Efforts to restore main water tower achieving little

The vegetation around the Enapuiyapui Swamp in the heart of the Kiptunga Forest block in the eastern Mau Forest Complex is in a pathetic state. Lined with reeds, bunchgrass, switch grass and indigenous cedar trees, the veritable wetland — which is the lifeline of three major rivers — has not been spared by encroachers, who are grazing their animals in the wetland, thereby degrading the Mau Forest ecosystem.             

Tens of acres of the wetland grasses, which play a major role in protecting the swamp from the vagaries of weather, are being destroyed thanks to human greed and uncontrolled livestock grazing.

The Enapuiyapui Swamp, which is not a gazetted wetland but exists within a government gazetted forest, is the source of the Amala River, which joins the Nyangores River to form the Mara River. It is also the source of the Molo River, which flows into Lake Baringo and River Njoro, both of which flow into Lake Nakuru.

When DN2 visited the Mau Complex a few weeks ago, there were herds of cattle and flocks of sheep  grazing in different parts of the swamp, trampling on its vegetation as those herding them sat nearby, watching them.

TREES DESTROYED

Less than 10 metres from the wetland is a seven-year-old plaque dated January 15, 2010, commemorating the day when then Prime Minister Raila Odinga and the late Prof Wangari Maathai led a host of government bureaucrats, politicians and environmentalists on a tree-planting ceremony in the area as part of the efforts to restore the complex’s ecosystem.

Sadly, however, just like the ill-fated vegetation surrounding the wetland, all the trees planted on that occasion have been destroyed.

A herdsman we met at the swamp said the trees could have been nibbled up by animals, uprooted by the local people, or even dried up.

“We have nowhere to graze and water our cattle apart from this place. Pastureland has disappeared due to drought, leaving us with no option,” he told DN2.

Other herders in the area also maintained that due to lack of pasture, they were forced to graze their livestock in the swamp.

While the law regulates the number of livestock that may be grazed within a gazetted forest and also requires that livestock owners pay Sh100 a month to the Kenya Forestry Service (KFS), in the Enapuiyapui and Kiptunga swamps, the law of the jungle applies, such that herders drive their livestock into and out of the forest at will, and without paying any fee.

FORCED TO GRAZE IN DELICATE WETLAND

But while the herders say it is desperation that is forcing them to graze their livestock in the delicate wetland because of the drought, their determination to save their animals poses a major risk to millions of people who, though living far from the wetland, rely on the swamp for their water supply.

Jackson Ole Koraso, the chairman of Kiptunga Community Forest Association (CFA), says that the livestock owners in the area usually drive their herds into the wetland, particularly when it is very dry.

PROMOTING CONSERVATION

More than two years ago, the Ogiek and the Maasai communities living around the water tower were brought together by the World Wide Fund-Kenya (WWF), an environmental non-governmental organisation, as well as other environmental stakeholders, to form a community forest association as an initiative to promote the conservation of the fores,t but the gains have been minimal due to lack of cooperation.

“When the grassland disappears, the water also disappears, therefore, farmers drive their animals here where there is grass and water. We have been trying hard to caution them but the response is slow,” Ole Koraso lamented.

The community also claims that the exotic forest of pine trees surrounding the swamp could be a major cause of the wetland’s destruction since they take up a lot of water through their roots.

However, Mr Sammy Kamati, the KFS assistant forester at Kiptunga Forest Station, refuted the claim, insisting that grazing of livestock within the swamp was solely to blame for the environmental destruction.

“The swamp ecosystem is so delicate that when you destroy the vegetation that covers it, the wetland gets exposed to heat and as a result the water dries up,” he explained, adding that that swamp is bordered by a belt of indigenous forest, and that the exotic forest begins half a kilometre from the swamp.

MASSIVE DESTRUCTION

The environmental degradation is even worse in the Olokurto Forest block in the Maasai-Mau Forest, one of the Mau Forest Complex’s 22 blocks. While most of the Mau Forest blocks have been gazetted and are managed by the national government, the Maasai-Mau Forest is trust land managed by the Narok County government.  

There is massive destruction within the Olokurto Forest, where at least 300 acres of forest were recently cleared to make way for wheat farming. Mr Reuben Ndete, the chairman of the Naituyupaki Community Forest Association, accused the county government of simply watching as the forest was destroyed.

“Charcoal burning is rampant in the forest. Huge caravans of donkeys leave the forest every day, each carrying two sacks of charcoal,” said Mr Ndete, adding that no action has been taken against the encroachers, even though the community  has  reported the matter to government authorities.

The Mau Forest is the country’s largest remaining indigenous forest and also the largest of the country’s five water towers as well as the largest closed-canopy forest ecosystem. The complex forms part of the upper water catchment area, and is the catchment source for Lake Victoria and the White Nile.

