Initiating Community-Based Conservation and Monitoring of Sharpe’s Longclaw in Mau Narok-Molo grasslands

Martin Wachira Mwangi

The overall goal of this project is to maintain a stable and increasing population of Sharpe’s Longclaw while conserving Mau Narok–Molo grasslands and empowering local communities with the capacity to actively participate in grassland and bird conservation.

This project targets 715,711 km² of montane grasslands in Mau Narok–Molo, a Key Biodiversity Area in Kenya. Despite the ecological value of grasslands and wetlands, threats such as agricultural expansion, smallholder farming, overgrazing by livestock, ranching, development projects, and woodlots are rapidly degrading the Mau Narok–Molo grasslands. If these threats are not addressed, there is high risk of the extirpation of Sharpe’s longclaw in its second most important habitat.

The Kate Stokes Memorial Award will help form a youth-led conservation group in the Mau Narok–Molo grasslands, building its capacity, designing and implementing bird/grassland monitoring protocols, and launching a local environmental education program. The project’s specific objectives are:

1. Establish a local youth-led conservation group and strengthen its capacity focused on birds and grassland conservation
2. Develop and implement a monitoring protocol for Sharpe’s Longclaw and Mau Narok–Molo Grasslands
3. Create and improve local capacity for grassland and bird conservation among 2,400 residents across all sub-regions of Mau Narok Molo grasslands.