scheme, but has hnd no public events this 
year 
The Ktpepco Project made us all very proud by 
winning the 1998 Dubai Award for Best Practices in 
Improving the Living Environment What this means 
in plain terms is that the project's innovative approach 
to conservation through butterfly farming is regarded 
internationally as a model. Congratulations to the 
Kipcpco staff and in particular to Dr Ian Gordon 
Kipcpco has nenv come to maturity and needs a more 
solid institutional base. Nature Kenya is presently in 
the process of arranging a handover to the National 
Museums 
The general members' programme ilus year has been 
remarkably varied. There have been outings all over 
the country, to Olorgcsailic. Amboseli, Masai Mara 
and Marich Phss among other places Talks and lectures 
have covered subjects as diverse as integrated pest 
management, human origins, sacred forests and alien 
ducks I am interested to see that this year we seem to 
be pioneering the lideo, or lecture video, where a 
speaker introduces and takes questions after the film 
This seems to keep everyone happy — so far. so good. 
Our work on the Important Bird Areas programme 
lus really taken off this year. As most or you will know 
this is underpinned by GEF funding for the project 
NGO-Government Partnerships for Sustainable 
Biodiversity Conservation’ (a title that trips almost as 
neatly off the tongue as 'East Africa Natural History 
Society ’ i Although focused on I BAs. this work allows 
us to tackle a large chunk of the conservation activities 
in our strategic plan VSfc have made substantial advances 
at both the national and local levels. Nationally, an IBA 
National Liaison Committee (on which 20 institutions 
arc represented) is up and running, and has held five 
meetings. With the help of the NLC. we have also 
published, and started to distribute, an attractive IBA 
poster At the same time. Nature Kenya is taking an 
active part in a number of key committees and fora. 
Almost all of these also have impossible names, ranging 
from the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Environment 
Biodiversity Sub-committee to the Mt Elgon Integrated 
Conservation and Development Project Steering 
Committee Although it is often an uphill struggle, the 
Society’s views arc being listened to and taken seriously, 
and this gives us a real chance to exert a positive 
influence for conservation. 
The other side of the coin is the development and 
support of IBA site-support groups At least half a dozen 
of these arc now active at various sites, with more 
springing up all the time Two. in Kakamega and 
Kinangop, have already secured some funding (from 
the African Bird Club and RSPB) for carrying out 
conservation education work with schools The process 
of helping these groups to develop is fraught with 
hazards and pitfalls, but we arc all learning fast and I 
dunk making considerable headway As the project ‘Tri- 
partite Review' for last year put it. With encouragement, 
support and some input of resources, local groups can 
potentially make a real difference for biodiversity 
conservation However, the local community's needs 
must be addressed — conservation cannot be tackled in 
the abstract 
The conservation prospects in Kenya in particular 
have remained gloomy this last year, and in the present 
slate nl Governmental inertia it is very difficult to make 
headway. The most pessimistic view sees the country 
steaming inexorably towards biodiversity disaster, and 
organisations like ours busy rearranging the deck-chairs, 
as il ii mattered I think our work docs matter; docs 
make a difference; and the Society’s investment in 
linkages and awareness-raising, both nationally and 
locally, will really pay dividends in the long run 
From a detached point of view, one of the most 
interesting aspects .if the GEF project so far has been 
wrestling with the United Nations bureaucracy. The most • 
positive thing one can say about this is that it has been 
a real learning experience. Wfc have not given up hope 
ol receiving our set of desk-top publishing equipment, 
which was first ordered more than a year ago On the 
other hand, to everyone's amazement, we did recently 
lake possession of the project Landrover Unfortunately 
ihc UN procurement agency had somehow managed to 
order the wrong model, but who’s quibbling? 
Society publications have seen some progress, albeit 
patchy and slow. The one and only Society publication 
ever dial has always appeared on time, every time, has 
now ceased to appear at all. I refer of course to Ballya. 
It* Editor, Professor Len Newton, has kept it going 
more or less single handed since its inception, and 
finally felt that the publication was evolving too rapidly 
into Nentonta. The 1998 volume will therefore be the 
LiM. at least in its established format. Congratulations 
lo Len for lus efforts; I am told that full sets of this 
excellent and well-regarded journal will be bound for 
sale in due course. 
After continued disappointments with local printers, 
the Journal has migrated to Belgium. Through an 
agreement between the Society, the National Museums, 
and the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren. 
the Journal will be produced and distributed overseas. 
The first volume under the new arrangement has just 
appeared, and I think represents a vast improvement in 
production quality On Ihc other hand, we arc still two 
