WCK intends to reawaken the public’s attention through the youth, to the consequences of habitat destruction. The adverse ecological effects on the coast would also negatively affect the tourism industry that the region so much depends on.

The Coast regional office based in the Coastal City of Mombasas carters for WCK interests in the Coast province. The main objective of setting up this office is to act as a liaison centre between students and patrons/partners at the coast and the headquarters. The office has four members of staff who include the Education Officer, Office Assistant, driver and a coxwain. At times the staff includes volunteers and students on attachment.
The Coast region has seven districts; however for the purposes of office running these have been divided into five units namely
Mombasa
Kilifi/Shimoni
Kwale/Shimoni
Taita/Taveta
Lamu/Tana River.
PROGRAMMES RUN AT THE COAST

Marine Ecology Programme
The Coast Region of Kenya is internationally noted for its high biodiversity in the oceanic environment, yet the local school children are not exposed to what they have in their environment. Currently there is no other organisation implementing a marine field programme for school children and the opportunity to learn about marine environment is lacking in the formal and informal education in Kenya. Combined with local population growth and pollution issues such as marine debris, the lack of marine education in the current education system makes it urgent and necessary to seek extra-curriculum programme to promote awareness to the marine environmental issues among the youth. To better educate the younger generation in the country, it is necessary to give them direct and first hand experience of the oceanic environment.

The Marine Ecology Programme has been developed to implement field excursions in order to enhance marine education and promote awareness among school children. This being the only marine field programme for the youth in Kenya, it is expected to lead the coastal education in the country.
The main objective of the programme is to give the youth an opportunity to practically learn about the marine ecosystems, especially that of the Indian Ocean. It aims to promote awareness among the local students to the marine conservation issues as well as spread interest and knowledge about the marine life. The target ecosystem is that of Mombasa Marine National Park, including creatures cited in CITES Appendix 1 such as the sea turtles and dugongs.
This programme has proved to be very exciting and offers an opportunity for most of the participants to learn about the marine environment. Despite the fact that students were born and raised up just next to the sea, most of them had never experienced being in the water nor had an opportunity to practically learn about the marine life. This being the first time for most it acted as an eye opener for students as summarised by s pupil of Furaha Academy “Everything is connected so as we destroy the terrestrial part we are also endangering marine life”

At the same time the programme proved to be a good practical activity for senior students in Biology and taxonomy. For students in high school and colleges who take environmental classes the Marine ecology programme has proved to be a really good practical boost to their learning.
In both cases, the outcome of this experience is immense: this is an eye opener for the Kenyan children and it shall form a base for the future of marine conservation.

Marine Environment Day
The Marine Environment Day is a major annual marine conservation event for the youth and the general public of Kenya. The objective of this function is to create awareness on marine conservation issues among the youth and the pulic and empower them to become a mojor role players for marine biodiversity management. On this day, students from all over the Coast province, together with the community groups, participate and compete in performances such as songs, drama, sand modelling, poetry, swimming and boat racing. All thsese are judged upn the theme chosen for that particular year.

The theme highlights the importance of the ocean resources.
This is an activity that is run by WCK and other regional partners like KWS, Boabab farm NMK KEMFRI Teachers. It is a programme that has attracted many sponsors at the coast which vary but include among others: Bamburi Cement, CMC
Friend of fort Jesus
Kodak Kenya
Ketty Tours
Pirates club
Reef Hotel
Mombasa Municipal Council
It also includes individual sponsors like:
Ms. Oshima- JICA
Dr. Nyawira Muthiga KWS
Dr. Awimbo
Man and sea, this programme strives to involve the youth in schools to participate in marine conservation awareness campaign and to empower them to be generators of positive changes in marine environmental management. Human’s relation to the marine natural resources should be highlighted to urge the importance of sustainable development. Students from the entire coast region are invited to participate in the following activities:
Sand modelling according to the theme
Performance related to the theme
Swimming and many others, the theme changes year after year.

In an effort to regionalise the activity, member schools from Tanga Tanzania have on two occasions running participated in it. Observers from Zanzibar have also attended and we hope in the next one members from this Island will participate; we hope to make it even wider to include others from other countries in the Indian Ocean.
Following the success of this programme and taking into account distance, schools in Lamu benefit to a much smaller prototype of the Marine Environment Day (Kiunga Marine Environment Day) organised by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). This activity takes place every September of the year.

I WOULD LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE THE FOLLOWING TO THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT DAY 2004 ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Mobile Education Programme
The Mobile Education Unit is set to cover one of the units at specific times except in Mombasa where institutions are visited strictly on request. The programme is conducted with an emphasis on the local environmental issues within the different units. In Kilifi/Malindi as well as Shimoni for example, the major issues are marine and wetlands conservation. In Kwale and sections of Kilifi on the other hand, Human/Wildlife conflict is the predominant issue. As a result therefore, the topics covered during the programme are those that affect the audiences most in their localities. The programme targets the school children, but it also expects that the outcome will be disseminated to their siblings, parents, neighbours and the other people in the community through the participating children.

