Baraza

Category: Africa, Lions, Podcasts, conservation | Date: Nov 03 2009 | By: paula

I am amazed! Someone took our blog post and podcast about lion vs warthog in the Masai Mara and mashed it up to produce this great Youtube video!

Thank you Tigersandme!

And all of you out there please feel free to do the same - send us links to your mashups!

Tags: conservation, Kenya, Lion, Lions, Maasai, Masai Mara, warthog, wildlife, wildlifedirect

One response so far

Category: Africa, WildlifeDirect news, wildlife, wildlifedirect | Date: Oct 22 2009 | By: paula

Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking in a panel at PopTech about Conservation 2.0 - the New edge of Conservation.

I spoke about WildlifeDirect and I showed our video on Youtube which we produced in partnership with National Geographic and told Antony Kasanga’s story about the Lion Guardians. Antony’s story has really captured the attention and imagination of Americans  Here’s a story that reveals the value the interconnectedness of everyone through the internet .

After my talk someone asked me what it was like being a woman working with people in the remote and dangerous parts of Africa.

The beauty of WildlifeDirect is that all our projects are local. Anthony is a Masai and the reason why his work is so effective is because he is working with his own community. WildlifeDirect not only identifies good, ..or should I say Great projects, that are having important impacts on the ground. But we are also enlisting and nurturing a community of future African leaders.

The people who support the Lion guardians  must be hugely proud about what they have enabled to happen. Everyone is talking about the lions that the Lion Guardians have saved.

It was one person who commented on Antony’s blog and left told him about the scholarship in Oxford. Today that person must have a huge smile on his face. He has completely changed Anthony’s life and given him a tiny peace of information that I believe will enable Antony to reach his potential.

So Chris Santon this blog post is a Shout Out to you -you may not realize the significance of the gift you gave to Antony. It may be some years before you realize just how important that simple act was. Asante Sana Chris! From all of us.

The gift goes the other way to - I’m sure that Chris’s life will never be the same. He has achieved something that most of us only dream of. The gift of being able to really help someone.

Here’s Antony at Oxford giving a presentation in front of the University Vice Chancellor. Antony we are so proud of you!

I think I saw a few teary eyes in the audience when I showed the photo of Antony in Oxford against the original photo of him at work in Mbirikani.

Mine certainly were!

I’m so proud that we can tell Antony’s story because I know it inspires many Africans and will continue to inspire generations to come.At the social event later several people came up to me asking how they could help. That’s what I love about PopTech, it’s the first time I’ve been at  a meeting where everyone is here for one reason only, to find out how they can help.

I want to thank all the Lion Guardians for everything they have done and for letting WildlifeDirect be a part of their amazing story. I have always had a passion for wildlife. I believe that everyone cares about nature and wants to do something.

WildlifeDirect is the only conservation organization that makes it possible for individuals everywhere to participate directly in conservation - by linking donors directly to people on the ground and making it personal.

As Sheryl says

“I enjoy donating my time and money to WLD wildlife protectors because
they’re doing important field work that I can’t do.”

By selecting genuine high impact projects on the ground we know that we can save wild animals. With very little cash the Lion guardians have saved tens of lions - that’ s HUGE - there are only 2000 lions left in Kenya and each is valued at between 500,ooo and 1 million dollars. That return on investment should excite any business person.

I already met some great people here at PopTech and I’m so excited about developing new relationships. It has been a tough year for us but we have passion and belief, and a model that works.

Participate PopTech visit the website Poptech.org and read their blog here  and join us live on webstreaming from 9 am today when the mystery box will be opened. Tell all your friends.

Tags: Antony Kasanga, conservation, Kenya, Lion, lion guardians, Lions, Maasai, Masai Mara, PopTech, wildlife, wildlifedirect

One response so far

Category: WildlifeDirect news, wildlifedirect | Date: Oct 17 2009 | By: paula

Dear Friends

I just wanted to let you know that I am at PopTech  and it is amazing. I wish my entire team from Nairobi and all our WildlifeDirect bloggers could be here with me!

In the PopTech Fellows program I will be talking about WildlifeDirect and working with a team of professional marketers, strategists, communicators and planners to learn more about what we can do to take WildlifeDirect to the next level.

We are all at Point Lookout Resort and Recreation Center  near Camden and they days are filled with exercises and meetings. It is going to be very intense and I am really looking forward to the results!

