Mau Forest – A Water Tower in Peril

Interviewee

Andrew Nightingale

Filmmaker, Conservationist, Farmer

Interviewers

Alison M. Jones

NWNL Director and Photographer

Alison M Fast

Videographer

Njoro, Kenya, on Sept. 20, 2009

Introductory Note

The Nightingale family moved to its current farm in Njoro, at the edge of the Mau Forest, in 1963, when Kenya became independent from Britain. They had lived in that area since 1903. James Robertson, a conservationist living outside of Nairobi, introduced NWNL to Andrew, knowing his passion for forest conservation and history of the Mau Forest would be immensely helpful.

After first challenging us to spot local forest chameleons camouflaged in his Njoro garden, he then shared his conservation films, antique maps and generations of family history. With that he launched us into our documentation of Mara River – starting at his farm and continuing as we followed the Mara River downstream across the Mara Conservancy; to the Kenya-Tanzania border; finally ending at the Mara Estuary on Lake Victoria.

Outline

MAU FOREST RECYCLES ITS OWN WATER
INDIGENOUS FOREST within the MAU
MAU FOREST BIODIVERSITY
THE PEOPLE’S v NATURE’S NEEDS for FOREST
TEA and EUCALYPTUS as SOLUTIONS
RESIDENTS’ SOLUTIONS
MOVING RESIDENTS to SAVE TREES & WATER
A CATCH-22
UNKNOWN & KNOWN CONSEQUENCES
TRIBAL VIOLENCE & POPULATION GROWTH
KENYA’S AGRICULTURE & DROUGHTS
NON-FARMING OPTIONS

Key Quotes My passion is fishing. My passion is rivers and lakes. I know what I need to do to preserve what I love most. I love forests. I love the environment. My passion for fishing is not about fishing; it’s about being in the most beautiful and special places on the planet. I’m here to try to preserve these places. — Andrew Nightingale

The scale of this dilemma is unimaginable. I’ve heard that the government is moving over 300,000 people out of the Mau water catchment area. But that will save the health, welfare and lives of millions of other people — tens of millions of people. — Andrew Nightingale

MAU FOREST RECYCLES ITS OWN WATER

NWNL Andrew, it’s great seeing your photographs of the Mau Forest, where we hope to find the Enyapuiyapui Swamp, source of the Mara River. And thank you for arranging for us to visit the Mau Forest’s western highlands area near Kericho. It will be wonderful to visit that part of the Mau Forest and your photos clarify why you go there for fishing trips. The water seems clear and pure, and very much in its natural state.

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Yes, it’s well filtered by the forest. You can clearly see the amount of moisture in the air there. The whole forest is just full of it.

NWNL And it’s that moisture that rises and then condenses to fall as rain over the Central Mau Forest…. Am I right?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE The area’s high rainfall comes from air moving through the forest and sucking up the forest’s moisture. That moving air becomes quickly condensed and drops effectively straight back down on the forest again.. As well, this moisture just oozes out into the valleys. Some of the valleys fill up and form streams and become the rivers.

NWNL I understand most of those rains are from May and June, up to August. Is that your rainy season up here?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Yes. The western side of the mountain is particularly affected by Lake Victoria Basin, which has its own weather. Given the huge size of Lake Victoria, there is a great amount of moisture coming ashore and constantly being sucked up to the Highlands and then dropping down onto that western side of the Mau Forest. That is what makes that western side such an ideal tea-growing zone.

INDIGENOUS FOREST within the MAU

NWNL During many years of visiting Kenya, I’ve heard growing concerns about losing valuable forest in the Mau – specifically indigenous sections that are disappearing bit by bit and year by year. Please explain the unique role of an indigenous forest in gathering Kenya’s critical water resources and keeping them in reserve.

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE The natural ecosystem elements of an indigenous forest that we need to foster include its thick moss, vegetation and moisture-retaining capability on top of these mountains. We can afford to protect this forest, and we must leave it alone to fulfill its function – to provide us with water.