Procedure during the visit;
Introduction:
In new member institutions, it involves giving a background of WCK as well as information on activities e.g. Marine Ecology Programme and the marine environment day. There is also the viewing of projects carried out by the clubs.

Lectures:
This is given on a relevant topic and in a language that is easily understood by the audience. It acts as a

Video show:
This is normally one that is relevant to the given lecture, Where needed explanations are given as the show progresses.
Questions and Answers
Audiences are allowed to ask questions based on the lecture and video as well as other environmental or

Evaluation:
At the end of the programme teachers fill evaluation forms providing feedback on areas that need improvement.

Sales/Registration& Renewals:
This involves the sale of membership cards, booklets postcards and renewal of membership for institutions.

During the visits to schools by the mobile education Unit there is a brief talk by the Education Officer followed by a slide or film show and then questions and discussions. The Education officer gets a chance to visit the club and discuss with them their activities and reports back to the headquarters.

Community Conservation Day
The Coast Regional office in collaboration with other conservation NGOs at times organises the Community Conservation Day.
One area that WCK targeted is the Tsunza community. The Tsunza community has one of the magnificent mangrove forests which have both the socio-economic and biodiversity value inbuilt. However, because of some internal and/or external factors like poverty and encroachment these areas are loosing these values. Tsunza Conservation and Development Programme has been undertaking an effort to address these issues and mobilising the community to involve themselves in their sustainable development. The project has been successful so far, yet there are still many people left out of what is going on. At this point, it was recognised that there was need for more awareness programme, especially the one which targets the youth. Following this recognition, a community conservation day was held and the theme was “Towards Community Involvement in Natural Resource Management” the target were WCK school children as well as fishermen, teachers and other community members. This was organised by the WCK Coast Regional Office and a local NGO Tsunza conservation and Development Programme.
The objectives of carrying out this function were:
-To promote awareness to mangrove conservation issues
-To involve more community members to the conservation activities
-To spread scientific knowledge of mangroves among the youths.
-Give an opportunity of activity training to the local project members.
-Participate in real conservation activities like mangrove planting

Other activities
Other activities that the regional office carries out include Monthly lectures. Following the good understanding between Wildlife Clubs of Kenya and the local branch of the National Museums of Kenya, the administration of the Fort Jesus in Mombasa have continued to allow the use of the Old Court for monthly lectures at no cost. Among the lectures that were carried out were:
- Increasing Population , Diminishing Resources
- Tropical forests: Ecological and Socio-economic Significance
- Globalisation and Environment
- Wildlife, who owns it?

Workshops and Meetings
The WCK Coast regional office works closely with other conservation organisations in the region. A memorandum of understanding was signed between WCK Coast and Arocha Kenya. Since then, Arocha Kenya has organised two workshops involving WCK patrons in Kilifi and Malindi. Both aimed at enhancing skills of teaching Environmental Education and were held in the months of August and November.
Photos

Tree planting exercises have been held at different schools in the region. Lots of visitors have been visiting the region and the office; however there has been a persistent problem of affordable accommodation for visiting groups. It is for this reason that WCK now is frantically looking for a more permanent and bigger area to develop an education centre.

Annual School Rallies
This is a one day activity that brings together schools in the whole coast region to oen selected venue mosty a school with a big hall. A theme for the day is chosen and school children come up with songs, drama, poems and art works for displays. During this function students recite these presentations and are able to share with their collugues their experiences achievements and failures. Through this members are able to learn from each other. It is a one full day of learning through exchange. Guest speakers are also invited and they give talks on different topics and students are able to learn even more.

The Centre shall have the following facilities:
Youth hostels with a capacity to accommodate up to 50 students and 10 teachers. The hostel will be fitted with usual conveniences including beds and mattresses. It will be used by youth from all parts of the country on visit to the Coastal region of Kenya.

Resource library stocked with books and publications as well as videos and films relevant to environmental education. Club members may use these on loan.

Aquarium to display the rare fish species and other aquatic organisms now threatened with extinction in the Indian Ocean region.

Gift shop to generate income for the centre through selling membership cards, badges,
T-shirts and other goods.

Simple laboratory like water filters, PH indicators, water quality testing kits etc. for field based ecology programmes that link with the school curriculum.

Activities
The centre will be the focal point for numerous conservation education activities in the coastal region. It will: -
a) Offer a series of lectures to students each month including video/film shows and demonstrations
b) Produce educational materials to supplement the environmental education component in school curriculum
c) Organise training workshops for both pupils and teachers to enhance their conservation education skills.
d) Offer facilities/resources for pupils and teachers use in their conservation endeavour.
e) Provide conference facilities to regional environmental groups.
f) Design aquatic ecology lessons/activities for visiting students and their teachers.
g) It will provide simple and eco-friendly accommodation to WCK members on eco-tourism programmes to the coast.

The setting up of this centre has been a major goal of WCK. Funds will be raised for the establishment of this centre. The coast fascinates children and adults from other parts of Kenya. The centre will provide an opportunity for these children to explore, learn and hopefully contribute to the long-term survival of the marine habitats in Kenya.