Andrew Zolli is an expert in global foresight and innovation, studying the complex trends at the intersection of technology, sustainability and global society that are shaping our future

Andrew Zolli runs PopTech and he told us that we had each one of us 16 fellows had been selected from hundreds of applicants and that his team had investigated each and every one of us to determine if we would be the perfect team. I wasn’t alone in feeling deeply honored that they had selected me. The other poptech fellows are doing earth shattering social innovations in energy and ecological solutions, education, medicine and design. It’s overwhelming. The PopTech team are fantastic - we already have a few nicknames like “Mushroom man” and I’m being called “Kenya”. You can meet all the other PopTech Fellows here

We were blessed with a spectacular sunset after our first day at the PopTech fellows. Wow!

I will continue blogging and tweeting about Poptech here and on Twitter at @paulakahumbu. You can follow other Poptech tweeters by searching #poptech and following @poptech

You can also read Erik Hershmans blog here

Before I sign off I want to thank Ollie Wilder (great name) and his parents and family who have taken me under their wing in Camden over the last week. I especially want to say “Thank you” to Trink and Kent for adopting me into your amazing family.

Tags: Kenya, Maine, Paula Kahumbu, Point Look out, PopTech, USA, wildlifedirect

5 responses so far

Category: Climate change | Date: Oct 15 2009 | By: paula

Dear all, I invited readers and friends to contribute their thoughts on Climate change in the run up to Copenhagen from 6th - 8th December - only 52 days away. It may not surprise many of you that our first guest blogger is Sheryl who writes  her own fantastic blog Not Honey: Please don’t tap on the glass.

Climate change decision must include commitment to slow and stop population growth

No one likes to talk about human overpopulation as the number one
crisis facing our planet. Most environmentalists and wildlife
protectors don’t like to talk about it. There’s the idea that having
as many kids as you want is a God-given right and mentioning that
“right” as a cause for climate change and planetary destruction irks
many people.

That silence is deadly. Here the world waits for the U.S. to take the
lead on climate change and the best we can do is a useless
cap-and-trade bill that has no chance of actually limiting greenhouse
gas emissions. There are too many loopholes, including the
“offsets” that industry insists they must have, and no clear plan for just how
many credits for emissions the big polluters can buy. Not included at
all in this bill are greenhouse gases from farms, which emit
35-40 percent of all methane emissions, “(which have 23 times the
global warming potential of carbon dioxide), 65 percent of nitrous
oxide (which is 320 times as warming as carbon dioxide) and 64 percent
of ammonia, which contributes to acid rain” according to the 2006 UN
report “Livestock’s Long Shadow.”

Food production for an exploding human population is a major source of
global warming pollution. There is talk now among wildlife protectors
about designating more wildlife parks and reserves for agriculture and
animal farming. Dr. Richard Leakey, noted anthropologist, wildlife
protector, and head of WildlifeDirect, in an interview for
“Kenya Imagine” said the following:

“Population growth is, as far as I am concerned, is
probably the single most worrying factor for the planet. We can look
at a farm, we can look at a national park – we can say the carrying
capacity of that area is “x.” If we look at the planet, the carrying
capacity for our planet has been exceeded. This planet has too many
people on it. How we address this I don’t know. But I am certain if we
don’t address it, many of the good efforts being made to cut carbon
dioxide emissions and to find alternative sources of energy won’t have
the desired effect. It has got to be linked and conceptualised in a
way that stabilises the human population and ultimately brings the
numbers down.”

Iregi Mwenja, a researcher on WildlifeDirect, has posted more than once about
the threat to wildlife from a growing human population. Recently, he
posted:

“With the population of the world at 9 billion in
2050, we may have 370 million people facing famine
worldwide. FAO says more land is needed to increase food production by
70 percent in 2050. In a country like Kenya where land is scarce now
and famine is the order of the day, the situation will be grave
serious in 40 years time when human population will have grown to over
60 million people. We may be forced to sacrifice some land in our
protected areas to feed this overblown human population! If you don’t
want to contribute to this catastrophe, let us limit the number of
kids per couple to 2. Please read the BBC NEWS
article below for more details on the FAO report.”

Read that again: Food production must increase 70 percent over
the next 40 years to feed the growing human population. What
does that mean?

