Mending the Mangroves
Category: Forest | Date: Nov 27 2007 | By: admin
The Water Hole has been running dry lately, but a certain rain has filled it up a little. Today we head for the ‘big water’. Reason being that the Marine Programme Coordinator, Lionel Murage, came from the Kenya coast recently where he attended a meeting that had not so good news - but with a ray of hope - about mangroves at Shimoni area.
Indiscriminate clear-cutting of mangroves in Shimoni area of Kwale District in Kenya’s south coast has now increased to an alarming state. This was reported in a meeting held on 10 November 2007 at Mwazaro Beach Mangrove Lodge in Shimoni.
The management of the Lodge have been witnessing huge swathes of mangroves disappear in recent times. As is usually the case in such illegal resource harvesting, perpetrators have been enjoying the protection of the local forest office, and all of them were licensed to harvest mangroves.
Although harvesting mangroves for local use (non-commercial) is permitted by local authorities, there are still regulations in place that govern how the mangroves are harvested in order to ensure sustainability of the resource. Recently, these rules have been flouted with a recklessness never before seen.
According to the management of the Lodge, apart from increasing local market for the mangrove poles, a ready and growing market exists through Msambweni on to Mombasa and beyond. Since the main Lunga-lunga to Mombasa road is close by, illegal exportation to the City of Mombasa is sufficiently easy to drive this demand. The main species targeted for this illegal export, and unsustainable local market are Ceriops tagal, Rhizophora mucronata, Brugueira spp and Sonneratia alba.
The mangrove harvesters have devised techniques to hide their unscrupulous harvesting method. They clear-cut large areas away from the Ramisi River banks leaving a ribbon of mangroves along the banks to camouflage their unsightly handiwork. To a casual observer navigating the Ramisi River into Funzi Bay, it would appear as if the mangroves are flourishing.
Funzi Bay and Ramisi River estuary are approximately 90-km south of Mombasa City. Funzi Bay connects Shirazi Creek to the Ramisi estuary. This area has not developed a thriving tourism industry as the rest of south coast of Mombasa and the economy is rather rural. Population is low but rapidly increasing, and therefore, leading to growing demand for construction materials (chiefly mangrove poles).
The area is rich in biodiversity with approximately 46 species of birds reported within the Ramisi estuary and the bay. Many more species are thought to have inhabited the area prior to the construction of a sugar factory in the early 70s.
As the harvesting of mangroves continued Mwazaro Beach Mangrove Lodge and other stakeholders begun rehabilitating the badly affected areas. In the last five years, the Lodge has been undertaking reforestation within the Ramisi estuary. A map presented in the meeting of 10 November showed that the majority of the illegal harvesting sites were those that this rehabilitation had been carried out previously.
Given this frustration, the Lodge asked for help in dealing with the situation from such organisations as the EAWLS, Global Vision International (GVI) and the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Institute (KEMFRI). To this effect, EAWLS and GVI will collaborate to do a baseline assessment to determine the extent of the damage and together with information already gathered by KEMFRI and the Lodge; they will formulate provide a final report. This report will be the basis for further action.
Community areas are sensitive and even as the EAWLS, GVI, KEMFRI and Mwazaro Beach Mangrove Lodge seek solutions to the problem, it will be necessary to consult with the community. This is clear to these organisations and approaches that seek to give ownership of the solutions to the community are their priority. Such solutions also seem to cost less, are easier to implement and are more sustainable.
Attending the meeting were the EAWLS Executive Director, Mr Ali Kaka, EAWLS Deputy Director and Head of Conservation Programmes, Mr Hadley Becha; EAWLS Marine Coordinator, Dishon Murage and project assistant, Phyllis Gichuhi. Others were Hans, Amelia Curt, Graham Cotti Tom Hardy and David.
My first $50…plus more Natron
Category: Donations, Lake Natron, Wetlands | Date: Nov 17 2007 | By: admin
Yesterday, Charles T made the world record by becoming the first person in the whole wide world to donate to the Water Hole. I am very delighted. May I take this opportunity to thank you Charles, your donation will assist us in our advocacy campaigns to ensure that the governments of East Africa do not destroy our environment and that they will respect nature. Charles’s gesture should encourage all of you out there to give to our campaigns.
