Over the Easter weekend 3Es Experience in collaboration with Apex Steel Limited held a three-days Waste Free Park Initiative at the Nairobi National Park, from Friday 2nd April to Sunday 4th April. The partners targeted Easter weekend based on the anticipated large number of visitors.
The partnership with Apex Steel was important as since 2015, the company has been at the forefront of the green movement, becoming the first and only steel company in the region to be awarded a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certificate.
Visitors coming into the Nairobi National Park were issued with environmentally-friendly litter bags in a bid to mop up plastics at the world famous animal sanctuary. Visitors to the park used the biodegradable bags issued to collect their litter -- mainly water, food and snacks packaging used while inside the park-- and disposed of it in litter bins and recycle stations at the entrance and with some carrying them home to dispose of responsibly. Through this, non-biodegradable plastic waste that are threat to the park ecosystem were discarded from the park.
Impact of the Waste Free Park Initiative during the Easter weekend
1. Over 321 man hours were put on the ground by the team in distribution of the litter bags, collection of feedback and sensitization of the general public on matters related to Environmental Conservation and Wildlife Protection. The team engaged 7 volunteers who worked for 3 days continuously. They were required to be on the ground from as early as 6.00 a.m. in the morning and leave as late as 5.00pm in the evening.
2. The litter bags were distributed to over 2500 tourist vehicles both private and tour vehicles.
3. Over 20,000 visitors and the general public were sensitized on matters related to Environmental Conservation and Wildlife protection.
4. Feedback was willingly collected from some visitors through verbal interviews by 3Es Experience Organisation Staff and recorded using google online forms.
Kenya has 49 national parks and reserves which occupies 7.5% of the land surface. 3Es Experience plans to scale up the initiative to other national parks such as Tsavo, Lake Nakuru, Amboseli and Maasai Mara through strategic partnerships and collaborations. This will not only keep our environment safe for survival, but boost the capacity and capability of our parks as source foreign income.
If you want to partner with us or want to be part of the partnership please reach out via email info@3esexperience.org