‘Mazingira’ is the Swahili word for ‘environment’. The Mazingira Centre is an environmental research and educational facility established by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi. Research at the Mazingira Centre focuses on understanding and managing the environmental footprint of livestock systems without hampering productivity. Read more here
Mazingira Centre hosts students with various levels of education to create awareness and learning on the process of greenhouse gas measurements and what this entails. Read more here
The Mazingira Centre consists of a laboratory equipped with gas chromatography and laser spectroscopy instruments Read more here
Habtamu Sibilu sets a dynamic cone penetrometer upright on a flat patch of grass. He lifts up the weight, drops it, and records how many centimetres into the soil the penetrometer penetrates. After doing this as many times as it takes to reach 20 cm deep into the soil, Sibilu looks over his shoulder to … Continue reading
Flying a mere 9 meters above the grasslands at Kapiti, ILRI’s Research Station and Wildlife Conservancy, a drone not only took pictures of the landscape and livestock inhabitants, but was also measuring methane emissions from herds of ruminants (camels, goats, cows and sheep that digest plant-based food in a specialized stomach, resulting in methane production … Continue reading
The hidden connection: Cattle, methane, and our well-being At first glance, the relationship between cattle, methane emissions and human health might not seem obvious. However, delve a little deeper, and the links become clear. Agriculture significantly contributes to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with a hefty slice of this pie attributed to ruminants like cattle, … Continue reading
As we jumped up and down on the bumpy roads at Kapiti Research Station and Wildlife Conservancy, our team was on a quest to map the different soil types across the conservancy. We were headed on what we coined a ”Soil Safari.” Amidst seeing herds of zebras and giraffes the team, led by new doctoral candidate Fiona … Continue reading
Loyapin Bondé, a plant ecologist from the Université Joseph KI-ZERBO in Burkina Faso, recently visited the Mazingira Centre, the International Livestock Research Institute’s (ILRI) environmental and climate research facility in Nairobi, Kenya. The purpose behind this visit? To connect with climate scientists to learn more about ILRI’s gas chromatography laboratory. Gas chromatography machines are designed to detect and measure greenhouse … Continue reading
We are deeply saddened to report that our PhD student Collins Muhadia passed away last Friday, August 18, in Kenyatta University Hospital, Nairobi Kenya. Collins will be laid to rest in his home village, Matunda, Kitale on Saturday, 26 August 2023. Words cannot express our gratitude for your continued support of this talented and hardworking … Continue reading
On 24th July 2023, ILRI’s Mazingira Centre hosted a training workshop on the use, maintenance, and diagnostics of weather stations by TAHMO (Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory). The workshop aimed to strengthen the capacity of local technicians, students, and researchers to effectively maintain their TAHMO stations to allow them to collect high-quality weather data and contribute to … Continue reading
In a meta-analysis published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Claudia Arndt, Leader of the Mazingira Centre at the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya, and a score of experts from top-level institutes around the world reviewed hundreds of peer-reviewed studies for strategies designed to decrease product-based and absolute enteric methane emissions by ruminants. The research was initiated by Alexander N. Hristov at Penn State University. They found that livestock production could help meet the 1.5°C target by 2030—with the provision that the identified most effective product-based and the most effective absolute mitigation strategies be fully adopted, a goal that would require concerted action to identify and remove adoption barriers. Continue reading
Ruminant livestock are essential for livelihoods of millions of people in Africa. However, African livestock systems are threatened by climate change due to increased heat stress and reduced feed for animals, among others. At the same time, livestock also contribute to climate change and are the main source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in many … Continue reading
The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Centre for International Migration and Development (CIM) have jointly donated equipment worth more than €17,000 to the Mazingira Centre at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) to enhance its animal nutrition laboratory and rangeland conditions surveillance capacity. Continue reading
Mazingira Centre 