Fencing Mau Forest – 2013 – No Water No Life

Interviewee

COLIN CHURCH

Former Chairman, Rhino Ark Charitable Trust, Kenya

Interviewer

Alison M. Jones

NWNL Director and Photographer

In Nairobi, Kenya - January 31, 2013

Introductory Note

As Chairman of Rhino Ark, COLIN CHURCH spent years facing threats to rhino and other wildlife in the Aberdare Mountain Range. Fencing there proved to be the successful solution Colin and Rhino Ark hoped it would be to protect critical habitat for Kenya ‘s vulnerable wildlife At the time of this – our 2nd interview with Colin – he and Rhino Ark were initiating installation of the same fencing protection that worked in the Aberdare Range to the Mau Forest Complex – headwaters to Kenya’s Mara River.

In our previous interview with Colin, titled Fencing the Mau Forest-2012, he discussed his trial Mau Forest fencing of the Mt. Eburu section of that water tower. Three years after this interview (in February 2016),, Colin sent NWNL the following to NWNL:

Mt Eburu Forest is 87 sq km and rises over 9,000 feet. You can see the mountain itself from everywhere. Its indigenous forest is hidden behind its eastern peaks. Mount Eburu is now fully fenced by Rhino Ark, with a whole gamut of community/forest linkages being developed. This includes the resurrection of old spring-fed pipelines to neighboring farmers that had become dysfunctional. A borehole [well] with lots of capacity has been fixed and is now in good working order.

My brother and I are starting some small initiatives to plant trees and open the track into the Mau Forest – all part of our ongoing effort to resurrect this wonderful forest complex.

Outline

POACHING ELEPHANT & RHINO
FENCING THE ABEDARES
FENCING THE MAU FOREST
FUNDING FENCING
MOVING SETTLERS out of the FOREST

Key Quote The Mau Forest is big. We can’t just say, “We’re going to fence 4,000 square kilometers.” That’s not going to happen. But we can fence certain sections and when we fence those, the knock-on effect will start to be felt. —Colin Church

POACHING ELEPHANT & RHINO

NWNL Hello, Colin. It’s wonderful to follow up on our interview with you last year on fencing. You described fencing as a 2-fold means to protect communities from wildlife and forests from poaching and especially deforestation. To start, please repeat your conservation involvement with Kenya forests. Then we’ll discuss the current crisis in wildlife poaching.

COLIN CHURCH For 11 years, I was Executive Chairman of Rhino Ark Conservation Charity, which is committed to conservation initiatives in Kenya’s mountain ecosystems. Historically, we’ve achieved huge results in protecting rhinos by fencing the Aberdare Mountains.

NWNL In Kenya, are rhinos now just as threatened as elephant are?

COLIN CHURCH Rhino, not so much. Regarding the rhino situation: in South Africa more than one rhino per day is killed – totaling probably 400 rhinos killed in the last year. But last year I think only 26 or 27 rhinos were killed in Kenya, out of our official count of 600 rhinos. That 600 count may be slightly exaggerated,. I think we only have 500 – 600 rhinos. So, that says Kenya had a 5% loss of rhino from poaching last year Our recovery rate is between 4-10% at the most. That gets to the falloff point, or tipping point.

NWNL Kenya Wildlife Service [KWS} says 384 elephants were killed last year, opposed to 287 the year before. When I quoted that to James Robertson, our NWNL Mara River Advisor, he leaned so far forward, I thought that he’d knock over my videocam. He exclaimed, “That’s what KWS would say.” What is your opinion?

COLIN CHURCH He’s right to object. It’s probably 3 times that [i.e., about 1,000].

NWNL He said that it was probably 2,000.

COLIN CHURCH That’s from the total population, established at 26,000.

NWNL Yesterday, KWS reported via The East Africa Wildlife Society that Kenya now has only 35,000 elephants versus 167,000 in 1970. KWS also said there 384 were poached in 2012, and 289 in 2011.

COLIN CHURCH Is that the official figure of found ivory?

NWNL No, the number of elephants poached.

COLIN CHURCH It would be determined by ivory in their storerooms or that they had found and recovered. So that number is a benchmark. The reality is that, given the size of elephant territory and despite security organizations mandated to allay this crisis, there’ll be penetration. There will be compromised rangers or guards, whether in a private sector or public organization.

Furthermore, the elephant crisis involves both KWS and the provincial administration and GSU police [General Service Unit]. All these organizations are directed to be part of a protective umbrella, but of course the umbrella can have holes, if only because the vast sums of money involved. Yesterday Chinese were brought into court and fined KSh 120,000 ($1,500 US). That’s just under $400 each for a product that’s worth $1,000 a kilo. Really?

FENCING the ABERDARES

NWNL You and I chatted last year about how best to protect Kenya’s forests. Has Rhino Ark’s fencing of the Aberdare Mountains saved its rhino from poachers? Is that fencing a success story?

COLIN CHURCH Yes. It’s a success story. Rhinos create such a major poaching trade. Before the fence, or in its early installment stages, it was said there were 48 rhinos in the Aberdare Salient. In the 15 years since, that number has reduced to 10. That reduction from 48 to 10 is seriously significant. Because of this poaching crisis, losses occur even in tightly patrolled, controlled and observed conditions in places like Lewa Downs, Ol Pejeta, Nakuru National Park and Nairobi National Park. [Note in 2016: Lewa Downs active protection program has resulted in a current population of 160 rhinos there now.]

Now that the Aberdare Range is fenced, it is committed to being a re-stocking zone for rhino. Plans to relocated rhino into the Aberdare is ongoing, and breeding is now taking place. As the Aberdare security umbrella has increased, our numbers have remained stable. Fortunately, the Aberdare Range probably has the same number of rhino as 4 years ago. Nothing has happened to them!

NWNL Is fencing then the simple answer to all poaching?

COLIN CHURCH With rhino, it’s been demonstrated that a fence is not a solution in isolation, due to the high values of rhino horn to international criminal gangs. Community cooperation is also needed to counter the massive pipeline of criminal gangs that make good money bypoaching rhino.

Another result of the fence is regeneration of other animals as well – including elephant. Their numbers increase has been very, very positive, even though it’s very difficult to do a valid count in forest. You can easily count elephant in the savannah, but in the forest, you can only make estimated judgements.

In 2012 – just last year – only 2 elephants were poached out of a population of at least 2,000 – perhaps 3,000. In both those unfortunate situations,, communities along the fence line tipped off security organizations, so the poachers were either caught or shot in self-defense. The fence offers a great security to farmers and for their crops. Because the farmers are now getting good crops, they’re prepared to tip off the guards. They’ll tell us, “They’re up there.” So, they offer a community-driven, security umbrella that supplies intelligence for the security organizations.

We also have an advance unit with GPS and a group called the Joint Aberdare Surveillance Unit out there every day. The umbrella is having a meaningful difference on the security of elephant and all other wildlife, considered as bush meat.

FENCING IN THE MAU FOREST

NWNL Let’s segue from protecting the Aberdare Mountain Range to how to protect the Mau Forest. What will Mau fencing do for rare, indigenous bongo, elephant, leopard and other iconic species — and how might it impact the nation’s water supply? Another aspect of interest to me is the influence of community education in Kenya’s forested water towers.

COLIN CHURCH Rhino Ark is committed to the Mau Forest and to Kenya, but let’s talk about the Mau specifically. The Mau is 4,000 square kilometers [1544 square miles] and is broken up into 22 forest blocks. The Mau Forest covers the same area you’d get by combining Mount Kenya and the Aberdare Range. We’re talking a big area.

The Mau Forest is not a national park,. Many forest blocks are National Reserves – although not all. There has been a successful initiative, supported by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, to make it clear to the public that illegal incidences in the Mau’s 22 forest blocks are now being addressed. But things have changed since you were here last year..

Elections are now around the corner and so the political temperature is very high. Relocation of people to protect and restore forested land has stalled in neutral. It has not stopped – it’s just waiting for the new covenant to come in.

Over 3 ½ years ago, this present government committed to the relocation program. People are aware that this state land is going to be taken back. About 20% has been recovered. But it’s a long process that will take 10 years probably. I think, after these elections, there’ll be a new government in 5 years with ministers reduced from 44 to 22. Subject to who comes into power, there’ll then be a very aggressive revival of the Mau Forest relocation effort. So, relocation and Mau Forest restoration are both on track, but marking time subject to elections.

NWNL How does this specifically affect Rhino Ark’s fencing the Mau?

COLIN CHURCH We can’t operate until politics are clear. When President Uhuru Kenyatta was first elected in 2002, he said, “Evictees can stay in the forest.” It is not a campaign issue this time. Nothing is being said about the Mau. So, we moved in thinking, the nation accepted that the water towers, of which the Mau is the biggest, must be conserved.

So, specifically, Rhino Arc has committed and is funded to fence one of those 22 blocks. That block, Mau Eburu, has a surviving group of rare Eastern Mountain Bongo. That gives us a flag. When there is a critically endangered animal in a forest, you’ve got something to flag – not only nationally, but internationally. Apart from that, Eburu forest is politically clean and has no excisions [areas given to and cleared by small-scale farmers].