On the western edge of the Mau Forest along the Upper Saosa River, there are indigenous tree trunks thick with moss that is like a big green sponge from which you can squeeze out water. The whole forest is just this massive water reservoir. The entire forest is a sponge — full of water. That water slowly reaches and fills the forest’s streams which flow into the Nyangores and Amala River tributaries, finally converging below to form the Mara River.

NWNL The indigenous forest’s deep forest floor is also a sponge, like the mosses, right?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Yeah; you’ve got thousands of years of leaf litter and humus building up on the forest floor. And that creates this mash of fibers, sometimes meters deep, which the trees’ roots are growing in and it’s breaking down and creating this wonderfully fertile soil. But that just holds moisture so well and allows it to seep through and what’s really–what’s important is that it’s a filter; it’s a sponge that takes all of that sediment, the pollution out of the water before it flows down into the rivers.

MAU FOREST BIODIVERSITY

NWNL What fish are in the Mau Forest rivers and lakes? Are they indigenous fish?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE There are rainbow trout that were introduced – and thus not indigenous. They are stocked by the local Fishing Association there. The indigenous fish, such as catfish, are only at lower altitudes. I don’t know of any indigenous high-altitude fish in the country.

NWNL What terrestrial species are in the Mau Forest now?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Elephant, buffalo, plus they’ve recently discovered a community of bongo, which is a very large forest antelope. The Mau is also one of the few places in Kenya where the golden cat exists. There are plenty of leopards up there, and several melanistic leopard.

NWNL I understand they have found some DNA-tested scat from bongo, so that would mean bongo are definitely still here – even perhaps two groups? Is that right?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Yes, they’ve seen them from the air as well. So verification is not just verified by their scat. They have also found footprints.

NWNL The bongo is an endangered animal that used to live throughout the forest, but has now all but completely disappeared. Could it become an iconic mascot species to help raise awareness of the special importance of this forest?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE I don’t know if the people that we need now to protect the forest appreciate icons. We need the support of local people, but I’m not sure they would appreciate our creating icons. Usually those who appreciate icons are those in a position of privilege.

NWNL I was thinking more of an icon to appeal to international NGO’s and conservation donors, rather than the local people.

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Ah, yes for that purpose, the bongo would be a great icon. As far as local Kenyans are concerned, we need to icon-ize water – because that’s what will nurture the forest.

THE PEOPLE'S v NATURE'S NEEDS for FOREST

NWNL We both agree that trees are a critical part of the health of the Mara River Basin, especially here at the source. They are needed to provide a functioning water tower – but they are also needed for fuelwood and warmth for local people, including the Ogiek, who wandered into the forest many generations ago. How do we balance those human needs versus environmental needs– the forest’s beauty and critical ecosystem functions critical to thirst of millions of people and wildlife and survival of other vegetation?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Regarding the forest’s beauty, when in Kericho on the western edge of the Mau Forest, in the early morning, look up over the tea plantation forests to see the far ranges of solid indigenous forest with clouds in the air as the sun comes up and starts warming the forest.

Regarding human needs, many of the farms and small private plantations on private land surrounding the Mau have been planting quick-growing trees; so we almost have enough trees. Having lots of new eucalyptus tree plantations around this forest is essential, because we as humans need wood, especially in these rural areas where it is needed for cooking, staying warm and building homes. So having all this private, fast-growing timber around the forest means that pressure is taken off the indigenous forest.

TEA and EUCALYPTUS as SOLUTIONS

NWNL I hear that those tea-growing farms in the Western Highlands area are now serving as a barrier against illegal entry into the indigenous forest, particularly by those who cut and burn trees down to charcoal to take out and sell for profit.

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Yes, the tea plantations create a buffer zone around the indigenous forest, discouraging illegal cutting and charcoal-burning by those seeking the profits. Tea is such a successful industry, and thus employs enough people in that region that they don’t need to go in and damage the forest. This is where the system works – sadly, you can’t do this everywhere.

NWNL Is this a unique situation because you can’t just grow tea anywhere?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Yes, here the soil is right and the climate is right.

Thus tea is one of the country’s greatest income producers. Recently it was surpassed by intensive horticulture, sending cut flowers to Europe; but tea is a very established steady income earner for this area in Kenya. Tea really supports the environment.

NWNL But, it is obviously a monoculture – like eucalyptus farms. Many Environmental Resource Managers say, “Oh we shouldn’t have eucalyptus because it consumes such so much water, as opposed to other trees.” Balancing the pros and cons…., yes, eucalyptus consumes lots of water and isn’t very good for the environment. But eucalyptus can create incomes and become a resource for thousands of people, thus lessening the need for folks to rape the forest to survive.

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Right, plus eucalyptus is a fast-growing hardwood. It burns slowly; provides good roofing timbers; isn’t eaten by the termites; and is practical for people who can’t wait for the forest to grow nicely or afford hardwoods grown to make nice furniture. There are many people here barely surviving and making charcoal to cook. The eucalyptus, for all its faults, is the best tree for this case. In the long-term, maybe it could be replaced with something else; but first the pressure has to be taken off the indigenous forest. We must leave the indigenous forest alone to recover, and that can only be done via using these buffer zones of tea plantations and eucalyptus farms surrounding the indigenous Mau Forest.

RESIDENTS’ SOLUTIONS

NWNL Eucalyptus and tea plantations contribute to finding solutions to counter the deforestation here. Are there any other solutions you promote to save the Mau Forest?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Of course. We need more efficiency in using wood. Clay cooking pots reduce the amount of wood that is required by almost two-thirds. So instead of spending 3 hours cutting firewood every day, you only need to spend 1 hour. Simple!

NWNL What have they been using?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE They traditionally balanced a pot on three stones, It’s deeply tied into their culture. Three stones are given to a bride on her wedding. They symbolize adulthood and having your own household. So, it’s unfortunately one of those threads one has to rip out of a tradition because it’s not helping the forest.

NWNL What makes the clay cooking pot so efficient?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE It’s a 2” thick piece of clay shaped into an open-ended cylinder with a couple of arches to allow firewood to be put into it and air to get in for the fire to draw on the inside. The pot fits directly over this chimney so a minimum amount of heat is lost out the sides.

NWNL So it is like a mini-oven?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Yes. It has a semi-enclosed top. The design directs the heat up onto the cooking pot instead of just allowing the heat to go anywhere. It’s not highly technological but it makes a difference – just like applying more efficient methods of making charcoal in a kiln.

MOVING RESIDENTS to SAVE TREES & WATER

NWNL I’ve heard many say the best way to save the Mau Forest is to remove people from the Mau Forest since it is a critical water tower and very, very important ecological resource. Do you agree that the people who live here must be removed and resettled; and following that, the forest must be fenced. Is that course of action politically viable? Is it possible?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE The biggest issue is that the generations of people who have lived in the margin of land around the forest were told they own that land; and now it’s being taken away from them. What people forget is that their forefathers were moved out of an area downstream where people settled after a very bad drought in the Lake Baringo area. The county politician resettled them on fertile land with plenty of water. But they cut down the forest where they re-settled. That meant the area they’d left would never recover from its drought since they cut upstream trees that stored water that had supplied water downstream. How do we now move them out of the forest to what has become a desert, by their own doing?

NWNL So, they could be resettled into the forest area they cut and then left, which worsened drought issues downstream? It is thus understandable, that for the greater good of Kenya, eviction and fencing is critical now to maintain what’s left of the Mau Forest as an essential water tower supplying necessary flows to much of the country.

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Yes, at some point the government must force people out of the most essential section of the water tower by whatever means necessary. It’s an unpleasant statement; but that’s the seriousness of this situation. Now, settlers are being evicted at gunpoint and having their farms burned to make them leave. They’re being moved into internal refugee camps, because without that forest and the water it creates – without our rivers flowing – everybody downstream will be in the same unfortunate position that this small community has found itself in.

The rivers are drying up; it’s a fact.

NWNL This is a tragic upstream/downstream issue.

A CATCH-22

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Yes, the situation is tragic, and the necessary decisions are hard. Our biggest problem with the water catchment issues, especially here, is that people were inappropriately trans-located from marginal land into what should be commercial forestry zones. Those people resettled in what should be a non-populated buffer zone, plus they’re dependent on and use fuelwood gathered from the nearby indigenous forest. With their vast population growth, they’ve perpetuated the drying up of the rivers downstream – and now there’s no way they can be resettled back to where they came from. Their former environment has changed with today’s droughts and higher demands on water resources. Until the forest is fixed, those impaired areas will remain semi-desert with merely seasonal rivers.

