Baraza

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 29 2009 | By: paula

A recent report by BBC reporter James Morgan on the impact of the destruction of Kenya’s Mau Forest has been making waves in Kenya. This well researched article highlights the causes of the forest destruction (bad policies), and it’s impacts (rivers, farming, climate and conflict). The current Kenya Government is trying to undo the damage caused by the previous regime and rich cronies  - ironically these people starting with the former president who have destroyed a national asset and caused untold suffering in the short and long term, will actually be compensated in cash. This policy of rewarding wrong doers has angered Kenyans intensely and the situation on the ground is very volatile.

High in the hills of Kenya’s Mau forest, some 20,000 families are facing eviction from their farms - accused of contributing to an ecological disaster which has crippled the country.

The authorities are to start the process of removing them any day now. Farmers will be asked to surrender their title deeds for inspection.

If their documents are genuine, they have a chance of being resettled, or compensated.

If not, they will simply be told to go.

Mau forest is Kenya’s largest water tower - it stores rain during the wet seasons and pumps it out during the dry months.

But during the last 15 years, more than 100,000 hectares - one quarter of the protected forest reserve - have been settled and cleared.

Tearing out the trees at the heart of Kenya has triggered a cascade of drought and despair in the surrounding valleys.

The rivers that flow from the forest are drying up.

And as they disappear, so too have Kenya’s harvests, its cattle farms, its hydro-electricity, its tea industry, its lakes and even its famous wildlife parks.

The finger of blame is being pointed at the settlers in Mau. And the solution, according to a special task force appointed by Prime Minister Raila Odinga, is to uproot the invaders and replant the trees.

Of 20,000 families living in the forest, they estimate that perhaps as few as 1,962 have genuine title deeds.

Civil conflict

“We must act now - before the entire ecosystem is irreversibly damaged,” said Mr Odinga.

“We are looking at securing the livelihoods and economies of millions of Africans who directly and indirectly depend on the ecosystem.”

The prime minister was speaking at the United Nations - appealing for donations of 7.6bn shillings ($100m; £63.5m) to “rehabilitate” Kenya’s water supply.

If he does not act, he foresees a struggle for water and land which could escalate into a bloody civil conflict.

Because in the valleys downstream of Mau forest, farmers like Peter Ole Nkolia are running out of water, cattle, and patience.

“Those people up there need to just move,” says Mr Nkolia, as he stands by the carcass of a dead cow.

“If the destruction of Mau shall continue I can assure you that a lot of people will suffer.

“What you are going to see here in Narok is just the skeletons of cattle - and maybe people.”

Worse still, the water from Mau quenches thirst far beyond Kenya. Its rivers feed Tanzania’s Serengeti and keep the fishermen of Lake Victoria afloat.

When you consider that Lake Victoria is the source of the Nile, you begin to grasp the scale of the crisis the Kenyan government is facing.

“This is no longer a Kenyan problem,” said Mr Odinga. “Tanzania and Egypt are feeling the heat from the Mau.

“And the implications go beyond the environment. This has the potential to create insecurity as people squabble over dwindling resources.”

‘Buffer zone’

Chopping down the tree cover in Mau has removed a natural “pump” which keeps the ecosystem alive.

“It rains a lot in Kenya - but only in the rainy seasons. Then you have four long months with not a drop,” explains Christian Lambrechts, from the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

“So you need a buffer zone - a way to ration the rain water and release it slowly into the rivers in the dry season. That buffer is the forest.

“If you remove this ecosystem, you reduce the moisture reservoir. Which means that in the dry season… ‘Hakuna maji’. No water.”

When the rains in Kenya stop falling, the 12 rivers which stem from the Mau forest are the lifeline for about 10 million people.

And this year in Kenya, the rains failed badly.

Narok county - the breadbasket of Kenya - was a barren dustbowl in April, the wettest month of the year. The government declared a “national emergency” with 10 million Kenyans facing starvation.

Cattle keeled over and died, in their millions. And as the drought worsened, Kenyan government was forced to bail out farmers by slaughtering their weak animals for just 8,000 shillings ($105; £65) a head.

In western Kenya, the tea plantations of James Finlay, which feed on the rivers of western Mau, have seen their yields cut to 80%. And the town of Kericho experienced water rationing for the first time in a generation.

Trouble in paradise

Wildlife tourism - another pillar of Kenya’s economy - is wilting in the heat.

Lake Nakuru, the birdwatcher’s paradise, is disappearing. The rivers that feed it have run dry. They come from Mau.

And in the Masai Mara, the river which hosts the world famous “crossing of the wildebeest” has fallen to its lowest ever level.

Water scarcity has brought wild animals and farmers into conflict. Deaths, injuries and compensation claims are at record highs in Narok, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

The fuse for all these disasters was lit in Mau.

“The Mau, in a sense, is the hen that lays the golden eggs,” says Paul Udoto, of KWS.

“The eggs are Lake Nakuru, the Masai Mara, the tea plantations… the farming that is being done by pastoralists.

“Once you destroy the centre - the hen - that is the Mau - then by necessity you have to lose the golden eggs.”

