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Shrinking
forests stunt Kenya's growth
Story by ARTHUR OKWEMBA
Publication Date: 10/18/2005
Kenya's efforts at wealth creation
have hit a snag because of the massive of destruction of forests
and rapid depletion of its natural resources, a World Bank reports
says.
Assistant minister for
Environment, Prof Wangari Maathai. Photo
by FILE |
In its
2005 audit report titled Where is the Wealth of Nations;
Measuring Capital for the 21st Century, the bank says
that with a wealth per capita standing of negative 11, the
country is on a treadmill.
Kenya’s
population is reported to be depleting its natural resources
faster than the country is saving and investing its benefits
for the future.
This means
children being born today are not assured of better
prospects and the country will not realise sustainable
development if it continues on this trend.
Although Kenya’s
savings rate lies at 40 per capita, the high population
growth and unsustainable depletion of natural resources -
forests, land and sub-soils - is suppressing the country's
wealth creation efforts. |
Population growth
"While a list of African
countries exhibit positive net savings per capita, there are
negative changes in total wealth per capita. Population growth is
outstripping wealth creation in these countries, says the report.
Kenya, Benin, Burkina Faso, Rwanda,
Senegal, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Mali, Madagascar, Cape Verde, and
Ghana are listed as those countries running down their assets.
Apart from the depletion of natural
resources, the report found Kenya’s intangible capital such as
its work force and the quality of institutions supporting economic
activity, to be one of the lowest in the world.
Such low figures among the
countries whose wealth was measured means that they have low
education levels and practice poor governance, the report says.
Even in countries where high school
levels are visible, as is the case with Kenya, the benefits from
education maybe very low if there is no productive sector to
absorb the educated professionals.
When this is the case, those who
fail to get jobs move to other countries, resulting in brain drain.
Kenya has in recent years been
experiencing massive brain drain as professionals, especially
doctors, nurses and other scientist, seek greener pastures in
developed countries.
Inefficient judicial systems, lack
of clear property rights and effective governments are also
responsible for the low wealthy creation.
On the environment, the report,
which gives statistics on the wealth status of 120 countries
worldwide, warns that countries which are growing today could
experience declining wealth in the future if their environments
are compromised.
Toxic emissions
This is the second time in less
than three years that a UN agency has passed a negative assessment
on Kenya’s management of natural resources.
In 2002, an Economic Commission for
Africa report titled, Harnessing Technologies for Sustainable
Development, placed the country’s environmental
sustainability at 0.4. This was based on a scale of 0 to 1, with 0
being the worst and 1 the best practice.
Out of the 38 countries researched
in this study for their environmental sustainability between 1975
and 2000, Kenya was placed in position 36, two steps ahead of
Tunisia and Mauritania.
Forest cover, arable land, carbon
dioxide emissions and population density were the indicators used
to rank countries.
Again, the current report confirms
that matters are moving from bad to worse. This is because the
last few years have witnessed a massive destruction of the
country’s natural resources, especially forests and the soil.
Forest cover is now estimated to
stand at less than two per cent when the widely acceptable figure
is 10 per cent.
Government officers and ordinary
members of the public have been involved in the destruction of
forests.
The poor argue that they have been
pushed into using firewood and charcoal as a source energy because
the cost of paraffin has risen beyond their reach.
Currently, one litre of paraffin
retails at Sh58 in Kenya, double the rate it was going for less
than three years ago.
Many wild animals that inhabit
certain forests have died or been displaced following this
destruction, while the unchecked emission of carbon dioxide
continues to destroy the environment.
In the same period, the country has
been experiencing a shortage of contraceptives for women,
especially the injectable ones, which are a favourite for the
rural women.
According to the 2003 Kenya
Demographic Health Survey, contraceptive prevalence in the
country has stagnated at 39 per cent. One of the consequences of
this is the increase in the number of children per woman from four
to five.
Demographic experts believe the
effect of this increase is putting extra pressure on natural
resources, contributing to negative wealth creation.
They also argue that failure to
involve the public, who are the custodians of these resources, in
the ownership and sharing of benefits arising from such assets is
to blame for their increased depletion.
Assistant Minister for Environment
Wangari Maathai agrees. Speaking during the launch of the World
Bank report, Prof Wangari gave an example of communities living in
the Aberdare mountains and Mt Kenya as those needing to share in
the benefits arising from the use of these natural features.
"Once we educate people and
ensure that they have a stake in the benefits arising from the
natural resources in their neighbourhood, then they can help in
conserving such assets," she said.
Prof Wangari wants the World Bank
and other donors to find ways of compensating countries that
forego exploitation of certain resources for the purposes of
environmental conservation.
But the World Bank Vice-President
for Sustainable Development, Ian Johnson, warned that even if they
were to prescribe to governments what to do on environment and
development issues, it would not work unless these governments
believed the sector was critical for development.
He says although 55 per cent of
child and maternal mortality are caused by environmental factors,
many people do not see things from this perspective.
What is currently worrying the
World Bank most is that in an attempt to spur economic growth as a
way of meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), many
countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, may do so at the
expense of the wealth they have - natural resources.
The World Bank wants finance
ministers in these countries to develop a comprehensive agenda
"that looks at natural resources as an integral part of their
policy domain."
They should also, together with
ministries of planning and national development, include
statistics on depletion of resources and damage to the environment
when measuring their Gross Domestic Product, to help get the true
figures of wealth.
The report further challenges Kenya
and other African governments to invest the earnings from their
natural resources in other assets such as infrastructure and
education of its people, among other things.
An AWC-Feature
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