Kenya seeks millions to save Mau forest, avert water crisis

NAIROBI, Kenya, September 14,2009 (ENS) – A multimillion dollar appeal to save the Mau Forests Complex, the most important source of water for human consumption in the Rift Valley and Western Kenya, was launched by the government of Kenya at a forum hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme last week.

Continued destruction of these forests will lead to a water crisis of national and regional proportions that could extend far beyond the borders of Kenya, warns a new Kenyan government report. The appeal aims to mobilize financial resources for the rehabilitation of the Mau, the largest closed-canopy forest ecosystem in Kenya and the largest indigenous montane forest in East Africa, stretching across 400,000 hectares (1,544 square miles). The strategic importance of the Mau Forest lies in the ecosystem services it provides to Kenya and the region – river flow regulation, flood mitigation, water storage, reduced soil erosion, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, carbon reservoir and microclimate regulation. … Over the last two decades, the Mau Complex has lost approximately 25 percent of its forest cover – around 107,000 hectares (413 square miles) – due to irregular and unplanned settlements, illegal resources extraction, in particular logging and charcoal burning, the change of land use from forest to unsustainable agriculture and change in ownership from public to private. Critics of the government’s appeal say that government officials who “grabbed land” in the Mau forests should be taken to court and illegal settlers in the forest should be removed. An estimated 25,000 people have settled in the Mau East and Mau West forests, either legally or illegally. The present government plans to resettle them elsewhere and fence off the forest to conserve its water. …

Kenya Seeks Millions to Save Mau Forest, Avert Water Crisis