Wetland Conservation – a chain of broken promises

WETLAND CONSERVATION – A CHAIN OF BROKEN COMMITMENTS

One of Uganda’s Ramsar Wetland sites, Lutembe Bay, has been in the media once again, and once more for all the wrong reasons. Initially extending over nearly 100 hectares of forest patches, swamps and reed grass covered shallow water, the area has over the years shrunk, shrunk and then shrunk some more still, with none of the culprits responsible ever being charged in court or fined.

Once the resting place for myriads of migrationary birds and a haven for bird watchers – incidentally visitors spending a lot more in average than ‘ordinary’ tourists – the shrinking and polluted habitat has led to a substantial reduction in bird numbers coming to Lutembe over the past years. A number of environmental watch dogs and conservation NGO’s, together with well reputed individuals, have time and again highlighted the plight of Ugandan wetlands, not just Lutembe but many outlying areas around the capital city and across the entire country, which in past years were drained, turned into land for crops and buildings and to no surprise for informed onlookers regularly flood after heavy rains, as the general drainage from between Kampala’s hills towards the lake continues to be blocked off, keeping runoff water stationary and inundating ‘shambas’ and houses located there.

Lutembe is being eyed by developers, to expand flower farms and create real estate ventures near the lake shores and almost inch by inch, day by day, more and more of the former Lutembe Ramsar Site is lost with  about half of its original size ‘gone for good’ according to a regular conservation source who is particularly conversant with birdlife.

NEMA, the national environmental watch dog of Uganda, has become notorious for acting erratically on such developments, depending on who is behind those, and while often swooping down on the ‘splinters’ equally often they tend to overlook the ‘logs’. This correspondent for instance has now given up writing emails to NEMA about the daily encroachment at the Konge valley, between the Kansanga and Bunga areas of Kampala where the wetland is now being built over and cultivated across the entire area. Years ago NEMA shut down ‘Swampies’, a bar and nightclub allegedly built in the wetland, but when looking at the remains of that site, it has by far been overtaken deeper into the wetland by little farms and new buildings, which are normally advanced at night time using spotlights – some allegations have been made that even the electricity is being ‘stolen’ as was of course the land itself – to avoid, if any are dispatched at all, NEMA inspectors who only operate during day time. To add to the woes of this site, water is being extracted for use in building sites elsewhere in the city, and tankers are a frequent sight along the road reserve, using pumps to extract water from one of the narrow channels, again violating NEMA regulations.

One source within NEMA claims this has all been caused by the lack of support by government to actually operationalise the special environmental police force, but that can only be part of the true reasons, as NEMA seems to find manpower and muscles when it intends to swoop down on someone or something but seemingly cannot when they do not want to act. This has left the organization open to a range of allegations over favouritism, political expediency and even corruption, frequently emerging in the daily papers, letters to the editors and in conservation fora, yet no change has come about.

Observers claim that the time should be up for the top managers of NEMA and a radical overhaul of management is now called for to inject a new lease of life into the organisation, and going by the report in the Daily Monitor earlier this week about the fate of Lutembe, this indeed seems long overdue.

Last year I wrote a story about the restoration of a wetland in Northern Uganda, where villages had initially drained the water off only to then find that neither did their crops grow nor did their livestock find water with ease. Eventually, as hunger hit the area, several villages came together, restored the wetland to its original format – assisted by NGO’s but notably not NEMA – and now they benefit from having both water and healthy crops again. Unless and until conservation laws and regulations are therefore strictly enforced, there will be a growing threat of environmental damages and disasters, and where near protected areas it will also eventually have an impact on wildlife and nature based tourism, which crucially depends on keeping our biodiversity and environment intact.

However, conventional wisdom tells a different story, where profit comes before environment and biodiversity and who, I ask, dares to stand in the way of the all powerful individuals promoting and advancing their businesses at the expense of nature?

Few will stand up to be counted!

Kenya News Update – ‘Not another drought please’

NOT ANOTHER DROUGHT PLEASE

 

 

 

 

 

When in late December 2009 a long and harsh drought finally broke in Kenya, the Masai’s traditional way of life had been shattered along with their herds of cattle and goats which were decimated to a small fraction of their pre-drought numbers. Pastures and feeding grounds had at that time long ceased to yield any sustenance for the herds, water holes had dried up alongside the rivers and even boreholes were hardly giving enough water to keep the people alive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The earth was scorched and baked hard as concrete in places and where the herds and the herdsmen once found water only cracked mud remained.

Even the national parks were affected and wildlife herds too were suffering the same fate as cattle, many of which were in fact driven into parks like Samburu and others in search of a few shreds of pasture and water. The wildlife managers, for a while at least until the tourism trade demanded decisive and immediate action from them, stood by and allowed this to happen, having no answers themselves as to where the cattle and goats were to go before eventually evicting them under the threat of use of force.

