Mau invaded again!!

Posted from Standard by naftal

Destruction and encroachment into the Mau Forests is creating concern among conservationists four months after President Uhuru Kenyatta took office. More settlements have sprung up in the last 100 days and logging is going on in the 400,000-hectare Mau Forest, the largest water tower in East Africa. Conservationists are worried that the Kenyatta administration is not keen on protecting forests and the general environment.

Immediately, he was declared the President-elect, people who laid no claim over the controversial water catchment tower trooped in as Government functionaries and the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) watched helplessly. “Efforts to save Mau Forest will not succeed.

The issue has become political with those responsible for protecting it shying away. It will now become much difficult to evict thousands of squatters who have invaded it because when elections will be called again, they will be needed because of ‘tyranny of numbers’,” says Nick Murero, the Mara-Serengeti Ecosystem Coordinator for Lake Victoria Basin.

He says since the beginning of the year, more settlements have sprung up around the Mau complex and unhindered logging continued. Murero said arrests, prosecutions and warnings have not hindered the encroachment.

Conservationists are asking themselves if the situation could have been different had CORD leaderRaila Odinga clinched the presidency.

... Read the comprehensive news article and discuss at The Standard

40,000 hectares of Mau forest recovered

By naftal

MORE than 40,000 hectares of Mau forest land that had been destroyed has been rehabilitated by the government. Kenya Water Tower Agency Director Francis Ole Nkako said the government is at an advanced stage of profiling a list of individuals who had genuine title deeds for compensation.

He was speaking on Saturday at Ololulunga in Narok county during the launch of Maasai-Mau Marathon dubbed ‘Race to save the Maasai-Mau forest.’

Nkako was accompanied by UNEP Programme Manager Dr Richard Kaguamba, Kenya Forests Working Group Project Officer Jackson Bambo and Cyrus Kimamo, board member of Green Belt Movement.

“It is worth noting that there has been an increase in the water levels in the Mara River because of concerted efforts by different stakeholders in restoring the Mau ecosystem,”  he said.

He said the agency has carried out several sensitisation meetings with the locals on the need to take control and co-ordinate conservation efforts in their areas.

Nkako said the agency in collaboration with the Narok county government has begun introducing bamboo trees to farmers to deter them from destroying forest trees.

He revealed that over 10,000 title deeds have been voluntarily surrendered by those who had invaded the forest. Bambo said several Community Based Integrated Forest Resource Conservation and Management projects have been implemented with the aim of facilitating, creating and strengthening institutions and management structures.

“The government of Spain through UNEP has funded KFWG in creating a favourable environment for policy and forest law implementation. It has also helped managers of Mau forest and local communities to shift from unsustainable land management practices in around the Maasai-Mau forest,” said Bambo.

He said the marathon was used to raise awareness on issues surrounding Maasai-Mau forest conservation efforts. The event was for participants to acknowledge the role the local communities adjacent to the forest can play in ensuring the well-being of the larger Mau ecosystem

Mau evictions to resume

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 4 – The government announced on Thursday that it was embarking on phase III of the Mau Forest reclamation exercise.

In a statement, the head of the Interim Coordinating Secretariat Hassan Noor Hassan said the next phase will entail the recovery of titled forestland in Maasai Mau trust land forest. 

The Maasai Mau is an indigenous trust land forest, covering some 45, 800 hectares, and managed by the Narok County Council.
Here is Mr Hassan’s statement:

Decades of Destruction

Over the last decade, some 43 percent of the Maasai Mau trust land forest was allocated to individuals and companies leading to massive destruction of the forest cover. Forest destruction derived mainly from two illegal/ irregular land allocation processes:

a)    Western part of Maasai Mau (often referred to as Sierra Leone): In the late 1990s, during the sub-division of five group ranches, title deeds were issued well in excess of the group ranches’ originally adjudicated areas. This “ballooning” of the group ranches led to massive encroachment into the Maasai Mau trust land forest, by at least 17,101 hectares.  

b)    South-eastern part of Maasai Mau (Nkareta area): The re-declaration of the adjacent adjudication sections to conform to the recommendations of the 1986 Presidential Ole Ntutu Commission was not done for one adjudication section, namely Nkareta.  This enabled claims on an extensive area (2,752 hectares) in Maasai Mau trust land forest beyond the Presidential Ole Ntutu Commission boundaries.