And speaking of campaigns, Dipesh just found links with useful information about the Lake Natron soda ash project. The first link is to a page in the Environmental Liaison Center International (ELCI) website that contains a PDF document with the concerns of the Lake Natron Consultative Group. You will find the LNCG Concerns here.
the second link is like an answer to the first one. This link takes us to a statement by the Tata Chemicals of India. Tata Chemicals and the National Development Corporation (NDC) formed the Lake Natron Resources Limited specifically to extract the soda ash from Lake Natron. Go to the Tata Statement
Lake Natron: Don’t blink!
Category: Lake Natron, Legislation, Wetlands | Date: Nov 14 2007 | By: admin
Inasmuch as the Lake Natron soda ash project has been suspended, with Tanzania’s Lake Natron Resources Limited (LNRL) being asked to do a more comprehensive Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), we are not out of the woods yet. So once again I repeat: don’t pop the champagne.
I received this morning the regular update from the Lake Natron Consultative Group (now housed at the Birdlife Africa Partnership Secretariat in Nairobi), that has clarified some points.
The National Environmental Management Council’s (NEMC) rejection of the presented ESIA is no reason to go ahead and throw a party. Why do I say that? Simple. The Tanzanian legislation gives NEMC two options when an inadequate ESIA is brought to them.
One, they can officially (in writing) instruct the project proponent, in this case the Tata (of India) -owned LNRL, to do a proper ESIA. We don’t yet know whether they have done that. Two, they can recommend to the Minister of Environment their decision to have the ESIA repeated and the minister would order that to be done.
Now, given the political nature the project has assumed, the second scenario is most likely to occur. However - and here is where the catch is - the minister is under no obligation to abide by NEMC’s recommendations. He can give a project approval certificate with conditions. Politically, this is what he is most likely to do.
Conservationists are jittery in the face of a recent announcement by the Prime Minister’s Office in the regional paper The East African of last week saying that the project would go on. What is more worrying is that the Prime Minister, Edward Lowassa, represents the constituency in which Lake Natron is located. It is likely that he would - as a way of furthering his popularity for the next polls in a few years - want to be credited with bringing ‘development’ to his constituents and thus pressure the environment minister to give the go ahead certificate.
Perhaps to give us a tad of hope, we should be encouraged to learn that apart from international donors, international conservation organisations, Kenyan and Ugandan NGOs and Tanzanian conservationists, other countries in the region have also thrown their weight behind the protest. Ethiopia is a new entrant in the fray. Together with Uganda their main concern is that the project will hurt their tourism industry real bad.
Only such continued international, regional and local advocacy can save the Lake.
You can see the scary page that Tanzania’s National Development Corporation has had for a while now promoting the project here.
I would like to thank all those who visit this blog for these updates - especially those who leave comments. Specifically, again, I thank Lisa who has provided me with the motivation to always want to put in a new post. It is good to know that you enjoyed my post about Daphne and her art. Thank you.
The Beauty of Wildlife
Category: Wildlife | Date: Nov 12 2007 | By: admin
Sometimes, the unexpected happens.
Last Friday on my way home from the office I decided to pass by the supermarket and buy some milk. On my way in I noticed some beautiful paintings attractively displayed. I went on into the supermarket with the promise that I would come back and have a look. I went in, bought my milk and on the way out I noticed that one of the paintings looked familiar. It was the painting of a lioness drinking at a water hole. I don’t know whether I noticed it because it was about an animal at a water hole or because I had seen the painting before, but I suspect it was both.
As it turned out, Mrs Daphne Butler, one of the Kenya’s finest wildlife artists was holding a solo exhibition at The Junction atrium a little away from the Nairobi City Business District. Silly me. It was when I was just about to greet her that I remember that I had received an email notice saying she would be having this exhibition. After much apologies and all the pleasantries that are required of such an error, we got talking. I was lucky to remember that she was one of the biggest contributers to an art exhibition and auction EAWLS organised to raise funds for conservation a couple of years back. As we talked I promised that I would mention her to you. So that is why I am telling you this.
