Demonstrating PM2.5 and road-side dust pollution by heavy metals along Thika superhighway in Kenya, sub-Saharan Africa

This study assessed the level of heavy metal in roadside dust and PM2.5 mass concentrations along Thika superhighway in Kenya. Thika superhighway is one of the busiest roads in Kenya, linking Thika town with Nairobi. Triplicate road dust samples collected from 12 locations were analysed for lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) using atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS). PM2.5 samples were collected on pre-weighed Teflon filters using a BGI personal sampler and the filters were then reweighed. The ranges of metal concentrations were 39–101 μg/g for Cu, 95–262 μg/g for Zn, 9–28 μg/g for Cd, 14–24 μg/g for Ni, 13–30 μg/g for Cr, and 20–80 μg/g for Pb. The concentrations of heavy metals were generally highly correlated, indicating a common anthropogenic source of the pollutants. The results showed that the majority of the measured heavy metals were above the background concentration, and in particular, Cd, Pb, and Zn levels indicated moderate to high contamination. Though not directly comparable due to different sampling timeframes (8 h in this study and 24 h for guideline values), PM2.5 for all sites exceeds the daily WHO PM2.5 guidelines of 25 μg/m3. This poses a health risk to people using and working close to Thika superhighway, for example, local residents, traffic police, street vendors, and people operating small businesses. PM2.5 levels were higher for sites closer to Nairobi which could be attributed to increased vehicular traffic towards Nairobi from Thika. This study provides some evidence of the air pollution problem arising from vehicular traffic in developing parts of the world and gives an indication of the potential health impacts. It also highlights the need for source apportionment studies to determine contributions of anthropogenic emissions to air pollution, as well as long-term sampling studies that can be used to fully understand spatiotemporal patterns in air pollution within developing regions

Capacity building for conservation: problems and potential solutions for sub-Saharan Africa

To successfully achieve their stated conservation goals individuals, communities and organisations need to acquire a diversity of skills, knowledge and information (capacity). Despite current efforts to build and maintain appropriate levels of conservation capacity, it has been recognised that there will need to be a significant scaling-up of these activities in sub-Saharan Africa. This is because of the rapidly growing number and extent of environmental problems in the region. This paper presents a range of socio-economic contexts relevant to four key areas of African conservation capacity building: protected area management, community engagement, effective leadership, and professional e-Learning. Under these core themes, 39 specific recommendations are presented. These were derived from multi-stakeholder workshop discussions at an international conference held in Nairobi (Kenya) in 2015. At the meeting, 185 delegates (practitioners, scientists, community groups and government agencies) represented 105 organisations from 24 African nations and 8 non-African nations. The 39 recommendations constitute five broad types of suggested action: those that recommend (i) the development of new methods, (ii) the provision of capacity building resources e.g. information or data, (iii) the communication of ideas or examples of successful initiatives, (iv) the implementation of new research or gap analyses, (v) the establishment of new structures within and between organisations, and (vi) the development of new partnerships. A number of cross-cutting issues also emerged from the discussions. For example, all four workshops highlighted the need for a greater sense of urgency in developing capacity building activities in response to ongoing and rapid socio-environmental change in the region. Delegates also felt that conservation organisations, responsible agencies and donors need to recognise capacity building as one of the most urgent conservation issues we face. The need to develop novel and cost-efficient capacity building methodologies (and associated evaluation metrics), was also identified as a key issue. However, it was stressed that future of capacity building efforts will be best served by integrating new methods with more established activities. Importantly, given the broad suite of social, cultural and economic contexts found across sub-Saharan Africa, the need to move away from ‘one-size-fits-all’ approaches was strongly recommended in all thematic areas. Lastly, it was recognised that closing the gap between capacity need and capacity provision in the region will only be achieved through multi-partner capacity initiatives and networks.Additional co-authors: Vivian Kosgei, Anthony Kuria, Chris Magero, Maaike Manten, Paul Mugo, Eduard Müller, Julie Mulonga, Leo Niskanen, Josephine Nzilani, Mary Otieno, Nisha Owen, Juliet Owuor, Stuart Paterson, Sébastien Regnaut, Richard Rono, Joseph Ruhiu, Jesse Theuri Njoka, Lucy Waruingi, Brian Waswala Olewe and Emily Wilso