Frequent droughts

But can deforestation really be to blame for all these catastrophes?

After all, there have always been cyclical droughts in Kenya.

The trouble is that these droughts are becoming more frequent, more severe and less predictable. Particularly since 2001 - the year when 60,000 hectares of Mau were allocated to settlers and cleared.

“At a time when the climate in Kenya is becoming drier, that is when you need to boost your ecosystem - to help it to absorb the impact of climate variability,” says Mr Lambrechts.

“Go in the opposite direction, and you are going to feel those impacts much bigger. That is what we are currently feeling.”

Mr Lambrechts is one of 30 officials recruited to the task force by Prime Minister Odinga.

Their report, published in July, set out in painstaking detail how more than 100,000 hectares - one quarter of the entire forest reserve - was parcelled up and cleared for settlement.

Almost 20,000 land parcels were “excised” by the governments of Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki, and handed out to farmers - which helped to boost the two presidents’ popularity in the run-up to elections.

At the time, much of these excised land parcels were promised to Ogiek peoples, the original forest dwellers. But the title deeds ended up largely in the hands of local officials and incoming settlers.

Map showing three types of settlement within the Mau forest reserve: (i) Land excised and allocated to settlers by government (ii) Trust land which was adjudicated to indigenous forest peoples (iii) Land which was encroached or illegally purchased

Meanwhile, in the southern Maasai Mau forest, almost 2,000 plots were illegally purchased within the protected forest reserve, with the help of local officials.

Plots known as “group ranches” were expanded, subdivided and then sold on to third parties, unaware that their new title deeds may be “irregular” or “bogus”.

Finally, large chunks of the forest were simply occupied and squatted - “encroached” to use the official terminology - by settlers with no title claim whatsoever.

Political tightrope

The task force insists that almost all of these settlers and land owners should leave the forest as soon as possible.

But how many deserve compensation? This is a political tightrope for Prime Minister Odinga.

The task force has promised that each family will have their claim heard on a “case-to-case basis”.

All holders of “genuine” title deeds will be compensated - perhaps even those high-ranking public officials who are named by the task force as having received land via irregular means.

A search for new land to resettle farmers is underway, but is already provoking controversy.

“I hope when they go to the World Bank they won’t get any money,” says Professor Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Laureate and environmental campaigner.

“The only reason why we are being held hostage with the Mau is because people who were in power want to be compensated.”

Double-whammy

But perhaps the biggest challenge of all facing Kenya is the ecological one - the co-ordinated replanting of 100,000 hectares of indigenous forest.

It will take decades to restore the canopy - years in which Kenyans will continue to suffer from the double-whammy of local land degradation and global climate change.

Yet among environmentalists there is some relief that, at last, Kenya has woken up to a disaster that has been brewing for decades.

Countless warnings have gone unheeded, as Ms Maathai can testify.

“I keep telling people, let us not cut trees irresponsibly… especially the forested mountains,” she says.

“Because if you destroy the forests, the rivers will stop flowing and the rains will become irregular and the crops will fail and you will die of hunger and starvation.

“Now the problem is, people don’t make those linkages.”

In Kenya this year, everyone is making those linkages.

Tags: BBC, Climate change, deforestation, forest, Kenya, Lake Nakuru, Maasai, Mara, Masai Mara, Mau Forest, Serengeti, wildlifedirect

7 responses so far

Category: Africa, conservation | Date: May 14 2009 | By: admin

It is with great pleasure that we circulate this announcement

LONDON, UK: 13 MAY 2009 - HRH The Princess Royal (Princess Anne) tonight presented one of the world’s top prizes for grassroots nature conservation – a Whitley Award – to Dino J. Martins, of Kenya, for his work to improve local understanding of, and win greater protection for, the pollinators which underpin farming in and around the Great Rift Valley and Taita Hills.  

Harvard PhD Fellow, Dino Martins, received his award during a ceremony held at the Royal Geographical Society, London, by The Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) – the UK-based charity which administers the international awards programme.

His prize includes a Whitley Award project grant of £30,000 - donated by The William Brake Charitable Trust - an engraved trophy, membership of an influential network of Whitley Award winners and international profile-raising opportunities.  

The award to Dino Martins recognises his work with the East Africa Natural History Society (celebrating its centenary this year), to let small-scale farmers know about the vital role insects play in pollinating crops and encourage them to adopt conservation-friendly methods of agriculture. 

The event’s top prize, the £60,000 Whitley Gold Award, went to another African: Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, of Uganda, for a health and conservation programme in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, which is helping local villagers and their wildlife neighbours - endangered mountain gorillas - by reducing the cross-infection risks that result from people/ape contact and their DNA similarities.

Her Royal Highness also presented four other £30,000 Whitley Awards to conservation leaders from Bulgaria, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Commenting on Dino Martins’s success, Edward Whitley, who founded the fund and chaired the judging panel, said: “The aim of the Whitley Awards is to find and support conservation scientists whose vision, passion, determination and qualities of leadership mean they are achieving inspirational results in conservation.  In Dino’s case, the judges were especially impressed by the excellent example this project provides of the interdependence of plants, insect pollinators and people in areas often overlooked for their biodiversity value and which grow important quantities and varieties of fruit, flowers and vegetables for Kenya and many other markets.”

