Honey Hunters of Kenya Land Case Ends Up in Court

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Archives

http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest Conservation

5/30/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

The Ogieks of Kenya are attempting to protect their system of land

tenure and conservation through legal action. The Mau Forest Complex

is located in the Rift Valley, and lies in the montane rain forest

region that contains the largest remaining block of moist indigenous

forest in East Africa--covering an area of 900 square kilometres. How

many sustainable indigenous resource management systems have been

trampled and dismantled in the name of Western economics? Why does

this continue when we know that the ecological systems required for

making the Earth habitable, including remaining ancient rainforests,

are being destroyed and are irreplaceable? Can't we just give the

forests and its peoples a chance? Do something!

g.b.

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Title: Honey Hunters of Kenya Land Case Up in Court

Source: Environment News Service

http://ens.lycos.com/

Date: May 29, 1999

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 29, 1999 (ENS) - The honey-hunters of Kenya may be

about to lose their traditional forest honey grounds. The Ogiek people

have their traditional lands in the forests of the Mau escarpment,

Kenya. They are a hunter-gatherer people, well-known as harvesters of

honey, which they consume themselves and exchange with their

neighbours.

Tinet Forest is part of their territory, which they occupied until it

was gazetted as a government forest by the colonial government in

1961. Since then the Ogiek have lived there as squatters subject to

constant harassment.

In 1991, the Kenyan government legally allocated five acres of the

forest per family to the approximately 7,000 members of the Ogiek

community. They began farming and constructing schools, while still

using the forest and gathering honey.

But now industrial interests have their eyes on the Tinet Forest for

its timber resources and commercial flower production. According to

the UK charity, Vountary Service Overseas, 50 hectares of forest gave

way to a massive horticultural farm "owned by a former governor of the

Central Bank of Kenya, who wished to capitalise on the buoyant

European flower market." In March 1994, in a triumph for commercial

values, the Ogiek people were forced out of the Tinet Forest of

Olenguruone in the Rift Valley, an area they had inhabited for

centuries.

Faced with renewed harassment and threats of eviction, the Ogiek

community went to court against the authorities to protect their

traditional lands in 1997. Twenty-two members of the Ogiek, on behalf

of the entire community, have sued the government, asking the court to

restrain forestry officers and the provincial administration from

allocating the disputed land to themselves or other persons.

On May 13, the Nakuru District Commissioner tried to preempt the case

by giving the Ogiek community 14 days notice to leave the forest,

threatening to use force if they resist.

Ogiek community leaders met and vowed never to leave Tinet Forest

until the government allocates them land.

They obtained an order of injunction from the Kenyan High Court to

restrain the local government from evicting the people until their

case is heard on June 4.

The Mau Forest Complex is located in the Rift Valley province, about

200 kilometres south-west of Nairobi. According to the World

Rainforest Movement, it lies in the montane rain forest region and

contains the largest remaining block of moist indigenous forest in

East Africa covering an area of 900 square kilometres.

Based in Montevideo, Uruguay, the World Rainforest Movement (WRM) is a

global network of citizens' groups working to defend the world's

rainforests.

In 1992 the government forcefully evicted all the forest dwellers who

were still inside the forest and concentrated them at the forest

stations and promised to allocate them land. To date, most of the

Ogieks live at the forest stations but some moved to the riverbanks

where they also practise subsistence farming, says the WRM which has

been monitoring the Ogieks struggle to retain their lands.

The local administration then alienated that part of the forest that

had been converted into plantation forest, subdivided it into five-

acre plots and allocated it to individuals. The Ogieks allege that

those people allocated the land were not members of their community

but from the area around the forest. The forest was still gazetted and

under the custody of the forest department. The forest department was

not involved in the clear felling of the forest and the allocation of

the land.

There has been a negative environmental impact on the forest since the

clear felling started, the WRM says. "Wildlife corridors have been

tampered with exposing the forest dwellers and forest neighbours to

attacks from elephants. Land that is on a slope of more than 50

percent gradient has been allocated to farmers with no measures to

check the soil erosion."

Saw millers obtain licences to permit them to practise logging

especially within the plantations. The logging fees they pay to the

forest department are very low and not revised often to reflect the

current economic situation. The WRM says loggers do not stick to the

guidelines on logging and the Forest Department does not have the

mechanisms to enforce the rules and regulations.

"The forests have been logged extensively in a non-systematic way.

There is no annual allowable cut established and no adequate yield

regulation in place. Often, there is intensive selective cutting and

overexploitation leaving behind an inferior stock to mature as a final

crop. This leads to further forest loss as the Department cannot

rehabilitate the areas where trees have been felled," the rainforest

protection group says.

In contrast, where Ogieks moved in the forests, they used their

traditional set-up to conserve it. Conservation measures passed on to

the community by the elders allowed only the experienced elders to

make beehives from the trees, so that the barks used to make such

beehives are removed in a particular way that conserves the tree. The

most commonly used tree for this is Juniperus procera.

The Ogiek elders created awareness of important tree species which

were used for honey and herbs. The community members were prohibited

from cutting these trees.

The Ogieks allocate blocks of forests to clans to use. The forest

areas are first occupied by a clan which divides it according to the

family tree. Each family gives a name to their part of the forest, for

identification and awareness of other families and customary respect

for boundaries; the boundaries are recognised according to the

customary land tenure system, where rivers, streams, valleys, glades,

swamps and hills serve as boundaries. The Ogiek land tenure system is

aimed at defusing feuds over hunting and beekeeping rights.

It is this system of land tenure and conservation the Ogieks are

attempting to protect by their legal action.

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