More factory farms and far more greenhouse gas emissions promoting
global climate change than can be regulated or capped-and-traded. The
BBC story states that “Climate change, involving floods and droughts,
will affect food production.” Climate change is already having a
devastating affect on food production and vice versa.
Thousands of farmers in India have committed suicide because of crop failures
due to drought. Deforestation in the Amazon to make room for
cattle farms and soybean farms to FEED THE CATTLE has caused the loss
of more than 150,000 square kilometers of rainforest in Brazil between 2000-2008.
Loss of forests in the Democratic Republic of Congo is putting
gorillas at risk of extinction, which will put humans at risk of
extinction, too.

How’s that? How can the loss of a fellow Great Ape species have
anything to do with human survival? Turns
out that gorilla dung is a major component in forest growth. We
need rainforests to turn carbon dioxide into clean air and to deter
the greenhouse effect. Gorillas, according to Ian Redmond, the UN
ambassador for the Year of the Gorilla, “are herbivores, feeding on
fruit and plants. The digested food, as it passes through their
systems, helps seeds to germinate. … The full extent of the
gorillas’ role in propagation is unclear. But Redmond said a number of
plant species could not flourish without them, or wild elephants, the
other large mammal crucial in germination.” The gorillas “caught up in
the region’s civil wars, preyed on by poachers, and crowded out of
their homes by mining and logging industries - are already endangered
across Africa. …But Redmond’s argument could help give the animals a
new level of protection.” Economists have suggested spending $15
billion on reforestation as a “cheap” way of cutting greenhouse gas
emissions.

“Redmond said gorillas were crucial in maintaining the lifecycle of
the rainforests in the Congo basin. The forests themselves suck up
more than 1bn tonnes of carbon every year.”

“This is what the species are for. They are not ornaments. They are
not just interesting things to study. They are part of an ecosystem,”
he said.”

We are the only species of Great Apes on this planet who seem not to
know their place in an ecosystem. If we continue to allow human
populations to grow and crowd out all the wildlife until they’re all
extinct, and use up all the forests until they’re gone … what will
we have left? A planet full of nothing but humans and a ruined
environment that can no longer support life.

“It is only if you bring numbers down that we will be able to find a
way for resource utilisation per capita to increase. It is the only
way you are going to deal with poverty and unless you deal with
poverty, the situation can only spiral downwards. This is a massive
problem and the solutions are not simply condoms versus draconian
measures such as one child per family. It has to be looked at in
different countries in different ways. I think there has to be a
commitment everywhere to slow and stop population growth. I do believe
that we have been set back a long way by the opposition to family
planning that is being shown by some of the religious groups and by
some of the more conservative governments such as the current US
administration.” - Richard Leakey, in an interview published during
the Bush Administration

–
NotHoney@gmail.com
http://nothoney.com
“… a vegan driving a Hummer contributes less to greenhouse gas
emissions than a meat-eater riding a bicycle.”–Capt. Watson

Thank you Sheryl!

Please leave Sheryl a comment here and if you would like to contribute your thoughts on a blog just write to me paula@wildlifedirect.org.

Tags: Blog Action Day, cattle, Climate change, Gorillas, Ian Redmond, not honey, richard leakey, vegan, wildlife, wildlifedirect

4 responses so far

Category: Africa, Climate change | Date: Oct 12 2009 | By: paula

 It’s hard to ignore the tension as the world hold it’s collective breath for the outcome of a meeting in Copenhagen on December 9-12 when the parties of

the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meet for the last time on government level before the Kyoto climate agreement must be renewed (In 2012 the Kyoto Protocol to prevent climate changes and global warming expires).  Governmental representatives from 170 countries are expected to convene at the Bella Center as well as over 8000 others from governmental representatives, NGO’s, journalists and concerned people.

This is a HUGE issue. The conclusion of the meeting will be the Copenhagen Protocol to prevent global warming and climate changes. It will affect you and me and all generations to come, very directly.

Floods in the Philippines - proof of climate change?

It’s not just me that is worried. A survey of world wide views on global warming polled 4,400 citizens of 38 countries revealed that 91% thought the climate situation very urgent. It is a huge relief that the human race is finally aware that there is a climate problem.

 The way I see it there are two HUGE issues.  

Should the worlds economies focus primarily on

1.   Emissions reductions ie. Kick the carbon addiction

or

2.     Climate change adaptation Ie. Find a way to live with climate change

According to the World Wide views on global warming 58% of citizens of industrial nations believe that between green house gas emissions should be reduced by 25 – 50%.

At the Copenhagen ClimateCouncil earlier this year, the president of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon said “We know that the safest way of reducing climate risks is to reduce emissions. We know that taking early action makes good business sense. And we know the cost of inaction will be much bigger that the cost of inaction now”.

