Local communities have to carry the burden of environmental degradation caused by companies aimed at profit making

This is a good topic for Kenya where local communities have to carry the burden of environmental degradation caused by companies aimed at profit making without looking at the sustainability of the community. However, I have some worries.

What is the best option for Kenya whose forest land cover is only 2%? Increase forests and related vegetation like the proposal to convert 100 ha of the Tana delta into forests and sugar estates or maintain the status quo and allow effects of climate vegetation eat up the people and make them desperate? The main sources of water for the rivers in Kenya are the degraded water towers. One of such water towers is Mount Kenya forest that supports the Tana River. The other is Mau which has been eaten up by communities settling there threatening the Maasai Mara game reserve and the Lake Nakuru bird sanctuary.

The forests are surrounded by a community that is active in agriculture and makes maximum use of the water resources. This affects water flows down stream. However, Eucalypts growing within a 30 meter distance from all the streams are now being removed to sustain the streams. I always wonder- do these trees reduce the water levels from the streams? Where does the water go? I thought that the water cycle is constant only that we wish to make water levels in the rivers so high as we pump all the water into the ocean. My view is that let us grow as many trees along the rivers and water catchments as possible. The trees will pump the water to the atmosphere and it will come back as rain. Rain water is what sustains our agricultural livelihoods in Kenya.

As climate changes, the indigenous communities have to adapt and adaptation calls for some change. Fortunately in Kenya, the New Forest Act, the Water Act and the Environmental Management and Coordination Act give local communities a lot of authority in controlling natural resources around them. I think what is lacking is empowerment of the local communities to interpret these laws and take their position appropriately.

We look forward to The Forests Dialogue (TFD) African Chapter which is being organized by IUCN under the Growing Forests Partnerships (GFP) and other such sharing that will help local communities give their views on the way forward now that climate change is with us.

MWANGI JAMES KINYANJUI
Coordinator – National Alliance of Community Forest Associations Of Kenya (NACOFA)