Kenya is planning to erect thousands of kilometers of electric fencing around its key national parks and to double the number of armed guards to protect water sources and stop impoverished people felling trees, as the effects of climate change become more serious.
A drought that has left more than 5 million people without food this year, combined with changing weather patterns and rapid population growth, threatens a triple catastrophe within 10 years, said Julius Kipng’etich, director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, the government’s paramilitary organization responsible for managing 26 national parks and their wildlife.
“The long rains have failed for the first time. The implications for food security and water scarcity and energy are profound. Kenya will face these three crises in the next 10 years without a doubt. If we carry on the way we are going, in 20 years the consequences will be horrific,” Kipng’etich said.
Five of Kenya’s national parks provide drinking water and hydroelectric power for almost 80 percent of the country as well as being major centers of wildlife. But several have been invaded by squatters after former president Daniel arap Moi gave politicians land in forested parks in the 1980s.
The 15,000 people who now live illegally in the heavily forested 400,000 hectares of Mau park in the west of Kenya have cut down nearly 104,000 hectares of trees in 15 years.
The government has pledged to evict them, but has so far failed to take action. Other parks have been invaded by people taking cattle to graze or by charcoal industries.
The Mau is the largest forest in Kenya and is considered critical for safeguarding water supplies there as well as in neighboring Sudan and Uganda. Millions of people depend upon the 12 rivers that flow from the mountainous area, providing water for the tea, livestock and energy industries. Other forested parks provide water for the capital, Nairobi, and hydroelectric power stations. Trees are an essential part of the water cycle as they promote the formation of clouds — cutting them down inevitably leads to lower rainfall.
Last week the wildlife service said it planned to double the number of armed guards in Kenyan parks over the next five years and was studying whether to put electric fences around Mount Kenya, the Mau forest, Mount Elgon and the Cherangani hills. The model would be a 400km fence that has been nearly completed around the Aberdare mountain range by the Kenya-based conservation group Rhino Ark.
“Kenya is destroying itself. The population has reached an unsustainable level. We are killing ourselves slowly by destroying the forests and settling there. Destruction of the Mau is like dancing with death. We should see environmental destruction as a greater threat than anything else,” Kipng’etich said.
Environmentalists foresee a vicious circle where human and wildlife conflicts will escalate with climate change as east African rains fail and people are forced to enter protected areas in search of food for animals and water. Destruction of the forests will devastate wildlife and further reduce water supplies to Kenya’s cities.
“Once you have people in the forest, you cannot control what they do. Kenya depends on these forests. You cannot solve the problems of food and water by allowing poor people to go into the forest. People are undermining the future of Kenya by growing food in the forest,” said the Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel peace prize winner, Wangari Maathai.
Britons fund nearly 50 percent of the wildlife service through park entry fees paid by 300,000 visitors a year. Britain will now be asked to contribute to a US$134 million European commission fund to help Kenya adapt to climate change. The income from the fund is intended to help communities prepare for expected water shortages and weather extremes.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS