Nyamu aims to walk East – Central African for Jumbo

I plan to have another awareness campaign walk from Kenya – Uganda – Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to raise awareness on elephant conservation and environment conservation and preservation, which directly affects wildlife and biodiversity. “When the history of African Elephant Range State is written you cannot ignore Garamba ecosystem “Our organization’s mission is to protect the African elephant and secure landscapes for elephants outside protected areas and this campaign will further propel the mission. The campaign walk will begin in Nairobi (Kenya), passing through Mt. Elgon Conservation Area (MECA) (Kenya), Kampala (Uganda), Kigali Akagera, Virunga in DRC, Okapi Reserve (DRC), all the way to Garamba National Park (DRC).

The elephant population within Mt. Elgon Conservation Area (MECA) is unknown on the Kenyan side. I will walk though Soriti in Uganda, where no elephants are known to permanently survive on the Uganda side since the 80’s. According to the African Elephant Database, Uganda hosts 4,000 elephants. I shall walk through Akagera (Uganda) which hosts over 100 elephants. Other parks in Uganda that host elephants include Murchison Falls, Queen Elizabeth and Kidepo National Parks.

I chose to walk through DRC as one of the largest countries in Central Africa due to her diverse biodiversity from her eco-regions. I will pass through Virunga National Park which host close to 1,000 elephants, Okapi Reserve that hosts 7,700 elephants and rare draft antelopes named after ‘Okapi the Antelope’ that is found in DRC.

The park is one of Africa’s oldest protected areas. It lies in the transition zone between two centres of endemism: Guinea-Congolian and Guinean-Sudanese savanna.

This campaign will take at least 120 days covering approximately 3,211 Km. The expected outcome of this campaign walk is that community members will become more sensitive towards wildlife and conservation efforts and equally upthrust conservation bodies’ efforts and strategies in mitigating underlying conservation challenges and explore more options therein.

WWW.elephantcenter.org for more updates