 |
| Unsustainable timber harvesting |
The vegetation around the Enapuiyapui Swamp in the heart of the
Kiptunga Forest block in the eastern Mau Forest Complex is in a pathetic
state. Lined with reeds, bunchgrass, switch grass and indigenous cedar
trees, the veritable wetland — which is the lifeline of three major
rivers — has not been spared by encroachers, who are grazing their
animals in the wetland, thereby degrading the Mau Forest
ecosystem.
Tens of
acres of the wetland grasses, which play a major role in protecting the
swamp from the vagaries of weather, are being destroyed thanks to human
greed and uncontrolled livestock grazing.
The
Enapuiyapui Swamp, which is not a gazetted wetland but exists within a
government gazetted forest, is the source of the Amala River, which
joins the Nyangores River to form the Mara River. It is also the source
of the Molo River, which flows into Lake Baringo and River Njoro, both
of which flow into Lake Nakuru.
When DN2
visited the Mau Complex a few weeks ago, there were herds of cattle and
flocks of sheep grazing in different parts of the swamp, trampling on
its vegetation as those herding them sat nearby, watching them.
Less than 10 metres from the wetland is a
seven-year-old plaque dated January 15, 2010, commemorating the day when
then Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the late Prof Wangari Maathai led a
host of government bureaucrats, politicians and environmentalists on a
tree-planting ceremony in the area as part of the efforts to restore the
complex’s ecosystem.
Sadly,
however, just like the ill-fated vegetation surrounding the wetland, all
the trees planted on that occasion have been destroyed.
A
herdsman we met at the swamp said the trees could have been nibbled up
by animals, uprooted by the local people, or even dried up.“We
have nowhere to graze and water our cattle apart from this place.
Pastureland has disappeared due to drought, leaving us with no option,”
he told DN2.Other herders in the area also maintained that due to lack of pasture, they were forced to graze their livestock in the swamp.
While
the law regulates the number of livestock that may be grazed within a
gazetted forest and also requires that livestock owners pay Sh100 a
month to the Kenya Forestry Service (KFS), in the Enapuiyapui and
Kiptunga swamps, the law of the jungle applies, such that herders drive
their livestock into and out of the forest at will, and without paying
any fee.
FORCED TO GRAZE IN DELICATE WETLAND
But
while the herders say it is desperation that is forcing them to graze
their livestock in the delicate wetland because of the drought, their
determination to save their animals poses a major risk to millions of
people who, though living far from the wetland, rely on the swamp for
their water supply.
Jackson Ole
Koraso, the chairman of Kiptunga Community Forest Association (CFA),
says that the livestock owners in the area usually drive their herds
into the wetland, particularly when it is very dry.
PROMOTING CONSERVATION
More
than two years ago, the Ogiek and the Maasai communities living around
the water tower were brought together by the World Wide Fund-Kenya
(WWF), an environmental non-governmental organisation, as well as other
environmental stakeholders, to form a community forest association as an
initiative to promote the conservation of the fores,t but the gains
have been minimal due to lack of cooperation.
“When
the grassland disappears, the water also disappears, therefore, farmers
drive their animals here where there is grass and water. We have been
trying hard to caution them but the response is slow,” Ole Koraso
lamented.
The community also
claims that the exotic forest of pine trees surrounding the swamp could
be a major cause of the wetland’s destruction since they take up a lot
of water through their roots.
However,
Mr Sammy Kamati, the KFS assistant forester at Kiptunga Forest Station,
refuted the claim, insisting that grazing of livestock within the swamp
was solely to blame for the environmental destruction.
“The swamp ecosystem is so delicate that when you destroy the vegetation
that covers it, the wetland gets exposed to heat and as a result the
water dries up,” he explained, adding that that swamp is bordered by a
belt of indigenous forest, and that the exotic forest begins half a
kilometre from the swamp.
MASSIVE DESTRUCTION
The
environmental degradation is even worse in the Olokurto Forest block in
the Maasai-Mau Forest, one of the Mau Forest Complex’s 22 blocks. While
most of the Mau Forest blocks have been gazetted and are managed by the
national government, the Maasai-Mau Forest is trust land managed by the
Narok County government. There
is massive destruction within the Olokurto Forest, where at least 300
acres of forest were recently cleared to make way for wheat farming. Mr
Reuben Ndete, the chairman of the Naituyupaki Community Forest
Association, accused the county government of simply watching as the
forest was destroyed.
