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ACTION ALERT !
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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Opposition Grows to Kenya's Forest Plan
Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc. http://forests.org/
Forest Conservation Portal http://forests.org/web/
Discuss Forest Conservation
03/20/01
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY
TAKE ACTION AT: http://www.ogiek.org/
Kenya plans to clear more than ten percent of its forests, some
67,000 hectares, to settle landless squatters.
Many of the forests to be stripped
of their protected status are critical water catchment forests,
and others are home to indigenous peoples such as the Ogiek that
oppose the move.
While the goal of alleviating
poverty is commendable, continuing to whittle away at the nation's
ecological capital assuredly will only worsen the social situation.
Kenya has already exceeded the
carrying capacity of its ecological systems, which are inadequate
to maintain hydrological, climatic and other ecosystem processes.
Any chance of achieving sustainable
development and continuing to meet human needs for all Kenyans is
dependent upon halting the tide of ecological decline, and
beginning the process of restoring and expanding ecosystems.
To stop and then reverse ecological
decline in the face of such massive human need is difficult but
not impossible.
And indeed, there is no alternative
other than continued deforestation and eventual complete and total
societal and ecological collapse.
The situation illustrates that any
protected designation is tenuous at best.
Effective conservation requires
strict protection AND ecologically sustainable conservation
management.
At the Ogiek.org web site - http://www.ogiek.org/
- you can support the rights of an affected indigenous group and
protest the removal of protected status for these large and
precious rainforests by sending protest letters to Kenyan
officials.
Please do so.
g.b.
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Kenya's Forest Plan Rouses More Opposition
Source: Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2001
Date: March 19, 2001
NAIROBI, Kenya, March 19, 2001 (ENS) - Opposition is growing to the
Kenyan government's plan to clear more than 67,000 hectares (165,560
acres) of forest.
The plan is to resettle landless people, including at the foot of Mount Kenya. The Kenyan government says most of the
land is already settled and now needs to be formally managed.
Wangari Maathai's Green Belt movement has collected more than 20,000
signatures on a petition opposing the deforestation plan.
But last Thursday, a Kenyan High Court granted an injunction to prevent authorities from clearing forests until a case
filed by an environmental lawyer against Environment Minister Francis
Nyenze, is
heard.
Last month, Nyenze announced the government's plans to allocate
forest land for settlement in locations around Mount Kenya, in the
Rift Valley and in Western Kenya.
According to government legal notices in the Kenya Gazette, these are
the areas affected with the number of hectares to be excised. A hectare equals 2.47 acres.
* Eastern Mau (35,301.01 hectares)
* South Western Mau (22,792.2 hectares)
* Western Mau (1,035.7 hectares)
* Nakuru (270.5 hectares)
* Nabkoi (74.1 hectares)
* Mt. Kenya (1,825.2 hectares)
* Marmanet (2,837.4 hectares)
* Northern Tinderet (788.3 hectares)
* Mt. Londiani (124.9 hectares)
* South Nandi (34.5 hectares)
* Molo (901.6 hectares)
* Kapsaret (1,194.2 hectares)
Kenyan media outlets reported today that despite the High Court
ruling, surveyors continued to survey the foot of Mount Kenya over
the weekend, with armed police keeping guard.
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) director general Dr. Claude Martin
has written to the government, protesting its plans, which affect more than 10 percent of Kenya's forests.
"We would encourage you to undertake an environment impact assessment
in order to get a clearer picture of the costs and benefits of such a
decision on the immediate stakeholder communities and
the nation of Kenya," Martin wrote.
"We are already experiencing numerous problems as a result of
deforestation. Indeed, your country Kenya is listed among those experiencing water stress," Martin pointed out.
He noted the case of Nakuru town, which has been without water for
months. Nakuru is a major agricultural and minor industrial center
about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Lake Naivasha.
The town epitomizes the pressures being placed on Kenya's natural resources by deforestation. Its nearest water source is
the River Malewa, which is also Lake Naivasha's lifeline, supplying 90 percent
of surface water intake.
Deforestation in the mountains is reducing river flows, and cultivation of steep slopes down to the river
banks, overgrazing, and water extraction are lowering the Malewa's levels and
increasing its silt and nutrient loads.
WWF has been working in Nakuru and Lake Naivasha for 12 years. The
organization reports that a weir on one of the Malewa's tributaries
has been built, and there are plans to dam the Malewa to supply Nakuru
town.
This, according to the award winning Lake Naivasha Riparian Association
(LNRA), will mean the end of Lake Naivasha. The LNRA won the 1999 Ramsar Wetland Conservation Award for bringing
international attention to one of the few freshwater lakes in eastern
Africa.
Martin acknowledged the Kenyan government's dilemma in balancing conservation and the demands of a growing population
and development. But he is not the only high profile figure asking the
government to think again.
"The short term economic gains of clearing woodlands for timber or
agriculture must be matched against the even bigger, long term, losses as a result of uncontrolled and unsustainable
deforestation,"
Toepfer told reporters February 28.
"Forests are the earth's green lungs, helping to remove carbon
dioxide and other pollutants from the atmosphere. They also stabilize
soils, reducing the risks of erosion and run off into rivers, and are
in many cases home to a rich variety of wildlife and indigenous,
forests dwelling, peoples."
Last Tuesday, the Kenyan church handed over a petition containing more than 500 signatures of those opposed to the
government's plans. This is in addition to the 20,000 signatures collected
by Professor Wangari Maathai's tree planting Green Belt Movement.
"This is not the end, rather it is the beginning of things to come,"
said Maathai.
Two years ago, Maathai was seriously injured when security guards beat her and supporters as they tried to plant trees in
Karura forest. The 1,000 hectare (2,470 acre) eucalyptus and cypress forest
stands amid some of the Kenyan capital's most affluent suburbs, and
just beside UNEP headquarters.
Karura and Mount Kenya forest have been the scenes of violent confrontation before. Both areas have been under
pressure from llegal logging for years. As ENS reported in February 1999,
large parts of
Mt. Kenya's 200,000 hectares of forest have been cleared by selective
logging and marijuana cultivation.
The Kenyan government has created an inter-ministerial committee to
review petitions, but is not obliged to act on them.
According to WWF, the government is resolute on the plan and may even clear more
forests.
"I'm doing what should have been done about 10 years ago," Kenya's
Environment Minister Francis Nyenze told the BBC last month. He said
the government's plan would protect forests while settling landless
people.
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