But yet fewer people from developing nations though that they should face the same emissions reductions. The problem is that if low income countries agree to lower gas emissions they will be unable to develop at a desirable pace or to the standards they aspire to. They also cannot afford the cost of climate change adaptations.

But Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UN Environment Program Executive Director says that cutting green house gases will not be enough. And Prof. Lučka Kajfež Bogataj from the University of Ljubljana agrees with him. On the Climate Thinkers Blog she says that the problem may be worse than we think “Deep down some of the scientists believe that we will soon be surprised to learn that the global climate change impact has been under estimated and that we will recognize that the climate change cost is even higher than was estimated”.

So my question is this. Do we humans really have the will to deal with climate change?

Well there’s a lot of shouting and yelling going on and activists are screaming for governments to agree to emissions controls.It feels good and people are being asked to make personal commitments to reduce their carbonf ootprint by 10%.

But do we really comprehend the scale of personal sacrifices that are needed for us to avert the consequences of climate change?

In this list what would you be willing to do?

1. Live in cold houses through the winter
2. Forgo air conditioning in the summer
3. Sell your car and use only public means or walk to get about
4. Eat much much less,
5. Be a vegan
6. Never travel on holiday again

Let’s face it, we are addicted to comfort – kicking the carbon habit = suffering. It aint gonna happen, most humans aren’t masochists.

As one very smart person said to me yesterday “we are constantly seeking to earn more so that we can live more comfortably, Americans will not change their way of life for climate change. Nor will they respond to the impacts of climate change which are already affecting poor countries“. The American who said this to me is a teenager. That scares me.

I am currently in Boston where it’s very cold outside and it’s toasty warm indoors – so warm that it’s delicious. I just don’t see people agreeing to be cold – it’s dangerous for our bodies and makes us grouchy.

Grouchy angry people are unpleasant to be around, but hungry starving people are dangerous

From what I’ve seen in Africa, I personally believe that the impacts of climate change will lead to civil conflicts, wars, and genocide.

Imagine what its like being a parstoralist in Northern Kenya where it has not rained for 3 years. Your cattle are starving and dying all around you. All your wealth could be gone in days unless you find grass and water. Your children are sickly and dying too – you watch them go for days with out eating. They don’t complain. Your wife is dehydrated, she cannot even produce tears when the youngest dies. You bury him in a shallow grave, you are too weak to dig any deeper. The sun is burning your skin but there is no shade, you are weak but you must keep moving in search of grass to keep the few emaciated cattle alive. You don’t care that you are in other peoples land, that they are armed and have threatened to kill you. You know that there will be a bloody battle so you carry a gun and you are ready to use it. You have armed your children and your wife too. This is a life or death struggle, you will do anything to stay alive and feed your family.

Sound fictional? It’s happening in Kenya right now watch this BBC video about drought conflict and elephants

The Copenhagen Treaty tries to address the immediate impact of climate change on developing nations and on page 122 it says

17. [[Developed [and developing] countries] [Developed and developing country Parties] [All Parties] [shall] [should]:]
(a) Compensate for damage to the LDCs’ economy and also compensate for lost opportunities, resources, lives, land and dignity, as many will become environmental refugees;
(b) Africa, in the context of environmental justice, should be equitably compensated for environmental, social and economic losses arising from the implementation of response measures.

First let me tell you I HATE LEGALESE.

But what worries me more is that this language sounds like socialism and I’m afraid it is a red flag to the capitalists (who happen to currently rule planet earth). If you’ve been following the health care debate in USA you’ll know what I mean. Comments on the Coyote blog confirm my worst fears about lack of empathy by some American people towards other non Americdans. All I can say is that these people frighten me.

It’s hard not to feel despair for the planet.  I feel especially pained because climate change is affecting me. Kenyans are dying of starvation in a drought caused largely to climate change yet the countries that are mostly responsible for the climate change have not responded adequately to appeals and the WHO warns that only 10% of required food is available to feed 10 million starving people. I feel powerless to do anything to save my people. I know that suffering is already fueling conflicts.

Maybe it’s just me but I get the feeling that the countries attending the Copenhagen meeting are doing so with heavy hearts, the decisions at hand are very tough and will necessarily be painful. It’s as if to survive we have to chop off our limbs – otherwise we will slowly boil, and everything will be affected, oceans, soil, water, people, the air we breathe, wildlife and nature in general..

I’ve met many young people who believe it’s too late, we’re too greedy, too slow and too selfish.

