Preservation of Kenya forest is national emergency

NAROK, Kenya (Reuters) - Maasai goatherd Joseph Nkolia points dismissively at two shallow pools, the only water in a parched stream west of the Kenyan town of Narok.

"It rained yesterday and look at it," he says.

"Two years ago it used to flow strongly through here. Now I often have to get a lorry to bring water from Narok for us and our animals, and it costs a lot." His flock wanders past without bothering to drink the scant brown water.

The stream is a tributary of the Ewaso Ngiro, one of 12 rivers fed from the Mau Complex, Kenya's biggest forest and a vital water catchment in the west of the country.

Destruction of the woodland by rampant illegal settlement, logging and charcoal burning threatens severe damage to Kenya's economy with an impact on energy, tourism, agriculture and water supply to cities and industry.

A familiar Kenyan saga of corruption, illegal landgrabs and the use of state resources to buy votes has destroyed a quarter of the 400,000 hectare forest in the last decade, with an impact that may be felt as far away as Egypt.

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The painting is by Laura Tasheiko

Fencing of Mau Forest to cost Sh40m

Welcome News from Kenya

The Government is seeking Sh40 million to erect a fence and prevent further destruction of Mau Forest.

Environment minister John Michuki said on Tuesday that the 40 kilometre stretch would run along the original boundary of the forest marked in the 1980s.

The fencing, the minister added, would start after 1,962 of the people now living in the controversial forest have been settled elsewhere.

Others in the area have been given notice to leave since the Government had only identified the 1,962 as bona fide land owners.

“We shall use recycled plastic posts to fence the land. No trees will be felled in that forest,” said Mr Michuki.

The minister also said that representatives of Rhino Charge, which has been fencing the Aberdares Forest, had met ministry officials on Wednesday last week and discussed the new project.

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Kenyan courts consider terminating biofuel plans

The Kenyan courts are considering halting the first stage of a US$370 million biofuel project that aims to replace up to 20,000 hectares of coastal grassland with irrigated fields of sugarcane.

A judicial review of the project, based at the Tana River Delta on the northern Kenyan coast, was granted last month (11 July) after a campaign from environmental groups such as Nature Kenya and the East Africa Wildlife Society,and nomadic cattle-farming groups.

The project is intended to generate electricity — up to 34 megawatts a day at its peak — from sugar refining and up to 20 million litres of ethanol fuel annually from molasses.

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