Daphne is a sweet lady born in Tanzania and who’s spent all her life in Africa. Most of her childhood was spent on the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro. She spent a long time in Zimbabwe with her parents before pursuing a degree at the University of Cape Town. She then came to Kenya where took a career as a freelance illustrator. In her free time she would take on painting commissions. She soon became a full time artist and she now paints the subjects dear to her: people and wildlife. Daphne has exhibited her oils, acrylics and watercolours in Nairobi, New York, South Africa and in other locations.
In my opinion, wildlife art is a way of raising awareness about the beauty of wildlife. Just hang one good painting of an animal you like, and you are hooked into conservation, and the support of conservation.
You want one of Daphne’s paintings? Well you can commission one or buy some of the beautiful ones I saw on Friday.
Here is how to contact her:
Technorati : Kenya, wildlife, wildlife art
Flamingos Free to Breed…for Now
Category: Lake Natron, Wetlands | Date: Nov 09 2007 | By: admin
Friends, I told you that the threat to flamingos has been suspended in my previous post: Respite for the Pinks!. These news have been recieved well by all who have heared. We still need to keep the Tanzania Government in check as this is not final. I am also informed that the government has issued concessions for oil prospecting and one of the sites - like I said - is in Lake Natron Area. I will keep you informed of this development as the news come along. In the meantime, please see how Birdlife International announced the great news. just click on the picture
The flamingos are free to breed…for now [picture (c) Owen Newman/Naturepl.com]
Bongo Surveillance Team Awarded
Category: Aberdares, Forest, Parks, Rhino, Wildlife | Date: Nov 08 2007 | By: admin
On Sunday, I gave you the good news about the suspension of the Lake Natron soda ash project: here is more good news!
On Saturday, 3 November 2007, our Executive Director, Mr Ali Kaka, travelled to the Aberdare National Park to present the Michael Werikhe Perpetual Trophy for Services to Conservation to the Aberdare Bongo Surveillance Team. The Bongo Team, established in 2003, has been heroic in they quest for - and protection of - the elusive and rare Mountain Bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci) in the Aberdare and adjoining forests. Recently, they re-discovered resident herds of wild bongo in Mount Kenya, Mount Eburru and the Mau Ranges.
It is for this reason that at the finish line of this year’s rhino charge - an off-road driving challenge organised by The Rhino Ark to raise funds for building and maintaining an electric fence around the Aberdares Conservation Area (ACE) - Mr Colin Church, the Rhino Ark Chairman, announced that the Bongo Team were the winners of this year’s Michael Werikhe Trophy.
The Michael Werikhe Perpetual Trophy is sponsored by the EAWLS each year and awarded by the Rhino Ark - who also decides the winner - to individuals or groups who have shown great commitment in their services to the Aberdare Fence and the entire Aberdare Ecosystem. The winners are announced at the end of the Rhino Charge, which is held in the first week of July each year. The Charge is held at a different location each year to allow last years site to recover naturally from the ‘trampling’ by more than 50 monstrous 4X4 vehicles, their crew and thousands of spectators and their vehicles.
The award is however officially presented to the winners at a later date and this year it was presented last Saturday. The event was not without pomp and fanfare as the green clad Bongo Team interacted with the top brass in conservation. There was even a surprise visit by an elephant to crown an already eventful day.
While giving the trophy, Mr Kaka commended the team saying that “We are happy that this dedicated team is doing a wonderful job and this hitherto threatened species will now roam the wild forever and its status in the Park will be known”. “Rhino Ark is to be specially commended for involving the neighbouring communities in the conservation activities of the Park,” he added.
Attending the ceremony, together with Mr Kaka, were Colin Church, James Githui, the Rhino Ark’s Rhino Fence/Community Manager, Michael Kihara, the UNDP Small Grants Programme Officer (UNDP has given Rhino Ark US$ 50,000 for the Bongo Project) and top officials if the Kenya Wild Life Service in the Mountain Region.