“Charcoal
burning is rampant in the forest. Huge caravans of donkeys leave the
forest every day, each carrying two sacks of charcoal,” said Mr Ndete,
adding that no action has been taken against the encroachers, even
though the community has reported the matter to government
authorities. The Mau Forest is the
country’s largest remaining indigenous forest and also the largest of
the country’s five water towers as well as the largest closed-canopy
forest ecosystem. The complex forms part of the upper water catchment
area, and is the catchment source for Lake Victoria and the White Nile.
The
Mau Forest Complex spreads across five counties, namely Nakuru,
Kericho, Baringo, Narok and Bomet. The forest’s degradation has led
to erratic weather patterns and flash floods, whose worst effects are
felt in Narok Town.
PARTICIPATORY FOREST MANAGEMENT PLAN
The community also has a participatory forest management plan which contains the community’s by-laws for managing the forest.“The
initiative has improved the forest’s condition considerably compared to
2008, when such activities had not been introduced. Today there is no
charcoal burning in the forest, neither is there uncontrolled grazing,”
Mr Rono pointed out.
The boundary
of the Nyangores Forest block is also lined with strips of tea
plantations — popularly known as the Nyayo Tea Zones — which act as a
buffer between the people living around the forest and the forest. As a
result, it is easier to monitor the movement of people and livestock
into and out of the forest. Like Kiptunga Forest, Nyangores Forest falls
under the national government.
Community
management is also practised in Leshuta Forest in Mara, Narok County,
where the community is conserving little springs located in small
forested areas.
Mr Tony Tuya, the
chairman of Leshuta Water Resource Users’ Association, said they started
the initiative in 2012 with 150 members, and cover 150 square
kilometres.
They have fenced the
water source and there is no tree cutting within the forested strip,
which is the source of Sand River, a major tributary of the River Mara.
Water from the spring is piped and flows via gravity into a water tank
where people can draw it from a tap. The people have also constructed
water troughs for their livestock.
“The
water is used by more than 15,000 people, including a school, hospital
and a rescue centre, as well as 30,000 livestock,” he said.
Mr
Amos Sangoyo is the scout in charge of the forest. Last year he
arrested two young men who harvested trees from the forest to make goals
during a local football tournament. They were fined Sh1,000 each and
made to plant 10 trees.
CO-MANAGEMENT OF THE FOREST
When
the community is organised, they can manage the environment properly,
says Mr Kennedy Bwire, the WWF-Kenya freshwater project officer in the
Mau-Mara Serengeti Landscape Programme. The organisation is trying to
involve the people living in the sub-catchments in forest conservation
initiatives by encouraging them to monitor grazing and tree harvesting
in the forest and also to report to the authorities those burning
charcoal or cutting down trees in the forest to create farmland.
Mr
Vincent Mainga, forestry leader in the WWF-Kenya Mau/Mara/Serengeti
Forest Programme, says the main aim of the programme is to ensure
co-management of the forest, adding that “Everything is based on the
forest management plan, which controls utilisation to minimise
destruction. Management needs an elaborate strategy.”
For
a water-scarce country like Kenya, conservationists say, the water
tower should have been fenced off and protected from encroachers. So its
neglect points to the wanton disregard for the environment by the
surrounding communities, as well as the government’s laxity in
protecting the water tower.
Mr
Emilio Mugo, a Kenya Forestry Service director, notes that there has
been a high influx of livestock into forested areas in many parts the
country as a result of the ongoing drought.
He
explains that legally, livestock found grazing within a gazetted forest
without their owners paying the designated fees should be confiscated.
“But
the situation is a little complicated in Kiptunga Forest because there
are communities living within the forest, making it difficult to enforce
the regulation. We, therefore, depend on the community’s goodwill to
pay the fees but there is low compliance, which makes the rate of
defaulting higher,” Mr Mugo revealed, He added that KFS had mapped out
different areas’ potential for rehabilitation, and was also planning to
fence off parts of the forest.More
No comments:
Post a Comment