August/Dceember 1 997 
37 
the journal of xcrophytic plants. Ballya, appeared 
promptly and contained much interesting material. 
Unfortunately, prompt publication was not a 
characteristic of some of our other publications — the 
Journal of East African Natural History, the Bulletin and 
Scopus. This reflects the increasing difficulties of 
producing such periodicals on a shoestring, rather than 
any lock of effort by the Editors. All those who are 
involved continue to work extremely hard for the Society, 
and on a voluntary basis. There are encouraging signs 
that we may catch up with our publication schedules 
over the next year. I hope this may happen, and I do 
urge all EANHS members to continue their support, by 
subscribing and contributing material These 
publications till important niches in the region, and wc 
must strive to keep them going through this difficult 
patch. 
The Friends of Nairobi Arboretum, a special project 
of the Society, had a mixed year Its activities in the 
Arboretum came to a halt lor around seven months 
because of a procedural hitch involving the Forestry 
Department. Fortunately this has now been resolved 
with the signing of a formal Memorandum of Agreement, 
and FONA can continue with their excellent work on 
the ground. 
The Friends of City Park, fanned to help restore the 
Park to its previous gloiy. at once found that they were 
in danger of losing the entire site to dubious land 
allocations. The Friends have had great success in 
putting this issue on the political agenda, and the 
prospects for saving the Park look much bnghter than 
they did a year ago (though we arc not out of the woods 
''el). All the residents of Nairobi (at least, all those who 
are not land-grabbers) must owe this energetic and 
determined group a debt of gratitude. 
The Society has continued to co-ordinate the 
Important Bird Areas Programme in Kenya. umJ there 
have been several useful meetings of its Advisory 
Council. Most of the technical work on the IBAs has 
been done by the National Museums of Kenya, a good 
--sample of productive NOO-Ouvcmmcm collaboration 
We have spoken out strongly again on the issue ol 
degaz-ettement ui Arabuko-Sokoke. and remain active 
participants in the Forests Working Group that is hosted 
by our colleagues in the East African Wildlife Society. 
Through Bird Life Kenya, the Society has continued to 
sponsor vital research work on threatened species, this 
year including the East Coast Akalat and Sharpe's 
tongclavv. 
The office has generally functioned efficiently this 
•ear I would like to thank Catherine Ngarnehu. who 
took over as our honorary Office Manager at very short 
-•oticc. and Vincent Owuor. for all their hard work, us 
-ell as saying thanks to the volunteers who have put in 
T-any hours helping out — in particular Narinder I Icyer 
Pauline. Appealing for more volunteer? is part of 
ritual of this report: in order not to disappoint you. 
me make this appeal and say how much help a regular 
-ommitment to a few hours in the office can be. 
I would also like to thank three people who have 
* «Je immense contributions to the EANHS in various 
ways, and who are now stepping down from their posts. 
Loma Depew. our Honorary Secretary for no fewer than 
ten years, lias put more time, energy and dedication 
into the Society than most people can probably imagine. 
I am delighted that, subject to the approval of this 
meeting, she will be able to remain involved and to put 
her biological training to good use in future as our new 
Honorary Editor. Our retiring Hon. Editor. Dr Edward 
Vanden Berghe. may have kept a lower profile, but he 
has put many, many long and largely thankless hours 
into the production of our Journal and Bulletin, as well 
as involving himself with other Society work- Edward 
has succeeded in raising the scientific and production 
standards of our publications to a high level that forms 
an excellent foundation for the future. We are sorry that 
he no longer has the time to be involved with this work, 
but hope he will continue his active interest in the 
Society’s affairs. 
Last but not least. I would like to say ‘thank you' to 
our I lonorury Librarian. Mury Rigby, who unfortunately 
is leaving us soon Mary has brought her professional 
knowledge, tact and organisational skills to bear not 
just in the library but many other areas too. and has 
been nn indefatigable snurcc of support for the Society’s 
activities Wc shall miss her greatly. 
We have had a strong Executive Committee this > ear. 
that has with rare exceptions functioned effectively and 
constructively. 1 would like personally to thank all its 
members for their work, not least in sitting through and 
contributing to some marathon Committee meetings, 
Hie Society is in better financial health this year than it 
lias been foi some lime, and you will hear more about 
this from our Hon. Treasurer. Andrew Brass — 
appropriately, since he is the person largely responsible 
for this happy situation. Indeed. Andrew deserves very 
special thanks not just for his sound financial planning 
bul for the patience with which he has disentangled 
and reconstructed our accounts, an exercise which I 
hope will cease to be necessary in future as we move to 
more modem systems of financial management. A point 
that I expect Andrew will make is that our membership 
subscription receipts still lag well behind the costs ol 
looking alter members, and this is something that is of 
concern for the future 
And with this coming year we arc certainly looking 
to the future. For a number of reasons. 1 997. two years 
short of our 90th birthday, seems an appropriate time to 
do some serious soul-searching and to map out the 
•Society’s future. We have plans to begin this in August 
with a so-called Strategic Planning Workshop. Let me 
outline u few of the issues that wc will be needing to 
address, trying to avoid any additional jargon as much 
as possible: 
• Ilic Society is a venerable institution. We have a 
long and illustrious history of activity in the field 
of what is now known as biodiversity* Our 
impetus has always been scientific, and our work 
voluntary These are vitally important traditions 
that must be sustained. Yet equally it is becoming 
dear that, if wc want to be able to study and enjoy 
nature in another 90 years, we must focus our 
