February Nature Talk

This month we are very pleased to have another BNS member presenting.  Alison Stuart has a presentation titled The Complex Challenge of Wildlife Conservation In Kenya. Below is a detailed summary and bio on Alison. We are looking forward to having Alison present this month, and we hope to see you there.

Join us at 7pm for a social time with food and drink before the presentation begins at 7:30pm. As always, the presentation will be streamed live over Zoom. You can register via the link below.
Register HERE! 

Title: The Complex Challenge of Wildlife Conservation in Kenya
Unlike in Canada where most wilderness areas are quite far from people, in Kenya, people live all around the national parks and private conservation areas. This brings high levels of competition for land and challenges of human-wildlife conflict. As such, conservation areas have been growing programs that support the people living around these wildlife areas so that the people see benefits and therefore help support the goals of conservation in the area. This talk will focus on the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya to highlight their successful community development program and explain how the collaboration with communities helps to ensure the protection of endangered and vulnerable species such as the black rhino, northern and southern white rhinos, elephants, giraffes, lions and leopards.

Alison Stuart’s bio:
I grew up in Wolfville and graduated from Horton High School. I completed my undergrad in Biology and Environmental Studies and also my Masters in Evolutionary Biology from Brock University. I then obtained my PhD from the University of Toronto, also in Evolutionary Biology in 2000. I did postdocs at the University of Otago in New Zealand and at Kansas University. I decided to change my career track and in 2004 I became a secondary science teacher. I wanted to try to teach students to ‘be’ scientists rather than know a lot about science. In 2020 I returned to Nova Scotia and am currently teaching at Central Kings High School. In 2009 I traveled to Kenya for the first time and have returned almost every year since.  I am co-president of an NGO called PA-MOJA that provides scholarships to secondary students who live around the Ol Pejeta Conservancy.