Struggle to Save Karura Forest in Kenya has been Stiff
10/5/98
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Title: Struggle to Save Karura Forest in Kenya has been Stiff
Source: The Nation via Africa News Online
Status: Copyrighted, contact source for reprint permissions
Date: 10/5/98
Byline: Wanja Githinji
Copyright 1998 The Nation. Distributed via Africa News Online.
Nairobi (The Nation, October 4, 1998) - Earlier this year, officials at
Karura Forest Station were issued with a notice by "private developers" to
vacate their offices, to give room for the construction of a housing
project.
As a result, the Government employees are now squatters in their own
station.
The even bigger problem is, the proposed project has speeded up poaching
of indigenous trees like the muhugu, newtonia buchananii (mukoi) and
trichilia-roke (mutuati) trees, among others.
According to Nyambura Allen, who lives near the forest, since mid- May,
200 mature muhugu trees have been illegally felled.
Ms Allen, who has lived next to the forest since 1954, knows many animals
that will lose their habitats with the felling of the trees, besides the
obvious degradation of the environment.
There are Syke's monkeys, rare bush-pigs and sunni antelopes (closely
resembling dik diks but much smaller in size), besides hundreds of bird
species.
"The area they are clearing is almost wholly indigenous," she says.
Other close neighbours say signs of serious trouble became evident last
October when some sort of survey work started and intensified in December.
This is the second time the developers have tried to build an estate in
Karura Forest.
Back in 1995, there was an attempt to hive off the forest for the same
purpose but a sustained outcry thwarted the plans and the attempts were
dropped.
But a map of the forest found with a construction company at Karura was
the same one used in 1995. So, while everyone thought the matter had been
resolved, it was indeed going on "behind closed doors" until a local
broadcasting house reported the goings on.
According to Natural Resources Minister Francis Lotodo in whose portfolio
forests fall, chunks of forests were allocated to private developers in
1996 and gazetted the same year.
The gazettement took place at the same time that Parliament passed a
freelance Motion urging the Government to stop further encroachment on
forests as this was bound to have a negative impact on the environment.
During the Motion, the then Minister for Natural Resources, Mr John Sambu,
admitted that 8,652 hectares of Karura Forest land had been excised in the
previous three years.
"In view of the concern caused by the encroachment on forests in Kenya in
recent times, and the negative impact this is bound to make on the
environment, this House urges the Government to ensure there is no further
encroachment of forests as part of environmental protection and the
upholding of the principles of the United Nations Environment Programme,"
he told Parliament.
As far back as 1996, Mr Fritz Walchli, who lives at New Runda Estate that
neighbours Karura Forest, began a serious battle to save the forest by
writing a letter to the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry
(ICRAF) complaining about a truckful of logs he had intercepted at
Karura Forest.
The driver assured him that it was an official matter and showed him a
Government receipt of payment for the logs.
But Mr Walchli resolved to confirm that the activity was legal and not the
beginning of a process to clear the forest.
Two weeks later, on October 6, he sent another letter to the Chief
Conservator of Forests, Dr K. W. Kipkore, informing him of the same
activity. There was no reply. He did not give up.
On November 4, Mr Walchli sent him another later reminding him of the
first one, but again there was no reply.
On December 21, 1996, he wrote a letter to the Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, informing him of the
earlier letters to Dr Kipkore. It read in part: "As property-owners living
adjacent to Karura Forest, we are concerned about the ongoing destruction
of the same forest and jointly with our neighbours, we would like to know
what the central administration has in mind about it. Please assist us in
obtaining a reply to our request."
Although he did not receive a reply, he still did not give up and in May
last year, he sent the Permanent Secretary another letter. In November, he
sent yet another to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
To date, none of Mr Walchli's letters have been answered. When contacted,
Mr Walchli's frustration at the lack of a reply and the goings on in the
forest was evident.
"The only reason I alerted the Press is because I can't believe that no
one is bothered enough to stop this destruction. But it seems nothing can
be done any more."
Besides the Opposition MPs who have decried the destruction of the forest,
other organisations that have expressed anger are the East African
Wildlife Society and the Kenya Forests Working Group (a consortium of
organisations and institutions, both governmental and non- governmental,
local and international, concerned with forests, their management and
conservation).
The two groups have urged the Government to nullify the allocation of
Karura Forest plots. Excerpts of their letter read: "According to the list
of gazetted forests from the Forestry Department dated December 31, 1994,
the total area of gazetted forest land at Karura is 1,041 ha.
Last week, the Minister for Natural Resources, Mr Lotodo, said the
ministry was managing and protecting 564.14 ha according to the laid- down
forestry principles. What happens to the remaining 476.86 ha of Karura
Forest land?"
The letter signed by the executive director of the society, Mr Nehemiah
Rotich, said that according to the minister, the 85 ha being cleared was
legally allocated in 1996 through Notice No. 97 signed on June 13, 1996,
but published in a Kenya Gazette supplement (No. 44) of June 13, 1997. In
this regard, the law requires a 20- day notice before degazettement if
forest boundaries are to be altered. This did not happen.
According to the notice of 1996, the area affected was in the northern
part of Karura Forest, but the current logging is occurring in all areas
surrounding the "protected" 564.14 ha from the western to the northern
side and off Limuru road near the Belgian Embassy.
The area involved is much greater than the 85 ha the minister spoke about.
It is not quite clear under which notices the extra land is gazetted.
The Architectural Association of Kenya has requested building
professionals and contractors not to be involved in the design or
implementation of any of the proposed developments on Karura land.
Contacted for comment on the destruction, the Permanent Secretary in the
Ministry of Environment Conservation, Mr Franklin Bett, said his Ministry
had expressed concern not only at the destruction of Karura Forest but
also other forests.
"We deplore all illegal tree-felling wherever it may be raking place
because of the degradation the practice is causing, and we have expressed
our concern to the Ministry of Natural Resources about this problem," he
said.
"Forests are important for ecological balance and if we have no forests
tomorrow, it is anyone's guess what will happen to us in the future," he
said.
Barely two years ago, studies by various national environmental
organisations indicated that indigenous forests had been declining at a
rate of 5,000 ha each year.
The report said that the loss of Kenya's forest cover would irreparably
degrade the natural environment. In its study, the International Union of
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) found out that the total forest tree cover
stood at 1.4 million ha, 1.23 million of which were indigenous forests at
the close of 1994. The report estimated that between 17,000 and 27,000
square metres of the indigenous trees are felled each year for commercial
purposes.
Since 1986, researchers at the Kenya Forest Research Institute (KEFRI)
have been developing a Social Forestry Programme to reverse the
deforestation by easing pressure on registered forests. Social forestry
involves small-scale planting and management of trees by individuals or
communities on their land, enabling them to meet their basic social and
economic needs without destroying forests.
It involves the integration of a variety of techniques and approaches for
different sub-Saharan climatic conditions to increase productivity and
incomes. At the same time, more trees are grown on the farms to provide
secure supplies of fuels, fruits, fodder, and building and fencing
materials.
The project, which provides tree seedlings to farmers, is also supposed to
educate the community on the material benefits of growing trees on the
farm and effective use of their products.
Farmers are introduced to multipurpose tree species like mango trees
which, in addition to providing fruits, have stems that can be used as
fuelwood.
Such tree species must also not compete with ordinary crops for water
nutrients.
The Environment Liaison Centre International has initiated a network of
local NGOs to sensitise communities on analogous forestry. They intent to
establishment demonstration plots, tree nurseries and demonstration
arboreta.