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Destruction of Mau Forest
Complex Threatens Kenya's Entire Economy
By JOHN MBARIA
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
EAST AFRICAN - Monday, October 4, 2004
THE GRABBING of more than a quarter
of the 360,000-hectare Mau Forest complex where wanton felling of
trees has been going on for years as illegal settlers occupy the
land and burn thousands of tonnes of charcoal, poses a major
threat to Kenya's economy.
Also threatened is the country's
water supply as various rivers with their sources in the 22 forest
reserves of the complex dry up. Pastoralist communities are
particularly affected.
Kenya's as well as Tanzania's
tourism sectors have not been spared either since the survival of
Lake Natron which is the main breeding ground for the millions
of flamingoes that populate many of the lakes in the Rift Valley
is uncertain, with the water volume in the Ewaso Nyiro River
which feeds the lake dropping significantly.
The grim scenario was painted by a
fact-finding mission organised by the Kenya Forestry Working Group
(KFWG) and key officials of the Forestry Department to the Mau
forests in April.
"The destruction is actively
undermining not only the livelihoods of the communities living
downstream but also the government's efforts at making such
investments as the Sondu-Miriu hydroelectric power project,"
said Dr Hezron Mogaka of the Biodiversity Conservation Programme (BCP).
Funded by the European Union, the
BCP is engaged in a two-year Ksh13.9 million ($173,750) Mau Forest
Complex Conservation Project to help salvage the forests.
And working jointly with the
Department for Resource Survey and Remote Sensing (DRSRS), KFWG
has established that a total of 7,084 hectares of forest cover
were cleared from the Mau Complex between 2000 and last year.
"This figure is just the tip
of the iceberg, as it does not represent the deforestation that
took place prior to 2000 and since last year," said Michael
Gachanja, the co-ordinator of KFWG.
Experts have estimated that between
1967 and 1989, the eastern sector of the complex had lost
approximately 28 per cent of its tree cover, largely through the
establishment of the World Bank-supported forest plantations in
the 1970s.
Dr Mogaka said that over the past
20 years, the complex might have lost up to 60 per cent of its
tree cover. "At independence (in 1963), the Mau was one
forest, but what we have now are patches of forest."
The Mau is a complex of 22 forests
spanning five districts Narok, Nakuru, Nandi, Bomet and
Kericho that represent over 25 per cent of Kenya's forests.
They are said to be larger than the Aberdares and Mt Kenya
forests, to which public attention has been glued in the recent
past.
The complex is one of Kenya's five
"water towers," as it forms catchments for all the major
rivers flowing into Lake Victoria Sondu, Yala and Nzoia as
well as Ewaso Nyiro, Kerio and Mara, which pastoralist communities
rely on.
The joint KFWG/Forestry Department
mission visited three forests Maasai Mau, Ol Posimoru and
Trasmara to complement information collected from nine other
forests two years ago. In all the visited forests, the destruction
involved charcoal burning and clear felling, which targeted
high-value indigenous trees.
So grim is the situation that the
entire 901 hectare Molo forest has been cleared. "Based on
satellite images and aerial surveys, it appears that all
plantations have been harvested and not replanted with tree
seedlings. The indigenous forest has been cleared," says the
mission's report. Replacing the forests are plantations of maize,
beans, potatoes, peas and other staples, it added.
The forest forms the upper
catchment of the Molo River, which drains into Lake Baringo.
The Elburgon forest, too, has been
cleared and what remains of Likia forest in Njoro, Nakuru, is a
thin strip of indigenous trees. The forest station been
transformed into a school, with the forest guards' post serving as
the District Officer's office.
As for Sururu forest, a farming
community of 300 families had occupied it before the government
evicted them recently. It is now the subject of an ongoing case in
the High Court.
The Maasai Mau, South West Mau and
Eastern Mau have lost between a third and two-thirds of their tree
cover, leaving large "bald" swathes that are incapable
of holding water when it rains.
Recently, the destruction of the
Maasai Mau was in the limelight after local politicians, led by
William ole Ntimama, a Minister in the Office of the President,
decried the grabbing of a section of the forest by unnamed
well-to-do local politicians.
Other forests in the complex are
Molo South, West Molo, Southern Mau, Eburu, Eastern Mau, Mau
Narok, Kilombe Hill, Mount Londiani, Maji Mazuri, Lembus,
Chemorogok, Metkei, Tinderet, Timboroa, West Molo, Western Mau,
Nabkoi and Northern Tinderet, all of which are under varying
degrees of pressure from human activities.
Conservationists say that the
destruction will have far-reaching implications for the Kenyan
economy, whose survival is largely based on natural resources.
Residents living around the Mau
forests told the fact-finding team that, as a result of the
ongoing destruction, some of the local rivers had dried up or were
on the verge of drying up.
The report cites the Naishi river,
which drains into Lake Nakuru, as having "ceased to exist,"
while the formerly permanent River Njoro "is now seasonal due
to the destruction of the forests in the Mau Escarpment."
What is most worrisome for
Tanzanian and Kenyan tourism sectors is the fact that farming
activities, particularly the cultivation of staples in Mau Narok
forest, have extended to the source of the Mara River.
The Mara is the lifeblood of the
Mara/Serengeti ecosystem and is closely linked to the spectacular
migration of millions of zebra and wildebeest that attracts
thousands of local and international tourists every year.
The KFWG report says that a number
of rivers have been transformed into heavily-silted "storm
rivers" as a result of soil erosion in the catchment.
"Problems of obtaining drinking water are imminent in many
new and old settlements," it adds.
Huge chunks of some of the forests
in the complex have been degazetted to settle the landless. These
include Teret Forest and Keringet, both of which are in Nakuru.
According to the report, the latter has lost 90 per cent of its
tree cover to settlers.
But KFWG says that settlement in
these forests is "not justifiable" as no consideration
has been given to the environmental consequences of the catchment
degradation, which is felt far beyond the immediate surroundings."
Source: http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/04102004/Features/Part2.html
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