Upcoming interventions

Over the past few months, the Government has been actively engaged in preparing for the phase III of the repossession of forestland in the Maasai Mau trust land forest, with particular regard to two key activities:  survey and marking of boundaries as well as, analysis of land ownership:

Survey and marking of the boundaries

a)    Over the last few months, the Government has successfully secured the funding for the survey and the marking of the boundaries of the Maasai Mau trust land forest;

b)    The boundaries that will be surveyed are based on official government records that were analysed by the Mau Task Force.  This enabled the Task Force to determine the official boundaries of the 22 forest blocks in the Mau Forests Complex. These official boundaries are held on a map signed by the Director of Surveys and the Director of Kenya Forest Service on March 3 and February 25, 2009, respectively. The survey and marking of the boundaries will be based on that Map; and,

c)    The Department of Surveys, Ministry of Lands, will undertake the survey from the month of February 2010.

Analysis of the land ownership

a)    In the implementation of phase III, compensation and resettlement will be guided by the recommendations of the Mau Task Force Report.  To ensure that the process will be implemented in accordance with the Constitution and the laws of Kenya, the Interim Coordinating Secretariat established a Committee of Legal Experts;

b)    The Committee of Legal Experts has already started its work and will need several months to complete the task; and,

c)    Compensation and relocation will only commence once the work carried out by the Committee of Legal Experts is duly completed.

In addition to the above-mentioned activities a number of other interventions have already been implemented towards the restoration of the Maasai Mau trust land forest, with the support of development partners as well as local partners. The Spanish Government through UNEP, supported a Community Based Integrated Forest Resource Conservation and Management (COMIFORM) Project in the Maasai Mau trust land forest.  The key partners include UNEP, Ewaso Ngiro South Development Authority, Narok County Council, Green Belt Movement, East Africa Wild Life Society and local communities. The main activities are:

a)    Development of a Management Plan for the Maasai Mau: The management plan has been developed in a participatory manner with the relevant Government bodies and the local communities and has been signed;

b)    Development of business plans for key economic activities:  Business plans have been developed to promote alternative income generating activities, including bee-keeping, dairy goats, energy briquette production and timber production and processing;

c)    Establishment of tree nurseries and woodlots: Tree nurseries and woodlots have been established in 24 schools surrounding the Maasai Mau trust land forest and schools have been provided with water tanks;

d)    Forest restoration, including replanting. Three leading corporate organisations, one parastatal and one non-governmental organisation have joined hands to support the rehabilitation of the Maasai Mau trust land forest.  They are: Equity Bank, East African Breweries Ltd, Nation Media Group, Kenya Wildlife Service and the Green Belt Movement.  Together, they have committed Sh50 million towards forest restoration. To date, they have already planted 25,000 trees in the Maasai Mau trust land forest near Naisoya in Narok District. 

Footnote

In mid 2008, the Government embarked on a systematic approach towards resolving the complexity of issues in the Mau, while involving the large range of concerned stakeholders. A multi-stakeholder Task Force was established to assess, build consensus and make recommendations on the rehabilitation of the Mau.

The report of the Task Force was completed and submitted to the Government in March 2009. It was approved by the Cabinet on July 30 last year and Parliament on September 15. 

In line with the Task Force recommendations, an Interim Coordinating Secretariat was established in the Office of the Prime Minister in September 2009.  The mandate of the Interim Coordinating Secretariat is primarily to coordinate the implementation of the Mau Task Force recommendations. This coordination is to ensure an orderly, systematic and timely implementation involving the relevant Government’s Ministries and stakeholders.  The actual implementation is carried out by the relevant Ministries and stakeholders based on their mandate and capacity.  

