Amina Soud

62 Winchester St.
New Haven, CT 06511

I am a graduate from Nairobi University Bsc (Chem), 1990. I have worked as a bank officer, insurance broker, and Forex bureau manager. I am now with a government parastatal as a development and environmental officer for Lamu district in Kenya. I have also worked with women organisations and was appointed thier chairman of thier microfinance board for about three years now. I have also helped youth groups in environment clean issues. I was also nominated to represnt women in the country's constitution review process. I am on a fulbright scorlaship now.

The research I am conducting is on ' Documenting the Lamu traditional conservation of mangrove.' I was inspired to do the research after working in this area for six years. I deal with alot of development issues which touch the natural resources. The mangrove forest for Lamu is the biggest revenue earner if I can include fishery in this slot. The town is a heritage site with very old houses aged more than 700 years. the maintanance of this houses largly depend on the forest. The problem is the politics involved. Since this forest touches every person in this district the government have been changing policies to suite them with times. I decided to document the way conservation is done locally to shed light to the policy makers and the local people the status of the
forest ways of conservation and help both parties manage it better.