So the government is in the unfortunate position where it must force people out by any means necessary from the essential water tower areas. If politicians can’t find places for them to live sustainably, they have to put them into refugee camps. So politicians are stuck with a politically insensitive and really nasty situation – but they have to do it because as rivers drying, people all over the country are dying of thirst. Their livestock are dying. Their entire way of life is changing. We must get those rivers flowing again. And the only way to do that is to let the forest recover.

NWNL So you’re saying two things. One, the government must forcibly move a relatively small group of people from their homes for the greater good of many, many more people downstream who are losing their access to water. Two, there’s such an urgency that there is no time to establish permanent resettlement for these people, thus they must be taken out right now and put in temporary displacement camps?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE The longer we delay, the more damage there will be to the forest. On your upcoming aerial documentation over the Mau Forest, you will be shocked and horrified at the extent of the damage that a small population of people can do. As you drive around and through the Mau, you will also see that we have such a big population camping along the outside of the forest, creating housing and other demands because they can no longer live within the plantation forests.

The scale of this dilemma is unimaginable. I’ve heard that the government is forcibly moving over 300,000 people out of the Mau water catchment area. But that will save the health, welfare and lives of millions of other people — tens of millions of people.

NWNL What will happen to 300,000 people being forcibly moved for the greater good of many, many more people downstream who are losing access to water? Where will they go? Can politicians solve this urgent situation? Are there any long-term provisions for these people to have a home where they can be self-supporting and sustainable again?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE We must build tents quickly so we can get them out of the forest, as this country is drying up before our very eyes. But they can’t stay in tents forever. I’m sure hundreds of people working on solutions; but is there a perfect answer? Even though we’re not prepared, it needs to be done now. We must survive the consequences of our actions and work our way through it.

The sadness of this situation is that we’ve got to do this even though we don’t have answers to your questions. But we must survive this situation despite no known plan of how we’ll come out the other side.

UNKNOWN & KNOWN CONSEQUENCES

NWNL So Kenya’s current deforestation and lack of fresh water is desperate enough that you must take Step 1, without knowing the parameters of Steps 2 and 3?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE I think we know Steps 1 and 3; but we have no idea what their consequences will be.

NWNL What might go wrong? What’s the worst-case scenario?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Any time in history when there has been a lack of natural resources, people fight over those natural resources and there is some form of civil strife. There is no doubt that we’ll face civil strife. But will it be on a permissible level, or will it forcing Parliament to become physically involved because people get so desperate? The government will have to balance their way through this — as peacefully as possible. They can’t please everybody, but it must be done. The government is in the unfortunate position of having to enact this necessary resettlement.

TRIBAL VIOLENCE & POPULATION GROWTH

NWNL Were you affected here by the recent post-election tribal clashes?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Regarding those clashes, within the first 3 or 4 days after the elections, nothing went wrong. The disruption started and was instigated by political spin doctors, or whatever you want to call them. We had friends staying with us. We were out on the lawn having tea, living our lives. The kids never missed a day of school.

But there wasn’t a single moment for about three months where I didn’t see a burning house or a burning village somewhere in our view. Civil strife is really frightening stuff. Several of my employees were shot with arrows or slashed with machetes so badly that I took them to the hospital. It became horrible. We don’t want to feel that ever again.

NWNL Are the tribal differences that caused this violence and people’s struggle for land, home and territory considered to be Kenya’s Achilles heel?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE I think Kenya’s Achilles heel is its population.

NWNL So you think Kenya’s various tribes could co-exist if there were fewer people spilling out of their communities?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE I hear that 60% of Kenya’s population – being estimated by the new census at 40,000,000 – are under 12. What’s going to happen to them? They’re all growing up; they’re all teenagers.

NWNL And in 6 years they’ll start having babies.