Progress made during Phases I and II

The first two phases of the repossession of forestland in the Mau are almost complete.  Phase I concerned the repossession of three forest areas that were excised from Eastern Mau Forest Reserve in 2001, but were yet to be allocated or occupied.  The Government is at an advanced stage in the process of re-gazetting two of these areas. The third area, called Mariashoni, has been traditionally inhabited by Ogiek. The Interim Coordinating Secretariat is setting up a committee to work with the Ogiek in the rehabilitation of that forest area.

Phase II concerned the repossession of approximately 19,000 hectares in South Western Mau Forest Reserve of largely bamboo forest that have been encroached by illegal squatters.  These squatters had no documentation to support their occupation of the forest.  In addition, the area encroached has never been set aside by the Government for settlement.  It is still and remains a protected forest reserve.

The repossession of the 19,000 hectares was completed last December.  The removal of the squatters took place peacefully, with the squatters leaving voluntarily the forest and the forest guards providing assistance.  However, the return of the squatters to their former homes was stopped by some political leaders who demanded that the squatters be resettled or compensated.  This was not provided for in the Mau Task Force report as it would create a dangerous and unsustainable precedent that would encourage people all over the country to invade government land in the hope of compensation. The Government has, however, mobilised several Ministries to assist the squatters returning to their home and to provide livelihood support to help them rebuild their lives.

To date, some 21,000 hectares of forestland in the Mau have been repossessed since the implementation of the Task Force report started some five months ago.

In addition to the recovering of forestland, the Government has implemented a number of activities in support of the restoration of the Mau forest ecosystem, in particular with regard to: water catchment management; forest restoration including tree planting; law enforcement; Ogiek resettlement matters; and, resource mobilisation.

Writer Dann Okoth spoke to Dr Louis Verchot, a principal scientist at Climate Change at the Centre for International Forestry Research, on the effects of the Copenhagen talks on Kenya.

How will Kenya cope with the effects of climate change beyond Copenhagen?

Climate change is not yet a major stress factor in Kenya’s development. But it will affect agriculture, the mainstay of livelihoods. There are many other sources of stress. The rapidly growing population in rural areas means that farm sizes are getting too small to support a family. Soil degradation is another very significant problem that limits agricultural productivity.
 Our research shows that as much as 70 per cent of the agricultural lands in some high population density areas are moderately to severely degraded, the cost of farm inputs remain high and out of reach of many small-scale farmers.
Adding climate change only worsens the situation. The key to Kenya coping with climate change is going to be investment in agriculture to raise productivity, diversification of the economy to create employment opportunities outside of agriculture, and investment in education to build people.

What would be the real cost of climate change mitigation for Kenya and can we afford it?

I am not sure that anyone has calculated the real cost of adaptation for Kenya. The situation in the Mau Complex is indicative of the source of the problems. Land is often used, as a political weapon during elections and proper management of national forest lands is not possible for a technical service like the Forest Department in this context. Certainly people need land to earn their livelihoods. At the same time, Kenya needs forests to protect its water supply and provide for other needs of society. Sometimes these two needs come into conflict and when that happens, these conflicts need to be managed. That is the role of a professional forestry department. Anticipating problems and planning for development will be much less costly in the long run than trying to fix a problem after years of neglect. Hopefully, the lessons from the Mau circus will be learned so that mistakes are not repeated.

Is the money set aside by developing nations to fund climate mitigation in developing nations enough?

Kenya faces many development challenges and climate change will make meeting goals even more difficult. Developed countries are discussing making significant assistance available ($10 billion per year) to help developing countries adapt to climate change. To put this in context, this is equivalent to about 10 per cent of current official development assistance - both from bilateral and multilateral sources. So it is a lot of money. But the devil is always in the detail. We have all seen pledges by developed countries for development assistance, but when the time comes, the money available falls short of the pledges. We have also seen governments manage resources poorly.