The Mau Forest Complex spreads across five counties, namely Nakuru, Kericho, Baringo, Narok and Bomet. The forest’s degradation has led to erratic weather patterns and flash floods, whose worst effects are felt in Narok Town.

THOUSANDS OF HECTARES DESTROYED

Environmental experts estimate that between 1990 and 2001, up to 107,000 hectares of the Mau Forest Complex were destroyed.

In other words, an estimated 50,000 hectares of forest is cleared annually in the country, with a consequent annual loss to the economy of more than  $19 million (Sh1.9billion), according to a 2014 report by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources.

The clearing of mountain forests, also known as water towers for their role in capturing and regulating the flow of more than 75 per cent of the country’s surface water, affects the flow of rivers as well as the water supply for irrigation agriculture.

The encroachments are blamed on government institutions and systems; corruption and abuse of office by, among others, surveyors, land control board officers, forest officers, county officers and individual buyers of land; alleged settlement of the poor; acquisition of land for speculation; illegal sale of forest resources, especially timber; and abuse of land to secure political support.

“The wardens are well aware that destruction and charcoal burning are going on in the forest but they do nothing about it. We suspect there is collusion between them and the perpetrators,” said Julius ole Sopia, chairman of Olpusimoru Community Forest Association.

Notably, there are parts of the Mau Complex where the neighbouring communities have come up with their own solutions, including employing local scouts  to help protect the forest from encroachers.

In the Nyangores Forest block in Bomet County, the community is so determined to protect the forest that even civilians with no security experience have formed groups to protect the forest.

Mr William Rono, the chairman of Nyangores CFA, said they had recruited scouts, who help the Kenya Forestry Service rangers to patrol the forest.

“Those who want to graze their animals or collect firewood in the forest pay Sh120. Actually, they should pay Sh100 but we introduced an additional Sh20 which goes to the CFA; the community scouts are paid by development partners,” he said.

PARTICIPATORY FOREST MANAGEMENT PLAN

The community also has a participatory forest management plan which contains the community’s by-laws for managing the forest.

“The initiative has improved the forest’s condition considerably compared to 2008, when such activities had not been introduced. Today there is no charcoal burning in the forest, neither is there uncontrolled grazing,” Mr Rono pointed out.

The boundary of the Nyangores Forest block  is also lined with strips of tea plantations  — popularly known as the Nyayo Tea Zones — which act as a buffer between the people living around the forest and the forest. As a result, it is easier to monitor the movement of people and livestock into and out of the forest. Like Kiptunga Forest, Nyangores Forest falls under the national government.

Community management is also practised in Leshuta Forest in Mara, Narok County, where the community is conserving little springs located in small forested areas.

Mr Tony Tuya, the chairman of Leshuta Water Resource Users’ Association, said they started the initiative in 2012 with 150 members, and cover 150 square kilometres.

They have fenced the water source and there is no tree cutting within the forested strip, which is the source of Sand River, a major tributary of the River Mara. Water from the spring is piped and flows via gravity into a water tank where people can draw it from a tap. The people have also constructed water troughs for their livestock.

“The water is used by more than 15,000 people, including a school, hospital and a rescue centre, as well as 30,000 livestock,” he said.

Mr Amos Sangoyo is the scout in charge of the forest. Last year he arrested two young men who harvested trees from the forest to make goals during a local football tournament. They were fined Sh1,000 each and made to plant 10 trees.

CO-MANAGEMENT OF THE FOREST

When the community is organised, they can manage the environment properly, says Mr Kennedy Bwire, the WWF-Kenya freshwater project officer in the Mau-Mara Serengeti Landscape Programme.  The organisation is trying to involve the people living in the sub-catchments in forest conservation initiatives by encouraging them to monitor grazing and tree harvesting in the forest and also to report to the authorities those burning charcoal or cutting down trees in the forest to create farmland.

Mr Vincent Mainga, forestry leader in the WWF-Kenya Mau/Mara/Serengeti Forest Programme, says the main aim of the programme is to ensure  co-management of the forest,  adding that “Everything is based on the forest management plan, which controls utilisation to minimise destruction. Management needs an elaborate strategy.”

For a water-scarce country like Kenya, conservationists say, the water tower should have been fenced off and protected from encroachers. So its neglect points to the wanton disregard for the environment by the surrounding communities, as well as  the government’s laxity in protecting the  water tower.

Mr Emilio Mugo, a Kenya Forestry Service director, notes that there has been a high influx of livestock into forested areas in many parts the country as a result of the ongoing drought.

He explains that legally, livestock found grazing within a gazetted forest without their owners paying the designated fees should be confiscated.

“But the situation is a little complicated in Kiptunga Forest because there are communities living within the forest, making it difficult to enforce the regulation. We, therefore, depend on the community’s goodwill to pay the fees but there is low compliance, which makes the rate of defaulting higher,”  Mr Mugo revealed, He added that KFS had mapped out different areas’ potential for rehabilitation, and was also planning to fence off parts of the forest.