Visit to Aberdares and Mount Kenya Highlights

UNCLAS NAIROBI 000759 DEPT FOR AF/E Driano SIPDIS E.O. 12958:N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL SENV KE SUBJECT: Visit to Aberdares and Mount Kenya Highlights Environmental Issues UNCLASSIFIED - ENTIRE TEXT. ¶1. Summary. A recent visit to the Aberdares Forest and Mount Kenya highlighted the serious environmental challenges Kenya confronts. Conservation efforts in the Aberdares have yielded impressive results, reflecting good cooperation between the Kenyan government and non-governmental groups. Efforts to conserve the Mount Kenya ecosystem have produced at best mixed results. The U.S. is providing substantial assistance for environmental programs. End summary. ¶2. In March the Ambassador and members of the Mission team visited the Aberdares Forest and Mount Kenya to highlight environmental issues. Conservation efforts in the Aberdares are a success story; the mixed results of such efforts in the Mount Kenya ecosystem are not. ¶3. The Aberdares is one of the last remnants of the East African tropical mountain rain forest which one time stretched from central Kenya to the Congo (the other remnant is in Kakamega district in western Kenya). The Aberdares has suffered from both deforestation and severe poaching. There were 3,000 rhinos there in the 1960s, and now less than a dozen. However, concerted efforts by the Kenyan government and non-governmental groups have brought about an impressive and sustainable conservation program. The Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS),one of the most professional and least corrupt organizations of the government, continues to work closely with the Rhino Ark Trust (a conservation NGO) and others to preserve the Aberdares. As a result, before the end of this year, the 2,000 square kilometers of the forest will have been fenced. The fencing has been carried out with the help of local communities, which benefit because wild game cannot get out of the forest to destroy their crops. As a result, the price of land in the local communities has risen by 300 percent. Nobel Prize Winner Wangari Maathai and her renowned Greenbelt Movement are helping with tree planting on farms and in the lower elevations of the Aberdare Forest. USAID/Kenya is supporting this effort in a critical water catchment west of Nyeri town. The fencing has greatly reduced illegal logging and poaching. Conservation of the Aberdares is also vitally important because the forest is the water source for several major rivers (by some estimates, one in three Kenyans are dependent on water than emanates from there). ¶4. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has provided a small amount of assistance to Rhino Ark, and a number of private American citizens have provided support. ¶5. The Aberdares is also where the famous Treetops lodge is located. Burned down by the Mau Mau in 1952, it was quickly rebuilt and it is there, in 1954, that then Princess Elizabeth learned that she would be the Queen of England. ¶6. Mount Kenya, by contrast, is an example of where conservation efforts have had mixed success. All Kenyans familiar with the mountain -- which, at 17,057 feet, is the second highest in Africa -- will tell you that they have noticed a dramatic acceleration in the reduction in the snow cap and recession of the glaciers during the past five years, presumably as a result of global warming. The impact of global warming has been exacerbated by a spotty record in conservation.. This variability is due to the mountain coming under two GoK agencies - KWS which manages the National Park and the Kenya Forest Service that has jurisdiction in the National Reserve (mostly forest land) on the mountain's lower elevations. Over the years Kenyan farmers have steadily encroached into the mountain's lower forested areas, and only a few have been moved out. The resulting deforestation has had a substantial negative impact on the water flow from the lower slopes of Mount Kenya. Over abstraction of water for irrigation is also a problem. A large hydroelectric plant on a river whose source is Mount Kenya has for some time not been able to operate due to insufficient water volume. Several rivers sourced in the ecosystem are drying up, and there is strict water rationing in some communities in the Mount Kenya area. The kind of coordinated public-private partnership effort so evident and successful in the Aberdares is just beginning to emerge around Mount Kenya. It is mainly driven by community-based water user associations working in concert with KWS, some non-governmental groups, and UN agencies. ¶7. Mount Kenya, with about 40,000 tourists a year, nevertheless provides significant revenue for KWS. The Chief of the KWS mountain rescue rangers noted that during the past 16 years 47 climbers have died on Mount Kenya, and he recounted numerous rescue operations. Franklin Roosevelt's son successfully climbed the mountain in 1932. As in the Aberdares, the British colonial connection remains present in the Castle Forest Lodge on the southern side of Mount Kenya that King George built in 1910, which still stands. Americans' longstanding love affair with Kenya is also evident at the Mount Kenya Safari Club, built by American William Holden and others. ¶8. At present, the U.S. is indirectly engaged in the conservation of the Mount Kenya ecosystem, through USAID's e substantial support to KWS. Another USAID project soon to start with the Laikipia Wildlife Forum will tackle the issue of community-based water catchment management to improve water flows. Overall, U.S. environmental programs in Kenya amount to about 6 million dollars annually. We are working on a new project to help save the Mau Forest water catchment area, the degradation of which is perhaps the most serious environmental problem facing Kenya (septel will report on this). RANNEBERGER