The Kenyan government have given quit notice to thousands of squatters residing in a threatened forest in the country's Rift Valley region to vacate by October this year or face evictions.
The quit notice was issued after a day-long inter-ministerial meeting on the conservation of the 400,000-acre Mau Forest Complex, chaired by Prime Minister Raila Odinga late Tuesday.
This would be enforced by an eight-ministry taskforce to be coordinated by the Prime Minister' s office, established as part of five key resolutions made during the meeting.
Odinga said authorities would fence off the country's largest water catchments, a layer of indigenous forest in the Rift Valley region located west of the capital Nairobi, from further encroachment.
"We will soon strengthen the law enforcement capacity in the Mau forest to restore law and order, in particular to stop illegal logging and other illegal commercial activities. And those forest guards who are involved in collusion take note," Odinga said.
It is feared that if the current destruction of the Mau Forest does not stop, it would heavily impact on the key sectors of the economy like agriculture and tourism.
"The ecological destruction is also a threat to our urban areas and to the livelihoods of millions of people in the Rift Valley and Western Kenya," Odinga noted.
"We shall re-demarcate the forest boundaries, fence off the forest and also put in place an effective long-term management plan to save the Mau," he said.
The move by the Odinga was prompted by an equally horrifying report compiled by a team of experts from the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and other stakeholders.
The report shows that Mau Forest was under siege due to human activity and has lost close to 100,000 hectares of forestland in the last ten years.
The east African nation, the UNEP and stakeholders said in the report, was loosing 20 billion shillings (about 297.2 million U.S. dollars )annually as the result of wanton destruction of the forests.
Reports emerging from the North Rift say that timber merchants have also turned and focused their attention to commercial forestry in Keiyo and Marakwet districts for the purpose of earning a living in the lucrative business that has the government lose billions of shillings.
The pirates have ventured into the business easily by colluding with the forest officials and police.
The Tuesday's high profile consultative meeting came under a backdrop of controversy facing the Mau Forest's eviction dispute with about 3,000 families living in the forest having sought court orders to stop an eviction threat by the Narok County Council.
Other resolutions made included the establishment of a joint enforcement structure to police the Mau Forest, exploration of other livelihood alternatives for the communities around the forests, convening a donor consultative forum to mobilize resources for the conservation of the forest, and to establish special magistrates to charge and prosecute offenders of illegal activities around the Mau forest complex.
"The excisions and the widespread encroachments have led to the destruction of nearly a quarter of the Mau Complex area over the last 15 years. Such an extensive and on-going destruction of a key natural asset for the country is nothing less than a national emergency," Odinga said.
"It presents significant environmental and economic threats. It also underlines a breakdown of law and order."
Officials say that up to 50,000 people, including squatters have illegally occupied the forest, which is a water catchments area for many Rift Valley lakes.
The warning came two days after Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai said the country will regret its failure to protect the environment, notably forests and wetlands.
Much of Kenya's land surface is affected by desertification and about 10 million of the country's 34 million people live in poverty in areas classified as arid or semi-arid, according to official figures.
The UNEP report on the invasion of the Mau forest, which had raised alarm over the future of forest projects in Kenya, alarmed the government. It has spell the doom on the future of million of people that depend on forest for their survival.
Some of the projects which stands threatened by wanton destruction of trees include the 18 billion shillings Japanese government supported Sondu Miriu and Sangoro hydropower project plants that depend on the southwest Mau River as well as lakes Nakuru and Baringo--all are at the center of the crisis
The destruction of Mau forest is also a threat to the people of the entire western region as it is believed to the source of the recent drastic drop in the level of water in Lake Victoria.
Source:Xinhua
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