Now, less than a year and a half later, it seems that another cycle of drought is descending again on parts of Eastern Africa and the Masai clans and elders are reportedly consulting on the way forward, to prevent yet another major loss of their livestock, which had just started to recover from the last drought.

 

A few, foresighted enough, had already years ago come to realise that continuing their age old lifestyles and habits could no longer sustain them in the long run, as their nomadic movement was being hemmed in more and more by ‘development’ from outside their sphere of life.

The big question was then and it still is, how to gradually move from an exclusive cattle and goat herding ‘business’ to complementary and more sustainable activities and being able to hold on to their extensive grazing grounds owned by the clans and survive the drought cycles, which in the past were marked by an almost total loss of their livestock and left many of the proud tribesmen on the verge of poverty.

Those lucky enough to choose the right partners ten, fifteen and more years ago to ‘branch out’ into other activities are now an example for other clans to consider doing the same, and wide consultations are reportedly taking place to assess the available options, aimed at preserving heritage and lifestyles while embracing economic alternatives.

The success of joint venture conservancies in Kenya has surprised many and confirmed to a few what they have been saying all along, that uncontrolled and poorly managed herding practices destroy pastures, aid soil erosion and deplete water sources. A non-scientific survey by sampling opinions of affected parties in early 2010 and during the cause of this week showed that generally conservancies ‘survived’ the drought in much better shape with substantially less loss of wildlife due to lack of water while the traditional pastures of the Masai herds had the appearance of a moonscape, barren, dusty and scarred.

The ‘traditional’ thinkers were of course swift in pointing out that in most conservancies the cattle and goat had to leave the designated ‘wildlife areas’, thus aggravating the pressure on the pasture land left for them, but options are being pursued and a fine example has emerged in the central highlands of Kenya, where Ol Pejeta, initially a sprawling cattle ranch, was converted in a ‘game only’ conservancy before three years ago gradually opening up for cattle again, which now coexist alongside the wildlife.

However, key of this success at Ol Pejeta was the strict veterinary oversight by the managers to keep the cattle disease free, and the use of certain parts of the ranch with more emphasis on cattle while keeping other parts of the ranch more but not exclusively to wildlife. Another measure aiding the success of this school of thought at Ol Pejeta was the nightly ritual of barricading the cattle into secured ‘bomas’, keeping the big cats out and reducing losses on the cattle herds by predators. These measures, combined with other ‘techniques’ are now being studied by many ‘strict’ conservancies too and the findings will undoubtedly be taken into account by both conservancy and wildlife managers and the Masai clans in order to determine the right strategy of ‘co-existence’ in coming years, which would leave the clans to keep well managed and cared for herds of cattle and goats – probably giving them also much better financial returns – and making survival during droughts at least a little easier. On the other hand the conservancies incorporating the lessons learned from Ol Pejeta may well also become financially stronger and in the process draw in the ‘doubting Thomases’ from amongst the Masai still holding out and ‘hanging on’ to their traditional ways of life without much thought about the future.

Meanwhile – and turning back to the lucky versus the ‘unlucky’ partnerships – there are compelling examples of excellence to be mentioned in making conservancies a success story. The unlucky ones fell prey to ‘business vultures’ with no ethics and no compunction to ‘cut and run’, leaving clans unpaid and reluctant to give it another go, while for instance Gamewatchers / Porini, the hard times after the 2007 elections AND the drought at the time notwithstanding, held up their bargain, employed young Masai and trained them, paid their royalties and ground rent on time, all the time, and only a few months ago had reason to celebrate their success with their partners when their Amboseli Selenkay conservancy contract was renewed ahead of time and a substantial extra portion of land added. More or less at the same time they also managed to close the gap between their exclusive Ol Kinyei and the ‘shared’ Olare Orok conservancies, after the local Masai clans offered the ‘missing piece’ to them for wildlife based tourism.

Said Jake Grieves-Cook, Managing Director of Gamewatchers / Porini and immediate former Chairperson of the Kenya Tourist Board to eTN last week:

 

‘We are still getting occasional scattered showers over the conservancies in the Amboseli and Mara which means we have some green grass and still have grazing for herbivores but the drought is beginning to bite in the surrounding areas and there is virtually no grazing left for the Maasai livestock outside so this will put pressure on the conservancies and the reserve.