But we cannot despair, it paralyses us. We are the thinking ape, LETS THINK up some solutions!

You can Help us!

We are inviting 30 guest bloggers to give us their views, their experiences, and to share their 3 big ideas in the run up to Copenhagen.  If you would like to contribute please send me an email paula@wildlifedirect.org subject My Planet

For a great guide to Copenhagen visit the Climate Feedback Blog

Tags: Africa, Climate change, conflict, Copenhagen, flooding, Kenya, UNEP, wildlife, wildlifedirect

7 responses so far

Category: Africa, Appeals, National Parks and protected areas, conservation | Date: Oct 09 2009 | By: paula

If you haven’t made a donation yet on WildlifeDirect, consider this

There are days when can not sleep because of fears that WildlifeDirect  cannot survive this disastrous economic crisis. Fund raising has not been easy nor fun lately - and it’s affecting or ability to do effective conservation of endangered species.

Because everyone is affected by the economic crisis, many of our donors are telling us that they can’t contribute anymore, and the average donation of those generous donors who have continued to support us have declined by about 50% from an average donation of $100 to $47.

Despite the drop in funding, our bloggers remain convinced. We now have over 80 conservation blogs from the frontlines in Africa, Asia and South America. Half of these bloggers get funds every month and every month more people inquire and ask to join our network. It is so rewarding to know that good conservationists believe in us. This is what keeps us going at WildlifeDirect.

Here are some reasons why you should support projects on WildlifeDirect

1. It’s direct - you can choose the blog, item and place you want your funds to go to
2. It’s accountable – you can see your money working by reading the blogs
3. It’s easy  - we use paypal and you will get a tax receipt
4. It’s quick – you can respond to any wildlife conservation emergency and make ….But what I like most about this is that
5. It’s cost effective – a little money goes a long way in Africa where $100 can pay for a rangers salary for a month! Our bloggers only ask for essential things –rations, petrol for patrols , critical equipment, food for animals and basic field costs. They are working on shoe string budgets – many of them volunteer.

Watch our video and Join us

WildlifeDirect has had a far greater impact on bloggers than we ever imagined. Next I will be interviewing Anthony Kasanga (lionguardians) about how his life changed after he started blogging on WildlifeDirect.

THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO HAS STAYED WITH OR RECENTLY JOINED WILDLIFEDIRECT.   YOU ARE ALL AMAZING PEOPLE:)

Tags: Africa, conservation, endangered species, Gorillas, Lions, Paula Kahumbu, richard leakey, wildlife, wildlifedirect

One response so far

Category: Americas | Date: Oct 05 2009 | By: paula

Dear Friends,

I am in USA attending a fund raiser, participating in the Jackson Hole Film Festival and going to PopTech! I am in New York for our board meeting today but wanted to share the most amazing experiences I had in Jackson Hole Wyoming.

But the thing I will remember most is the sight of cattle being driven from one ranch to another. The Sheriff stopped all the traffic so I had to get out and run to where the cattle were being herded across the road by the cowboys and girls. A fellow motorist stopped me and asked where the photos would be online …these are for you Mary Haworth. The following pictures were taken on the exhilarating morning of 3rd October.

Motorists had to give way to cattle and cowboys for a good half hour

Real cowboys with lasos!

Bringing up the rear were the calves.

This was my first sight of Real American cowboys - Amazing!

The people of Wyoming are amazing, friendly and …well just like us Kenyans. THe countryside is like Kenya too ….full of wildlife, and especially big dangerous mammals! I saw my first Elk, moose and chipmunk

Ok not big or dangerous but chipmunks are adorable!

Elk doe - these guys make a really eery weirdly haunting call all night - kind of sounded like whales singing. Bizarre!

Big daddy moose - check out his beard!

Grand Teton… this mountain looks suspiciously like Mt Kenya doesn’t it? No wonder I felt so at home in Wyoming!

I love America!!

There’s so much to share about what I learned in Wyoming …coming next - stories of human wildlife Conflict that make lions sound like mice!

Tags: Elk, Jackson HOle, Jackson Hole Film Festival, Kenya, Moose, Paula Kahumbu, wildlife, wildlifedirect, Wyoming

5 responses so far

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: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 28 2009 | By: admin

With the drought biting hard KWS has been aggresively chasing cattle out of the parks and the government of Kenya has been trying to solve the humanitarian crisis by buying huge numbers of cattle. It is not going very well and nature is taking it’s course - cattle are dying all over the country in droves.

