Waste Free Park Intiative at Nairobi National Park
Waste Free Park Initiative, focuses solely on the promotion of environmentally friendly parks, free of plastics waste for a safer habitat for the animals in the wild, while changing the visitors' attitudes on the essence of environmental conservation.
Plastic and other forms of avoidable waste are a huge menace in Kenya, especially in our green spaces. In the wake of the plastic ban and single-use plastic ban laws, waste generation and management remain a huge problem that needs to be addressed, starting with the consumers.
There exists scientific evidence that plastic bags and bottle caps kill animals by entanglement, strangulation, suffocation or starvation, waiting for such victims to decompose only to be released back into the environment. It is in this regard that we chose the Nairobi National Park as a vital starting point.
The initiative begun in October 2020 and has been running continuously. It involves issuing out of environmental-friendly litter bags to tour vans and private vehicles going for game drives. The visitors are required to dispose of their trash-- mainly water, food and snacks packaging used while inside the park-- and dispose of it in litter bins and recycle stations at the entrance, or carrying them home for safe disposal.
IMPACT OF THE INITIATIVE SO FAR
- The team has worked for more than 16 weekends including public holidays. From as early as 6.00 am, leaving as late as 5.00pm.
- Over 700 man hours have been put on the ground by the 3Es Experience team in distribution of the litter bags, public sensitization, awareness creation and collection of feedback from the general public on matters related to Environmental Conservation and Wildlife Protection.
- Litter bags have been distributed to more than 7000 tourist vehicles, both private and tour vehicles.
- The initiative has so far reached more than 50, 000 visitors, mainly the general public, have been sensitized on matters related to Environmental Conservation and Wildlife protection.
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS & COLLABORATIONS
3Es Experience in collaboration with National Environmental Complaints Committee, Apex Steel Ltd, Enviro Wild, YouTube channel: Where is Vivienne? and Kenya Wildlife Service. The litter bags help to improve the cleanliness of the park’s environments especially ensuring no littering of non-biodegradable waste within parks.
Through strategic partnerships and collaborations, we intend to scale up the initiative to other parks such as Tsavo, Lake Nakuru, Amboseli and Maasai Mara.
We are calling for other like-minded partners to join this noble initiative to make this planet better. This will not only keep our environment safe for survival, but boost the capacity and capability of our parks as source foreign income.
ABOUT 3Es EXPERIENCE IN BRIEF
3Es Experience is a registered charitable company that was incorporated in October 2019 in Kenya with a main aim of improving the livelihoods of communities while at the same time empowering students and promoting environmental conservation in parts of Kenya.
The organization’s mandate evolves and is realized through its three key pillars, namely;
I. The Energy Pillar (Clean cooking & Solar Lanterns))
II. The Environment Pillar (Green Environment & Clean Environment)
III. The Empowerment Pillar (School Mentorship & Economic Empowerment)
These strategic pillars can be summed up in our organization slogan “Clean energy. Sustainable Environments. Empowered populations.”
Our beneficiaries are women, children, Persons with Disabilities, youth and the general community members.
SOLUTIONS PROPOSED BY 3ES EXPERIENCE IN DETAILS
1. Energy
In the energy pillar 3Es Experience has been and is intending to do more on;
I. Distribution of solar lighting equipment to both for household lighting and for students reading after sunset.
II. Distribution of clean cooking equipment.
2. Environment
Currently distributed into green environments and clean environments:
A. Green Environments
3Es Experience is currently planting and working to plant more trees and involve as many people as possible to do the same so that we can increase the current tree coverage and help tackle the diverse effects of climate change and deforestation.
B. Clean Environments
On matters related to Clean Environments 3Es Experience has been and intends to scale up the following activities;
I. Community clean-up exercises
II. Waste Free Park Initiative
3. Empowerment
On Empowerment we have;
School Empowerment
The African Child Book Campaign (ACBC)
The African Child Book Campaign's main objective is to promote reading culture among students in rural areas by distributing story books, solar light lanterns and other learning materials to aid their learning needs.
Mentorship Programme
The purpose of the program is to equip students with non-academically taught skills, expose the students to unlimited opportunities available after school and be able to better themselves and be great achievers; and leaders. Students will undergo training on various topics and will be provided with certificates for completing the training course.
By
Admin,
3Es Experience.