Respite for the Pinks!
Category: Lake Natron, Wetlands, Wildlife | Date: Nov 04 2007 | By: admin
Its good news everyone! The Tanzania Government on Friday, 2 November 2007, told the Lake Natron Resources Limited (LNRL) to go back to the drawing board and bring back a more comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment report. This shows that the government has been listening to all the noise that conservationists have been making. We should keep on with the pressure and the government will definitely let the flamingoes go.
What should make us more confident of winning this battle - for the flamingos and the people of Lake Natron - is that the government also asked the LNRL to go look for soda ash elsewhere. I suspect that the government is looking for an exit strategy: a more dignified way to say ‘we lost’. Well, if it benefits the flamingos, wildlife and the local villagers, then so be it.
Lake Natron Resources Ltd staged their own downfall by trying to sneak in their proposal without following due process. Mr Hadley Becha, EAWLS Deputy Director and Head of Conservation Programmes, was part of the Lake Natron Consultative Group that was invited to the first ‘preliminary’ presentation of the EIA and he observed - and vehemently questioned - the gross omissions that were blatantly visible in the report. He pointed out, for instance, that there had been no cross border consultations despite the Lake Natron waters being depended upon by the Maasai community accross the boarder in Kenya; international and regional environmental treaties (such as the East African Community treaty, Ramsar Convention, Migratory Birds treaty and so on) were ignored; although the EIA covered the flamingos breeding site, no attention was paid to the overall ecosystem; and, most importantly, the local community was not asked what they wanted. The EIA was doomed to fall short of any standards.
Campaigns to nip the development at the bud continued though and more conservation organizations joined in (e.g. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) for we know that it is not unusual for a flimsy EIA process to carry the day with the ‘right’ connections in the corridors of political power. We know that, essentially, development is a political process.
Now that the ‘development’ is suspended, we should not pop the Champaign yet. The EAWLS will revise its strategy and lobby for the final end to this travesty and we hope that you will all stand by us. We will ask our Director, Mr Ali Kaka - a seasoned campaigner for nature - to be the voice of our campaign. We should drive the government with pitchforks until it lets the flamingos live free and reproduce at Lake Natron - as they have done for the last 45 years.
I thank all of you who posted comments on my previous post: Dipesh, Ann, Paula, Sheryl, Louise, Antonio, Bruno and of course Lisa. Thank you all. I am blogging on a Sunday (in the office!) because of all of you - and the wildlife of East Africa). Thank you for your support.
With your support we can bring down Armageddon!
Pink Armageddon?
Category: Lake Natron, Wetlands | Date: Nov 02 2007 | By: admin
Today (2 November 2007) the fate of 2.5 million Lesser Flamingos (Phoenicopterus minor) hangs in the balance. It is today that the National Environmental Management Council of the Republic of Tanzania is presenting the results of an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment study on Lake Natron to its Government. Will it be a good day for Natron or is it the end of the ‘flamingo factory’ as we know it? Is it Armageddon for the graceful pink birds? We can only wait and see. We have signed the petition. We have lobbied the government bodies and all that are concerned. Now we sit with bated breath. Will they say no to development and yes to preservation of the natural heritage?
Why Armageddon? Because unfolding events suggest doom for the beautiful lake. Those in the know are anticipating that the NEMC might recommend a go ahead for the soda ash project. We are hoping that reason will prevail over partisan and short-term gains. As the EAWLS Wetlands Programme Coordinator, Peter Odhiambo pointed out in his comment on an earlier post in this blog, “Going by the past and unfolding events, we don’t expect the recommendation to be negative on the [soda ash] project”.
The most saddening part of the whole murky scenario is that the Tanzanian Government has just published requests for bids for 6 oil mining concessions; one of the areas, sadly, is Lake Natron.