The degradation due to over grazing outside of parks has predictably led to wildlife returning to the parks for the only grazing available. Nairobi Park  in particular  now looks like the Serengetti in full migration!

The influx of wildlife has led to the appearance of big cats. Lion, leopard and cheetah sightings are now quite common.

Stalker!

After half an hour of great tension the lion had crept right up to this zebra and seemed about to launch herself onto the stripes when I heard the sound of other cars approaching. Sadly the hunt did not conclude in breakfast for the lioness, my wild gesticulations asking them to slow down and stop, seemed to attract the vehicle even more. The tour van revved up beside me for tourists to get a good shot - which of course flopped because the zebra got spooked and walked off. The lion lay down in the grass and turned to us glaring angrily.

Just seeing this today made me feel proud of what we are doing at WildlifeDirect - saving endangered species so that we can continue to enjoy rare and  precious moments like these.

Thank you all  for reading our blogs and supporting all of our the amazing projects.

Paula

Tags: cattle, conservation, drought, Kenya, Lion, Lions, nairobi national Park, wildlife, wildlifedirect

3 responses so far

Category: In the News, WildlifeDirect news | Date: Sep 11 2009 | By: Maina

Nairobi, 11 September 2009 - On Wednessday, 9 September 2009, Dr Paula Kahumbu, the WildlifeDirect Executive Director was named one of the 16 fellows of the prestigious PopTech Social Innovation Fellows program of 2009 for her work at WildlifeDirect. In a press release dated September 9, PopTech, ‘a renowned Ideas Summit and innovation Network dedicated to accelerating the positive impact of world-changing people, projects and ideas’, announced that Dr Kahumbu was among the Class of 2009 of the Social Innovation Fellows.

Dr Paula Kahumbu will be taking the WildlifeDirect idea and experience to PopTech to share with the other fellows. The WildlifeDirect idea was developed by Dr Richard Leakey and associates to bring together conservationists working in remote and often dangerous places - mostly in Africa but also in Asia and South America - and supporters of conservation through blogs.

The model enables individual donors throughout the world to communicate directly with the people they are funding. The overall goal of WildlifeDirect is to build a strong online movement capable of responding to emergencies and reverse the catastrophic loss of habitats and wild species. WildlifeDirect pioneered the model of fundraising for wildlife through blogs.

Millions of people read the blogs and tens of thousands have made donations. Almost a million dollars have been raised for conservation emergencies such as saving gorillas in war-torn Virunga in the Democratic Republic of Congo, rescuing the Masai Mara during Kenya’s post-election violence and resultant collapse of tourism at the beginning of 2008, saving lions and many other endangered species. More than 100 different conservation projects in 27 countries tell their daily stories on the WildlifeDirect platform. WildlifeDirect is simply the largest wildlife blogging platform in the world.

Dr Kahumbu and the rest of the 16 fellows, described in the release as ‘a corps of visionary change agents incubating high-impact approaches to some of the world’s most pressing social, economic and environmental challenges, have been invited to a five-day intensive ‘boot camp’ before participating in the PopTech 2009: America Re-imagined in October 21-24, 2009 at Camden, Maine, USA where they will present their ideas on stage to more than 700 conference attendees and thousands who will participate via live stream. This according to the PopTech faculty, will begin their entry into PopTech’s rich network of mentors, influencers, contributors and resources.

Each year, PopTech selects 10-20 high potential change agents from around the world who are working on highly disruptive innovations in areas like health care, energy, development, climate, education, and civic engagement, among many others. Fellows work in both the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds, have a minimum of 3-5 years experience, and are working in organizations that are well positioned for sustainable growth.

The 2009 fellows program - which is the second since inception - attracted more than 200 applicants from more than 30 countries. Of the 16 selected, only three are from Africa, two of whom are Kenyan. Although a number of these fellows deal with climate change and clean energy, only Dr Kahumbu has been selected for her work in using the internet to raise awareness and funds for wildlife conservation - especially in Africa. The 16 fellows represent organizations based in or running projects in USA, UK, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Kenya.

Dr Paula Kahumbu is available and ready to do interviews with all reporters. You can call her on +254 (0)20 386 51 20 in the office (Nairobi, GMT +3) or on her mobile phone +254 0722 685 106

Tags: fellowship, Masai Mara, Paula Kahumbu, PopTech, richard leakey, Virunga, wildlifedirect

11 responses so far