The ceremony at which Dino Martins received his accolade was co-hosted by BBC wildlife presenter Kate Humble and held in front of a 400-strong audience that included embassy representatives, donors and leading environmentalists.

Another Kenyan, Leonard Akwany, is also being helped by WFN this year. He has been granted a £10,000 Associate Award for a nature conservation project that will also improve livelihoods at the Lake Victoria Wetland.

WELL DONE DINO!!!

Tags: BBC, bees, conservation, Dino Martins, dudu diaries, Kenya, Whitley Trust for Nature, wildlife

5 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 25 2009 | By: admin

We all know that the next great challenge in conservation and regarding conflict is over water. This is why the construction of a massive hydro electric dam on the lower Omo River in Ethiopia has sparked such international outrage. On the one hand Ethiopia needs power for development, on the other, communities living down stream will be destroyed, and a lake in Kenya will be severely damaged.

Peter Greste has just completed a three week odyssey following the Omo River down from the Ethiopian highlands into its terminus in Lake Turkana in northern Kenya to assess the impact of the Gibe III hydroelectricity dam. The story is one of development vs environmental and social impact and it is likely to spark some interesting conversations about the Ethiopian Governments decision.

This story aires tomorrow, March 25th. Listen to the argumens of the developers and the prime minister vs those of the affected communities and give us your thoughts.

Here’s a schedule of the stories as they roll out over the next week or so (all times in GMT) on BBC. And if you miss the on-air versions, you can always catch them on the respective BBC program websites.

March 25th: BBC Radio 4, The World Tonight, 2200

BBC World News: Our World, 2330

March 26th BBC World Service, World Today,from 0300

BBC World Service News, from 0500

BBC Radio 4, Crossing Continents, 1100

BBC 1, Ten O’Clock News, 2200

BBC World News: World News America

BBC World News feature throughout the day

BBC Online, News On Demand (look for the interactive map, photo galleries, video and text features)

March 28th BBC News Channel, Our World, 1430, 2130

March 29th BBC News Channel, Our World, 1030, 1430, 2330

Please watch, listen or read, and let us know what you think

Tags: BBC, Cradle of Mankind, ethiopia, Gibe III dam, hydro electicity, Lake Turkana, Omo River, richard leakey

14 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jan 15 2009 | By: baraza

I just got this from Iain Douglas-Hamilton which I wanted to share

Dear Paula, I thought you might like to know that a major three part television series is starting next week in UK. It uses only Kenya presenters (I count myself as one!) to tell the story of STE elephant research. Dr Stephen Chege is our main point of contact with KWS in this film when he came to help us immobilize elephants for collar replacement and for tending to wounded animals.

Best wishes Iain

Our new BBC film series the “Secret Life of Elephants” that is showing on BBC 1 at 9.00 pm on Wednesday the 14th, 21st and 28th January 2009. To tell you a little about the content: Our series shows rare behaviour as elephants act out their emotions - love, lust, jealousy, fear, and anger. It also launches new Kenyan on-screen talent, David Daballen and Onesmas Kahindi from Northern Kenya who join Saba and Iain Douglas-Hamilton in the field to tell the story of The Secret Life of Elephants. The action is in the remote and beautiful Samburu national reserve in Northern Kenya, a peaceful elephant sanctuary where our UK Charity Save the Elephants conducts research in collaboration with the Kenya Wildlife Service. KWS vet Dr Chege demonstrates the art of elephant immobilization for attaching radio-collars and for tending to wounded elephants. We see the death of a matriarch in a river and the remarkable fascination elephants have with their own dead, as well as the adventures of Mountain Bull - an elusive individual who runs the gauntlet through farms to reach a new safe haven where he finds the females he seeks. We see an injured calf whose life hangs in the balance and depends on the care of other elephants. We see group defence as an elephant family unites to defend a darted animal. Our research using state of the art tracking technology reveals the complexity of how elephants make their choices as they navigate down crucial corridors and ‘streak’ between safe areas, balancing needs of food and mates against safety and danger. Samburu is a rare place where elephant behaviour is still natural, often happy, and not dominated by one emotion, the fear of man. However, amidst this peaceful idyll, where the Ewaso Nyiro river runs through the reserve, where local people are tolerant of wild animals, there are ominous signs that ivory poaching may be beginning once again. We see the efforts in Kenya to monitor the illegal killing of elephants in order to secure their future. A conclusion of the film is that research with a local flavour strikes a chord with local people and can lead to community based conservation and co-existence between man and one of the most magnificient species in the world. For more information on elephant behaviour and Save the Elephants’ work see , Saba’s website , and our article on “Elephant Emotion” by Saba and Iain Douglas-Hamilton, in BBC Wildlife Magazine, October 2008. OR to come and see the elephants Please help us raise awareness by forwarding this information to anyone who you think might be interested.

Tags: BBC, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Save the elephants, Secret lives of elephants

One response so far