Word from the Chair

Iregi Mwenja

Evanson Kariuki

The bushmeat problem in Kenya is now becoming a crisis. It has of late been fueled by the rising poverty which has been worsened by the prolonged drought, the down-turn in tourism industry and the effects of last year’s political chaos that displaced thousands of people and devastated their sources of livelihoods. Subsistence bushmeat poaching has since hit unprecedented levels while the commercial bushmeat trade is now Big Business. Bushmeat trade is the fastest growing informal industry after charcoal trade.

Conservationists have likewise stepped up the fight, but they are hampered by lack of resources, a weak wildlife policy and complacency from the government. Faced with these mounting challenges, bushmeat stakeholders have of late been pulling together to ensure that despite the enormous challenges they are facing, Kenya’s wildlife does not disappear under our watch.

The idea of bringing together bushmeat stakeholders in Kenya was proposed by several key personalities in the sector as a preliminary step in bolstering collaboration in this sector by providing a forum for information sharing and dialogue. Though there are many players implementing different project aimed at curbing the rising illegal bushmeat trade, effort to bring them together to share information and their experiences has not been organized before unlike in other fields of wildlife conservation where collaboration is the buzz word.

This was the reason behind the two organizations – East African Wildlife Society and Bushmeat-free Eastern Africa Network organizing this first Bushmeat symposium for Kenya. This is one of the many initiatives that several organizations are working on in an effort to forge a united front against rising illegal bushmeat trade in Kenya.

We take this early opportunity to welcome you to the symposium. We look forward to your participation and invaluable contributions.

Symposium registration

It is our pleasure to invite you to the upcoming Kenya Bushmeat symposium 2009 to be held at the East African Wildlife Society, Nairobi on 20th May, 2009.  The symposium will begin at 9:00 am and end at 16:30 pm.

To register, please fill the form below. On the subject line, write symposium registration and then fill in your details on the message box.

Presentation guidelines

This is a 15 minutes power point presentation that will address the theme of the symposium: Sharing information and lessons learnt in the fight against the illegal trade

Key issues to focus on in your presentation (you are free to use any format as long as you address these issues in the presentation).

What the organization/individual is doing on bushmeat

Projects name, location, duration and partners

Main objectives

Outcome/ Results/findings

Lessons learnt from this project implementation

Key lessons learnt from the project implementation

Did you achieve your objective?

Recommendation/solutions on how Kenya can curb illegal commercial trade

How can Kenya eliminate the commercial poaching and trade in bushmeat?

What are the solutions to the bushmeat problem?

Please do not hesitate to contact me Iregi Mwenja  or Mr Evanson Kariuki if you have any queries or need further clarification or assistance with your presentation.

Please submit you presentation before 12th May, 2009.

Come, share and learn in Kenya’s first Bushmeat symposium.