We have extensive experience of conducting both field and office based research, using this research as a basis for project planning, communications, market analysis, strategy development and proposing interventions. Our research and strategic consulting services are varied, based on experience and consist of the following:

• Monitoring and management planning
• Mid Term and Final Evaluations
• Sustainable Livelihood Assessments
• Rapid and Participatory Rural Appraisals (RRA and PRA)
• Baseline socio-economic studies, quantative and qualitative
• Environmental Impact Assessments
• Ecological research, including transects and mapping
• Income Generation Feasibility Studies
• Protected Area Management Planning
• Business planning and market feasibility studies
• Industry and Consumer Market Research
• Strategic market and campaign reports

We are specialists at gathering relevant information in a timely, focused and objective manner, whether through informal discussion and focus groups, face-to-face interviews, semi-structured interviews or more formally organised assessments and appraisals. We also make use of efficient desk research techniques involving telephone interviews, Internet research and literature reviews.

The following brief case studies give some indication of where we have carried out research and strategic consulting in practice.

• Final Evaluation, Game Reserves. In 2008 one of our consultants was brought in as part of a framework contract team to carry out a final evaluation of an EC funded project managing game reserves in Tanzania. The work included evaluating successes and failures of the project in several key themes including law enforcement, operations, ecological monitoring and research and community based conservation. The work also incorporated a wider evaluation of the processess required for reform of the wildlife sector in Tanzania.
  
  
• Understanding Community Based Natural Resource Managment. In 2007-08 Kilimanyika were commissioned through a client to carry out an evaluation of forestry and wildlife resource sites in Mtwara and Lindi regions, Tanzania for the DESEMP Preparatory Phase. The evaluation included a close assessment of Participatory Forest Management (PFM) and Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) in order to understand the potential for CBNRM in southern Tanzania in terms of bringing value for communities from wildlife and forestry.
  
• Market Research and Strategy. in 2007-08 Kilimanyika carried out research to understand the supply chain of the African blackwood tree, known in Swahili as Mpingo or scientifically as Dalbergia melanoxylon. Coining the trading name Sound and Fair on behalf of our clients Environment Africa Trust and the Mpingo Conservation Project we helped them set up a campaign strategy based on the information we had researched. We looked at the supply chain of musical instruments made from blackwood from the forest to the consumer via various stages of processing, manufacturing and retailing.
  
  
• Social and Economic Research, for example working with FZS in 2007 in the Tanzanian districts of Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Meatu, surrounding the Serengeti National Park, or working with WWF in Tanzania's Eastern Arc Mountains in 2006 and 2007. Quantitative and qualitative participatory research methods were used in a range of assessments in selected villages to gauge issues such as overall attitudes towards health, education and livelihoods, as well as specific information such as the value of forest, rangeland and mountain areas to communities and the opportunities available to these communities in the future within the context of developing the natural environment sustainably.
  
  
• Sustainable Livelihood Assessments, involving, at times, analysis and proposal of alternative or sustainable income generation activities. For example, working with IUCN and the African Parks Foundation (APF) in Sudan in 2007 where we carried out livelihoods assessments in two Beja coastal villages, or working with FZS in the Mahale Mountains National Park on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in 2006-07 looking at forest and fisher communities. Or with the East African Wildlife Society (EAWLS) in 2005, looking at rural fishing communities in Kilifi district, Kenya. This involved carrying out livelihood assessments in two coastal villages identifying and proposing alternative income generation activities (AIGs) for future livelihoods. Also in 2005, working for IUCN in association with the Tanzanian Government, we carried out Coastal Livelihood Assessments in three Marine Park villages, identifying income generation activities and development of proposals for pilot implementation of selected livelihood activities.
  
  
• Feasibility Studies and strategic market analysis of existing and potential UK businesses and markets. Working through strategic research companies Verdict and Allegra Strategies Ltd, London, and individually with clients. Industry and consumer research projects were carried out to develop improved market and competitor understanding and the potential for the development of new concepts. Amongst a range of others, one project was writing a strategic paper on a key retail trading opportunity (2007, repeated in 2008); another, a feasibility study of a Fairtrade proposition (2006); another, the analysis of the UK coffee shop market (2005); another, a feasibility study for a key retail client on the potential impact of tourism on business (2003).



• Socio-economic analysis of community based tourism in Il Ngwesi Group Ranch, Kenya, 2001. The research assessed community tourism as an outlet for diversification of incomes whilst maintaining traditional pastoral livelihoods. The research utilised Rapid Rural Appraisal techniques to gather an objective picture across the age and gender spectrums and was carried out in association with Borana Ranch and Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. The research was used to support World Bank funding for Il Ngwesi and led to a short assessment of Makurian Group Ranch in 2002, working in conjunction with the Laikipia Wildlife Forum.