The Lake Natron Consultative Group (LNCG), which has been at the forefront in lobbying the Tanzanian government to shelve the project, has prepared a letter to send to the country’s Environment Minister (apart from the petition that some of you have already signed). We don’t know how this will influence Minister Mark Mwandosya’s decision.
After today’s “Technical Committee” meeting the NEMC will hold a public hearing meeting at an unspecified date, where members of the public will be invited to comment on the EIA report. Others of course are skeptical. It is only a few days ago that the Lawyers’ Environmental Action Team (LEAT) of Tanzania requested to attend a meeting on the project at NEMC offices and were turned away. “It is an internal meeting”, they were told. We are anxiously awaiting the outcome of today’s meeting and for the communication of the public hearing date.
We shall update you as soon as we get the 411.
See a Birdlife International press release on the subject here
A lonely lake ebbs away
Category: Community, Lake Ol Bolossat, Wetlands | Date: Nov 01 2007 | By: admin
In the chilly shadows of the Aberdare Ranges in central Kenya lies a tiny lake. Lake Ol Bolossat – the only lake in Kenya’s Central Province – is the source of the Ewaso Narok River which flows silently underground towards the Lorian Swamp before emerging and tumbling down the 75 metres (256 feet) Thomson Falls into the boulder strewn gorge below and eventually joining the Tana River and flowing east into the Indian Ocean.
Lake Ol Bollosat is known for its peculiar habit of drying up and springing back to life in some ambiguous intermittent patterns. This time however, given its current precarious state – environmentalists are worried that if it dries up it may never again come back to life.
That is the reason why between 16 and 17 October 2007 the EAWLS Wetlands Programme Coordinator, Peter Odhiambo, and one of his project assistants, Rashida Suleiman, were out there visiting with the Lake Ol Bolossat Environmental Conservation Network (LOECN), a community group whose goal is to see that the Lake stays alive. Peter and Rashida represented of the Kenya Wetlands Forum (KWF), which has its secretariat at the EAWLS. They were there to assess the status of the lake and to consult with the group on what has been done and what can be done to save the lake in preparation for the forthcoming visit by officials from the Nairobi office of the Netherlands Embassy. The Dutch, have funded a rehabilitation project for the lake and its wetlands since June 2007 and will be visiting the site to assess the project.
Lake Ol Bolossat, located in Nyandarua District, has – like most other lakes – been afflicted by the phenomenal growth in human population taking its toll on natural environments especially in the developing world. The Lake is in the middle of a zone occupied by some of the most industrious agriculturists in kenya – the Gikuyu – although before the Boers settlers were allocated the land in 1932 by the British colonials, the land used to be the grazing land of the maasai. Even today, lone Maasai herdsmen wander with their many cattle all the way from Narok to the Nyandarua grasslands during dry seasons. These massive herds combined with the high maintenance hybrids kept by the Gikuyu people and the hippos that dwell in the lake are straining the riparian grasslands surrounding the lake. Trampling and overgrazing are removing this vital grassy cover to the extent that siltation of the lake is occurring at an unprecedented rate.
The LOECN has been assisted by the Dutch Embassy through the KWF to rehabilitate these grasslands and the adjoining escarpment which – owing to intense agriculture – has lost most of its tree cover. Since June 2007, more than 30,000 trees have been planted with the target for the group being to plant 1.7-million trees. The community group also wishes to improve the aesthetic beauty of the lake and to make it a viable and competitive ecotourism destination.
LOECN has a lot of work to do and they have appealed for assistance from government, NGOs and the caring public to support their efforts. They are particularly constrained in terms of tree seedling bags, transportation of seedlings to the ranges, construction of a central tree nursery, and the establishment of micro-enterprises that will ease pressure on the lakes natural resource (to include a central apiary with 200 beehives, fishponds, and brick making enterprises to substitute timber in home construction). The group also seeks assistance in planting agro-forestry tree species such as Esbania spp which are fast growing as well as economically and ecologically beneficial.
This is a noble effort by a community of rural folk which should be supported by all.
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Donations Received
- Feb 1st Theresa S. USD50.00
- Nov 11th Charles T. USD50.00