Saving the Chapman pygmy chameleon from extinction

WESM in Conjunction with the Nsanje Forestry Department visited the area in the first week of September 2021. WESM and Nsanje Forestry Department responded to the communities by providing training on bee keeping as they already have knowledge on tree nursery establishments.

The focus of the training was on Basic brief Beekeeping including introducing the use of top bar hives to participants. The training involved sharing of beekeeping experiences between participants and creating a new vision of practicing small-scale beekeeping by taking beekeeping as an alternative business opportunity for improving the village's economic base thereby reducing pressure to forest resources of Mabunga and Mwanambweli hills in Nsanje.

Some of the recommendations after the workshop:

a) The participants are very eager to do beekeeping but require a lot of technical support. We therefore need to keep on motivating and monitoring farmers through extension visit and support.
b) There is huge potential of bee keeping in the area hence the initiative can improve local economic status of vulnerable communities living close to the forest.
c) Many community members who are not in the conservation groups had the passion of attending the training
d) Encourage and support the communities surrounding Chidodo hill which is close to the initial two hills as the Chapman pygmy Chameleon is also found there and the forest faces degradation too
e) Women participation is key in the success of the project as they have understood that beekeeping can be done by females as well, especially with the introdcuction of top-bar hives.

Dear supporters,

Over the past few months, our collaboration with WESM (the Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi) has increased within the scope of a one year collaboration which will see a better "on the ground presence" while travel remains restricted. A first joint visit between BINCO and WESM is planned for mid June where we will discuss the previous months activities and the next steps. We are looking forward to updating you more about the project by the end of June. We will then also feature a story about Ausward, the face behind WESM, who is leading the implementation of conservation activities on the ground!

Best,

BINCO vzw

Dear supporter,

The first rains have come! Although we only expect the rains to fall regularly from Mid November, the first signs of new life have already appeared. We are also pleased to announce that, with support of CCG Trust, our first management intervention is now fully funded. 

Furthermore, the chameleon was featured on reptile awareness day, on the 5W Foundation website, who also published some of our work on their social media.

With the first rains now on the way, our local partner WESM will start with implementation, focusing on the first steps in the Species Action Plan, in the coming months so we'll be able to provide some exciting new updates and pictures in the following reports.

We thank you once more for your support,

BINCO vzw

During the past three months, the following updates can be reported:

- The Species Action Plan was further developed and expert opinions were found to increase the scientific validity of the data.

- Further funding was sought through a variety of sources to reach the first goal of 5,000 USD necessary to implement the "high-priority but low-cost" activities necessary for the survival of the species.

- Negotiations are ongoing with a potential implementing partner to support the activities on the ground and ensure long-term sustainability.

 Progress will be made continuously on the above steps while we wait for travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 crisis to loosen.

In this progress report, we highlight the current progress and future next steps to be taken.

After a  succesful funding campaign, it was decided to work on identifying a local reliable partner who, on a day to day basis, can work with the Village Resource Management Groups on the ground. For now, we are reaching out to the WESM (Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi) because of their track record in nature and species conservation in the past. A meeting will be arranged soon in Blantyre in the South of the country.

In the meantime, we are finalizing the Species Action Plan, which is an important tool for our project implementation since it explains the next steps to be taken in the field to conserve the Chameleon we are saving from extinction. Several co-authors of relevant fields from different backgrounds are supporting the draft of this SAP. We hope to finalize this by the end of March so we have a solid foundation to build our conservation actions on.

We will keep updating this page once more news is available.

Cheers from the BINCO team