|
UN Agent Shocked At Forest
Destruction
The East African Standard (Nairobi)
February
19, 2004
Posted to the web February 19,
2004
Standard
Correspondents
Nairobi
The United
Nations Commission on Human Rights has expressed shock at the
continued destruction of forests in Nakuru despite a Government
ban on logging.
An official at
the commission, Mr Miloon Kothari, yesterday personally witnessed
the wanton destruction during a tour of Mau East forest.
Kothari, a
special rapporteur on adequate housing, was shocked to see
truckloads of logs being ferried from Nesswuet forest where
illegal logging was still taking place under the noses of security
personnel.
The official,
who was accompanied by Mazingira Institute representative Dr
Davinder Lamba and Rift Valley Provincial forest officer Thomas
Ronzi, promised to raise the matter with Environment minister Dr
Newton Kulundu when they meet next week.
The continued
destruction of the Mau forest, he said, was a threat to the Ogiek
community's cultural base and identity.
He urged the
Government to immediately enforce the logging ban so as to protect
the rights of the Ogiek, who have lived there for years.
"It is the
obligation of the Government to address the issue immediately,"
said the UN official.
He is on a
mission to collect information "and report on the status of
realisation of the right to adequate housing and other related
rights in the country".
Meanwhile,
massive logging of indigenous trees is decimating the Gwassi
forest in Suba, southern Nyanza.
Investigations
revealed extensive damage to the forest cover, which measures
nearly 12,000 hectares.
About 10,000
hectares of trees have been felled and new settlements established
by more than 100 families now farming on the land.
The encroachment
has interfered with the area's biodiversity, and rivers and
streams are drying up.
The area forest
conservation committee and environ- mentalists have asked the
Government to forcefully evict the families.
They have
proposed that Gwassi Hills be declared a national reserve to
protect it from loggers and people setting there.
A daylong survey
by the East African Standard team found squatters clearing
sections of the forest in readiness for the planting season.
But the
squatters say the hills are not demarcated and it was not possible
to determine which parts of the forest should not be inhabited.
Link : http://allafrica.com/stories/200402190665.html
|
