0 Effects of enclosures and land zoning on the restoration of degraded semi-arid rangeland in Kenya

Below is a summary of my PhD thesis, defended successfully on 29th November, 2012 at Ghent University, Belgium.

In response to the increasing land degradation in arid and semi-arid environments in Sub-Saharan Africa, numerous approaches to their restoration have been developed. Very few of these have been successful beyond the project implementation period. In some parts of Eastern Africa however, rangeland enclosures and community-based conservation are increasingly being adopted in pastoral areas under transition and in the livestock-wildlife interface, respectively. The two approaches represent restoration initiatives at site (enclosure) to landscape (conservancy) levels. However, their impact on the semi-arid ecosystem health is still not well understood. This study aimed to assess and describe the impact of enclosures and community conservation management on the restoration of degraded semi-arid rangeland in Kenya. 

The specific objectives were to (a) assess the impact of enclosures under private and communal management on ecosystem health using the key biotic (herbaceous vegetation) and abiotic (soil properties) indicators; (b) quantify the tangible benefits derived from rehabilitating a degraded semi-arid rangeland in communal enclosures; (c) assess the impact of community conservation management on a semi-arid savannah; and (d) determine the effects of range rehabilitation through reseeding on large herbivore dynamics. The study was conducted on the Njemps Flats in the Lake Baringo basin (Baringo County), and in a number of group ranches in the neighbouring Laikipia County. 

Enclosure establishment and active management has led to recovery of herbaceous vegetation, especially grasses and standing crop biomass, compared to the adjacent degraded rangeland. Enclosures were also effective in restoring soil quality. The tangible benefits realised from the restored areas are one of the incentives driving rangeland enclosure establishment in the Lake Baringo basin. Positive correlations between enclosure total incomes with time demonstrate increase in the enclosure income. The improvement of the soil quality, general rangeland condition, and economic return show that creating rangeland enclosures is a potential avenue for combating land degradation and poverty in the drylands where pastoralism is in transition from extensive to sedentary and hybrid systems. 

The adoption of community-based conservation (CBC) by the pastoral communities in northern Kenya has leveraged more land for conservation of wildlife, habitats and grazing lands. It has also secured the community land from sub-division and erection of fences which impede wildlife migration and pastoralism. Thirdly, CBC offers a great opportunity for the communities to benefit from wildlife and other natural resources existing on their land through profit-sharing from eco-tourism initiatives using the payment of environmental service (PES) arrangements. However, CBC and its natural resource management programme have also created new challenges such as a declining and improving rangeland condition in the grazing and settlement, and conservation zones, respectively. The challenges of planning and budgeting the utilisation of key land resources, especially pasture, remains a serious threat to the success of CBCs. This thesis highlights a number of pragmatic suggestions on how the situation can be managed, in order to abate further decline in range condition in the grazing zones. These would increase the resilience of the rangeland ecosystem in the long term and increase the potential of community conservation management to restore degraded grazing lands and habitats, conserve biodiversity, and alleviate poverty in the Kenyan livestock-wildlife interface areas.

Citation: Mureithi, S.M. 2012. Effects of enclosures and land zoning on the restoration of degraded semi-arid rangeland in Kenya. PhD thesis. Ghent University Press. pp. 210. ISBN 978-9-4619708-4-8

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0 Plant Your Age Initiative by Green Africa Foundation

Green Africa Foundation in conjunction with its partners, namely, Kenya Forestry Services (KFS), Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS), United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP) and Rotary club of Nairobi has organized the second tree planting campaign dubbed “Plant age campaign”. In this campaign we are calling Kenyans from all walks of life, to plant trees equivalent to their age as way of helping our beloved country attain 10% forest cover as articulated in vision 2030.

This campaign will run through out the entire short rains season, October to December 2012.

Green Africa Foundation through its Green Africa villages tree seedling production center,  will avail tree seedlings for this event. To support Green Africa Foundation farmers seedling are being availed at subsidized price of Kenya Shillings Thirty (KES 30) per seedling. Alternatively tree seedlings can be obtained from any of KFS tree nurseries country wide.

The climax of this campaign will be a tree planting event on 17th November 2012 to be held at Nairobi National Park. For those who will prefer, there will be a hole digging machine on hire at cost of Kenya Shillings Fifty (KES 50) per hole. We have an M-Pesa dedicated pay bill number 505900 for this event.

You are cordially invited to grace this important event.

www.greenafricafoundation.org. 

0 Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies

In a world fractured by the effects of environmental degradation, political turmoil, and economic crises, it is easy to forget that cultures of peace depend on good governance and equitable management of our natural resources. Sustainable development from the grass-roots up can only happen if these three core issues are addressed. Furthermore, the connection between environmental challenges and local conflicts cannot be assessed separately. They must be understood and acted upon not just by academics, but by as many different kinds of people as possible – bustling city-dwellers, hard-working villagers and farmers, children, poets, dreamers – and by those who visit our country and carry away with them a sense of our key cultural developments and aspirations. Moreover, successful fusion of university research and traditional training requires the provision not only of academic resources, but of experiential learning opportunities, community mentoring, and utilization of indigenous knowledge.

Nobel Laureate Prof. Wangari Maathai

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0 12 Year old Kenyan boy honoured at the UN International Day of Peace

Stephen Njoroge is sipping a mango juice, dressed in a blue school uniform like any other boy his age. Mango trees are his favourite — but as an environmentalist, Njoroge loves trees of all varieties. And at just 12 years, he has planted over 10,000 of them — and made it to the UN history books. Last Friday, his efforts to create a sustainable future for Kenya were honoured at the UN International Day of Peace. Kenya’s most eminent conservationist, the late Prof. Wangari Maathai, once said tree planting was “her little thing”.  Three years ago, Njoroge decided to make it his big thing — and has been working to keep Kenya’s forests healthy ever since.  Not surprisingly, Maathai’s legacy has influenced the young boy, but he says his organisation, We Care Club, was a family operation from the start. 