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Yes, we’re sitting on a volcano – our natural resources are already under pressure. If the government ignores this issue for another 5 years until those kids are young adults needing somewhere to go, we will have an even bigger problem trying to clear the Mau Forest watershed area. Even to survive the population that we have now, we must find new places for people to live. The only way to do that is to get water out into our semi-arid areas, so people can go live there. The only way to do that is to get people out of the forest so its rivers can again flow downstream.

NWNL When I first came to Kenya in 1985, I heard Kenya had the fastest growing population in the world. Then it stabilized a bit, and Kenya was not on the top of that list. But will this trend become geometric, with Kenya climbing back up to that number 1 spot again?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE No, I don’t think our population is growing at quite that same speed – but today’s kids will grow up and have children. The number of children per family is down, yet we still face the long-term effect of so many children already born earlier in Kenya’s history and now starting families of their own.

Infant mortality rates have gone down; so kids are surviving, and families don’t feel they need 15 children in order to have three survivors. Given this, the government has mandated that parents must educate their children, which has made people again reconsider how many children to have, considering that cost.

NWNL Is there also consideration that lifestyles are changing and becoming more urban so families don’t need as many children to help on the farm or with cattle and goats?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE That’s true in many countries and part of the case here.

KENYA’S AGRICULTURE & DROUGHTS

NWNL Are better farming techniques evolving with education and NGO support?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Many farmers are now using a double-cropping system where they plant maize [corn], beans and peas at the same time. The peas come up first, then the greens and beans in the shade of the maize. While the maize is growing, they harvest, eat, dry and store the vegetables underneath. This very intensive way of farming takes a lot out of the soil, but maximizes the amount of food from a very small area.

NWNL Are there crops now that are more drought tolerant than others?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE There are quite a few crops now being designed and bred to tackle those issues. But will the Kenyan population take those on? What do people want as opposed to thinking what’s good for the environment. “It tastes like shit, but it’ll save your life.”

NWNL I understand Kenyans’ main meal is “ugali,” made out of ground corn, with beans thrown in. Has that always been true? Has maize always been a staple? What was the common diet before they had corn?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Millet was the main meal. Corn has been around. It was brought in and regularly traded by early Arab traders and the Persians who came to East Africa, hundreds of years before white man knew about this place or regular trade. The higher altitudes, such as here, were not populated by agricultural communities because they hadn’t brought drought-resistant crops, like potatoes and carrots. There are many areas in Kenya, especially higher up on the Mau, which can now grow crops that they didn’t have before. So, agriculture has allowed people to settle higher up on the mountains and further into the forest. Now agriculture now must go the other way and pull people out of the forest today and save our water towers that way.

NWNL Drought-tolerant crops seem to be something Kenya needs to focus on.

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE Well, drought-tolerant plants will never produce fantastic yields because the plant is structured so that it doesn’t try to outdo itself. With drought-tolerant plants farmers are playing it safe and getting some crops instead of no crops. But they will never get a bumper harvest. It’s like playing roulette: Do you want to take a chance? At some point you’ll win, but how safe do you want to play it? Hopefully one day somebody is going to come up with some amazing answers but right now it’s not obvious.

NON-FARMING OPTIONS

NWNL Can these local farmers to support themselves other than by farming, which pulls critical water supplies off of the land?

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE There’s strong interest in non-farming livelihoods for the rural population, especially due to increased school education. Three weeks ago, we had a fiber-optic cable put through the farm, representing businesses in the first world outsourcing menial jobs or data imput to a cheap labor market. There is great pressure on Kenya to utilize digital access to employment to improve people’s lives and take pressure off the land.

NWNL That makes a lot of sense. It lessens extraction of water from the forests and soil for agriculture. I know people need agriculture to feed their families….

ANDREW NIGHTINGALE …. but livelihoods other than farming means people will become independent of the land to income. If you can remove that dependency on subsistence farming and give them something else, maybe more Kenyans will have a successful future and our water towers will continue to be water resources for all.

NWNL Andrew, you have been extremely helpful in preparing us for what we are about to see and document in this struggling water tower that is so critical to the viability of the Mara River and to much of Kenya.

Posted by NWNL on June 19, 2024.
Transcription edited and condensed for clarity by Alison M. Jones.

Mau Forest – A Water Tower in Peril Mara River Basin