Strathmore University was represented for the first time in a unique congress at the British Ecological Society (BES) International Congress held in London where Mr. David Chiawo, an Assistant Lecturer at Strathmore’s Centre for Tourism and Hospitality presented his paper on “Bee diversity along a disturbance gradient’. BES is non-profit organization which promotes networks across different disciplines to make ecology and conservation count to communities and environment.

 

The Congress dubbed ‘INTECOL 2013’ attracted participants from across the globe including graduate students, professionals and scientists in key areas of applied ecology such as wildlife management, ecotourism, biodiversity and conservation ecology. It was organised by the British Ecological Society (BES) and also marked its centenary celebrations in promotion of ecology and conservation that counts to communities and environment. Several oral papers and posters were presented on insects, birds, mammals, primates, reptiles etc. and discussions on developing trends in applied ecology including ecotourism, and environmental economics were held.

 

More about David’s presentation

In my oral presentation under the title “Bee diversity along a disturbance gradient”, I examined the possible change of bee population structure in Sacred Kaya Muhaka forest and surrounding farmlands of coastal Kenya. Kaya Muhaka forest at the coastal region is a biodiversity hotspot with high diversity of forest invertebrates. It is a natural and cultural heritage for Mijikenda community attracting conservation researchers, cultural and eco-tourists. The objective of the study was to examine possible changes in bee diversity and abundance due to land use activities in order to inform their conservation planning. The finding has been a platform for the establishment of ecotourism projects especially bee-keeping in the area to enhance community involvement in conservation of the forest and improvement of livelihoods.

 

David Chiawo’s Profile:

David Chiawo is an assistant lecturer at Centre for Tourism and Hospitality, whose main teaching areas are Wildlife based tourism, Ecotourism, sustainable tourism and environmental management.

He is a conservation ecologist with research interests in biodiversity conservation, ecotourism and community based tourism. He is also a Rhodes Scholar, PhD (Science)-research on birds at the coastal ecosystems of Kenya. He is an IFS grantee- International for Science grantee and he enjoys nature safaris and cultural tourism.