"Our family loves the environment” Stephen Njoroge. Photo/SARA MOJTEHEDZADEH  NATION MEDIA GROUP

Start a club

“Our whole family has had this love for the environment so I decided to start a club to show how we really care.” Thanks to his uncle who grew seedlings, Njoroge and his school friends had a ready supply of young trees to plant — first in their backyard, and then in public forests like Karura. And thanks to Njoroge’s father, they were never short on inspiration either. “My dad worked for the United Nations and he really loved the environment” remembers Njoroge. “We always used to go for trips with him checking the climate of places and the kind of trees that grow there.” The elder Njoroge has since passed away, but his son is keeping his legacy alive at the UN.

“He is a young person who has made a mark, and we want to recognise him, especially because he is working for peace,” said Irene Mwakesi of the United Nations Information Centre.  But planting 10,000 trees requires no small amount of teamwork, so Njoroge insisted that his entire class at Mariki School in Nairobi accompany him to the UN celebration in Nairobi. “I had to bring the whole army!” he maintains.

The We Care Club is a veritable army now. It has grown from just 100 members to over 5,000. “A fact that I’ve learned is not everybody is a tree hugger,” says Njoroge. “So we try and find what they are interested in. For example a number of people in the club like playing football. So we plant trees and find a place where we can play football together. “Since we are kids, we don’t like all these official things. So we are trying to make it a bit more fun.”

That is a relief for Njoroge’s mother, Mercy Njoroge, who says: “It’s a big responsibility he’s taken on his shoulders. So to protect the fact that he’s a child is important to me.” And Stephen, for his part, credits his mother with helping him balance his environmentalism and school work, a gargantuan task for a boy who has planted the equivalent of a small forest. “She’s the one who gives me the repeated inspiration. When I’m feeling down and feeling like I can’t handle all the pressure, she’s the one who usually helps me out, tells me how to set my goals and take them one by one.”

Stephen certainly has ambition in abundance: he has already served as an ambassador for Kenya at the 2011 United Nations environmental summit in Indonesia, has travelled to five continents, and hasn’t ruled out a running for President. His political career may have to wait for some years, but Njoroge sees his youth as an asset rather than an obstacle. “I noticed that its only older people who are inspiring children. Now I’m trying to make children inspire older people.”

To that end, he has started a campaign to enlist the help of public figures in Kenya for his tree planting projects. Last week, he officially launched the We Care Club, an event attended by the Ministry of the Environment and the Kenya Forestry Service officials.  But Njoroge has another invitation to extend — to the President Kibaki. “President Kibaki’s birthday is coming up and we want to do something special for him since this is going to be his last year as the President. “We can do something he likes. Like go play golf, or something like that.”

Source: Daily Nation;  Story By SARA MOJTEHEDZADEH 

0 Restoring The Ecology Can Boost The Economy

Research co-authored by Bournemouth University (BU) Professor Adrian Newton and published in the journal Science shows that ecological restoration in areas of environmental degradation can help reverse global biodiversity losses, as well as promoting recovery of ecosystem services.

However the research also showed that measures of biodiversity and ecosystem services are higher in pristine land, freshwater and marine systems than in restored systems.

Examples of ecosystem services include improved water quality and increased carbon storage, services which benefit human well-being.

The research was carried out by an international team from the University of Alcalá in Spain, the UK’s Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, and Bournemouth University in the UK.

Professor Newton, an environmental conservation expert from BU’s Centre for Conservation Ecology and Environmental Change said: "These results highlight the importance of ecological restoration approaches for addressing the environmental degradation that has occurred in many parts of the world. The research suggests that restoration can offer a 'win-win' solution, by increasing the provision of environmental benefits to people, while at the same time increasing biodiversity."

Lead author, Professor José M. Rey Benayas from the University of Alcalá and President of the International Foundation for Ecosystem Restoration said: "In addition to the improved biodiversity resulting from ecological restoration, our findings show that such restoration also has benefits for ecosystem services. These services can act as an engine of economy and a source of green employment, so our results give policymakers an extra incentive to restore degraded ecosystems.”

Ecological restoration is widely used to reverse the environmental degradation caused by human activities. However, the effectiveness of restoration actions in increasing provision of both biodiversity and ecosystem services has not previously been evaluated systematically.

The research team analysed results from 89 restoration assessments carried out in a wide range of ecosystem types across the globe. On average, ecological restoration increased provision of biodiversity and ecosystem services by 44% and 25% respectively. Increases in biodiversity and ecosystem service measures following restoration were positively correlated. However, values of both remained lower in restored than in intact (undamaged) reference ecosystems.

The results indicate that restoration actions focused on enhancing biodiversity should support increased provision of ecosystem services, particularly in tropical terrestrial areas, which hold the largest amounts of biodiversity and are usually subject to high levels of human pressure."

Co-author, Professor James Bullock from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology said: "We have shown that across the globe restoration projects are able to help reverse loss of the biodiversity and ecosystem services in areas degraded by human activities. While restoration can help reverse losses, this research shows it is critical for human well-being that we conserve pristine habitats and the biodiversity and ecosystem services they provide."

Source: Bournemouth University (2009, August 31). Restoring The Ecology Can Boost The Economy. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 8, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2009/08/090828150735.htm

Journal Reference: Benayas et al. Enhancement of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by Ecological Restoration: A Meta-Analysis. Science, 2009; 325 (5944): 1121 DOI:10.1126/science.1172460