 

The pastoralists cling to their traditional ways, maintaining herds as big as possible but they no longer have their original dry weather refuge areas as these have disappeared over the years and are now all under cultivation and so the pressure on the rangelands is steadily increasing which, coupled with climate change and increasingly severe droughts, means there has to be a change in livestock rearing practices for the people to survive. `But old practices die hard…’

 

Considering the importance of wildlife based tourism to the Kenyan economy, and the importance of the livestock trade to both the Masai and the country at large, it is now part of Kenya’s daily prayers to spare them from drought and give them ample rain for good harvests and enough water for livestock. Yet, climate change has been probably more intense here than in many other parts of the world in recent decades and average temperatures in Eastern Africa have risen by a degree over the last 30 years. This has brought malaria to higher elevations previously spared from the killer disease, when temperatures were simply too low for the anopheles to survive, but has also accelerated the drought / flooding cycles which have taken their hold on the region.

Those aspects however are more than enough for some separate articles, so for now I can only join my fellow East African in their prayer of ‘Not another drought please’ …

Sauti Za Busara announces 2012 festival dates

SAUTI ZA BUSARA 2012 DATES ANNOUNCED

East Africa’s most popular and globally best known music and art festival, Sauti Za Busara, has just announced the dates for the 9^th edition next year. Lovers of traditional African music and of African contemporary groups are invited back to Zanzibar between Wednesday 08^th February 2012 and Sunday 12^th February. Considering the success of last month’s 8^th edition it may be wise to make early arrangements this year to visit the ‘Spice Island’ as reports from Zanzibar talked of ‘full house’ and aircraft fully booked for the few trying at the very last minute to get to the festival.

Artists will have until 31^st of July this year to apply for participation, and those places are in greater demand than ever before, considering that Sauti Za Busara has established itself as THE music and art festival in Eastern Africa with the spotlight of the entire globe on it for the duration. Music films will have an extended application and submission deadline of 30^th September.

Visit www.busaramusic.org for on line application details and information on past festivals as well as draft programme outlines for next year or write to busara@busara.co.tz through which you can also subscribe to regular updates from the organizers. Sauti Za Busara is now also on Facebook where some of the spectacular pictures of this year’s festival have been posted.

Aviation news update – Air Arabia to go daily to Nairobi

AIR ARABIA TO GO DAILY FROM APRIL

Information was received from Nairobi that the UAE’s main low cost carrier Air Arabia, presently flying four times a week between Sharjah / UAE and Nairobi, is all set to ‘go daily’ as of first week of April.

The no frills airline has become hugely popular with both East African expatriates travelling back and forth on a tight budget but also with visitors from the Gulf wanting to spend their money in the destination and not as much on the tickets to get there. The three new flights will have different departure times, compared to the present ones operating on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, so passengers are well advised to be certain when they have to be at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for their check in.

It was also mentioned that Air Arabia will actively promote travel to Kenya through their extensive network across the Middle East and the Arab world, offering ‘through fares’ to Nairobi in order to attract more tourist visitors. The airline commenced flights in October 2008 with initially three frequencies, before adding a fourth last year due to growing demand, which continues to show a sharp upwards trend as companies and individuals are keeping a close eye on expenditure.

Watch this space for the most up-to-date aviation information from the Eastern African and Indian Ocean region with regular daily updates via Twitter @whthome

Kampala’s UNESCO World Heritage Site ‘Kasubi Tombs’ to be rebuilt

KASUBI TOMB RECONSTRUCTION UNDERWAY

Over a year after a fire destroyed Kampala’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site, the ancient Kasubi Tombs of the Buganda Kingdom, did reconstruction finally go underway earlier this week. Kasubi, where four of the former kings of Buganda have been laid to rest, was also featuring priceless artefacts and art collections which were on display and burned to ashes together with the huge thatched dome which dominated the site.

The cost, thought to be ultimately in the several million US Dollars range, will be met through a contribution of UNESCO but also collections given to the fund government set up to assist in the rebuilding of the prized heritage site which upon completion is expected to draw in even more visitors than before. Central government has pledged funding towards the reconstruction, which will – when completed – see a range of better facilities for visitors established including a perimeter wall, paved parking and new outbuildings, while the tomb structure itself will be as close a ‘replica’ as is possible, though with the latest fire prevention systems installed. Exhibits and artefacts lost will be partly replaced from the kingdom’s collections kept elsewhere, as well as from items donated by well wishers, to give the ‘new Kasubi’ as authentic a look as will be possible.

Tour operators in Kampala have expressed their regret over the loss of the site for their city tours, as many tourists were keen to get an insight into the ancient customs of the kingdom and vowed to include Kasubi again in their sightseeing tours just as soon as it has re-opened. No exact timeframe was given as yet by the contractors or kingdom officials how long work will take.

The cause of the fire (16^th March 2010) has not been conclusively established inspite of a commission of enquiry investigating the blaze and immediate aftermath of it and no prosecutions have so far been brought to court in the absence of clear evidence as to culpability and individual responsibility for the fire.