Regarding the complete forest, we have done a survey and have submitted our proposal to fence it all to the National Environment Management Agency [NEMA]. We’re just waiting, since it is held up now by election politics that put government in neutral. But all the materials are in place. We’re now just waiting for a go-ahead to put in posts. All communities around Eburu have been sensitized and are unanimous in wanting the fence. The Community Forest Association in Mau Eburu is fully supportive of our wider program.

Funding Fencing

COLIN CHURCH What is important is that we have the funding to fence 57 kilometers and 70 square kilometers of the Mau, thanks to a sum of KSh155 million [US $2 million] from Safaricom Foundation, one of Kenya’s prime corporations. Safaricom Foundation also supported specific smaller efforts in the Aberdare Range. That funding was for elephant grids on certain main roads and fencing in certain sections. They also built guard posts. Then, Safaricom Foundation wanted to demonstrate their support for a holistic project combining their funding and what Rhino Ark raises from the Kenyan government to build that fence within 18 months.

I think, given 22 blocks of forest in the Mau, others in the corporate world could join Safaricom in the same sort of funding. We will then engage in water projects with all communities around Eburu. Thus, we envision a borehole program and water catchment off roofs will become part of the Safaricom package. And finally in the package is KSh30 million, of which $200,000 is basically a startup for an endowment fund. Rhino Ark will top off funds raised from many other sources. We probably need $100 million in endowment, so we will have K Sh. 7 to 10 million annually to run the whole project.

Finlay Tea [in Kericho, adjacent to the Mau Forest] has given money to the Eburu project and to bongo monitoring units, as a first step to Rhino Ark fencing the southwest section of the Mau. I think that when our trustees face that decision (probably within the next year), they will support it because it borders a community of tea growers who are already on site. In the Aberdare we always worked with communities that said, “Yes, we want it.” They then convinced their neighbors who’d been less enthusiastic. In the Mau, we would do the same by starting in the Southwest Forest due to our success in Eburu Forest.

The other important thing about Eburu is that, in our overall plan, we will do a feasibility study on creating a conservation corridor from Lake Naivasha, through Eburu, to the East Mau. All of that is either state land or large-scale, privately owned land., so it could be a joint public/private initiative. That feasibility study will be ready later this year. So much is happening.

Remember, the Mau Forest is big. We can’t just say, “We’re going to fence 4,000 square kilometers.” That’s not going to happen. But we can fence certain sections and when we fence those, the knock-on effect will start to be felt.

MOVING SETTLERS from the FOREST

NWNL Colin, it seems anything you say you’ll take on gets accomplish because you have a modus operandi that works.

COLIN CHURCH Yes, yes.

NWNL So what are your best thoughts on how to pursue resistant settlers to leave the forest and how to build grassroots support? How do you get attention, trust and finally acceptance to leave the forest from the people who are living there, who think they have legal title deeds and – most troublesome – those who have legal title deeds, but should leave for the sake of preserving the forest as a water tower for millions living downstream?

COLIN CHURCH People in some sections of the Mau who had legal titles have been bought out because the decision-makers felt their land needed to be returned to the forest. In other sections, those with legal deeds will remain within the forest in areas demarcated for settlement. But the 4,000 square kilometers that I plan to fence next are the 22 forest blocks the government will re-possess certain sections.

NWNL Yesterday The Star newspaper reported a clash of 30 security officers against 300 settlers who are defying orders to leave the Ol Pusimoro section. They had machetes, bows and poison arrows. These settlers were removed last year, but then incited by certain politicians to return. Their spokesperson says they have genuine title deeds and will conserve the forest.

COLIN CHURCH Ol Pusimoro, as far as I know, is a traditional Maasai area — historically theirs. The Maasai have been very strong in requesting protection of those areas. They may combine times of use and times of non-use. In periods of drought and dry weather, the Maasai want to use the forest to graze their cattle. But I think ,ultimately, there’s a very strong move within the Maasai that these old forest areas need to be conserved. So, they may face total eviction if they’re there illegally, but they’re resisting that. The political ramifications of the Mau are still unresolved.

NWNL Colin, thank you again for your thoughts and time. Kenya owes you a great debt of gratitude for pursuing protection of its forested headwaters!

Posted by NWNL on May 9, 2024.
Transcription edited and condensed for clarity by Alison M. Jones.

Fencing Mau Forest – 2013 Mara River Basin