Saving the Mau Forest Water Tower

Interviewee

Christian Lambrechts

Rhino Ark Kenya Charitable Trust Exec. Dir.

Interviewer

Alison M. Jones

NWNL Director and Photographer

In Kenya’s Abedare Salient, Jan. 31- Feb.1, 2018

Introductory Note

This interview merges a chat with Christian at Solio Ranch with a chat one day later at the Abedare Salient’s Rhino Retreat as we joined Diane and Mike Prettejohn – there to check camera-trap images for possible bongo activity.

Mike’s mission is to doccument remaining bongo activity in the Mt Kenya area; and then to help return healthy bongo presence in former bongo habitat. Christian’s mission has been to research the current health of the much-reduced Mau Forest ecosystems and then advocate for governmental protection of this critical natural resource – so it may once again support Kenya’s largest source of water and bongo!

NWNL has met with Christian several times since 2009, when he assumed a request to co-chair Kenya’s Vice-President’s Mau Forest Task Force. His thoughtful inquiries into often-volatile environmental issues and proposals is needed and valued throughout Kenya. NWNL has benefitted greatly from his perspectives. NWNL also thanks Mike Prettejohn for sharing his Bongo Surveillance Project’s camera trap images of their work to document the few remaining bongo in the Mau Forest.

Outline

At Solio Ranch
UPDATE on MAU FOREST TASK FORCE

At Abedare Salient’s Rhino Retreat
On DAMS in the MAU FOREST

Key Quotes Today, Phases 1 and 2 of the Mau Forest Task Force have been successfully implemented. Some 24,000 hectares [59,305 acres] of forestland were recovered and are still being rehabilitated. Part of the land is being rehabilitated by nature…. Some areas are being rehabilitated according to our enrichment-planting plan. – Christian Lambrechts

We must assess every proposed dam project individually, asking
–Will it impact the environment? To what extent?
–Is there a strict necessity to stop a dam?
–If a dam will impact the environment, what mitigation measures do we need?
– Christian Lambrechts

UPDATE on MAU FOREST TASK FORCE

NWNL Hello again, Christian! When we first met in 2009, you were seconded from the French government to co-chair Kenya Vice President’s Mau Forest Task Force. With hindsight – what were its impacts? Is that Task Force still in existence – or did it accomplish its assigned tasks?

CHRISTIAN LAMBRECHTS The Mau Forest Task Forest was established by the Kenya government to make recommendations to the Government on how to conserve and rehabilitate the Mau Forest Complex, Kenya’s largest water tower. Initially, the Mau Forest was as big as Mt. Kenya and the Aberdare Range combined.

Our Task Force completed its work and submitted an 850-page report to the Government of Kenya. Amazing enough, the report was endorsed by the Cabinet (all the ministers and the President) and by Parliament. To some extent, the Task Force Report was self-implementing, in that it set up budget to implement the recommendation of the Mau Task Force.

As soon as the Mau Task Force completed its work, an Interim Coordinating Secretariat was established in the Office of the Prime Minister to coordinate implementation of the Task Force recommendations. The Secretariat started this work a couple of months after the Task Force gave the report. It took a few months for the report to be printed and given to Parliament and the Cabinet. It was quite a process. The Interim Coordinating Secretariat established a plan to recover most of the land in the Mau Forest Complex that was removed from Protected Forest Land status and given out as settlements.

There were 5 phases of implementation, starting with easy ones to get a “quick win” and build trust into the process. We moved slowly, slowly, through these phases towards the most difficult areas that would require much more engagement. Clearly, we didn’t want to start with those areas, because they could stall the entire process and then we’d be unable to restore or gain back any land in the Mau Forest Complex.

Today, the Mau Forest Task Force/Phases 1 and 2 have been successfully implemented. Some 24,000 hectares [59,305 acres] of forestland were recovered and are still being rehabilitated. Part of the land is being rehabilitated by nature. Trees are coming back; the bush is coming back; and bamboo trees are coming back. Some areas are being rehabilitated according to our enrichment-planting plan. They now need many stakeholders to come aboard to adopt specific parts of those forests and replant trees needed for the forest to come back to what it was in the past.

NWNL What percent do the 24,000 hectares you mention represent within the Mau Forest?

CHRISTIAN LAMBRECHTS They probably cover 6% to 7% of the entire Mau Forest Complex. It’s not a big part; but I can’t recall when in Kenya’s history it has recovered 24,000 hectares of forestland.

NWNL Kenya and the rest of the world owes you a debt of gratitude for all you’ve accomplished in addressing the important role the Mau Forest represents as source of many critical rivers in Kenya.

On DAMS in the MAU FOREST

CHRISTIAN LAMBRECHTS Regarding whether a dam will work in the Mau Forest, there are cases where a dam is required to provide water to a specific city with no buffer between that city and a neighboring forest. [The growing city of] Nanyuki is looking at building a dam near a river in the forest reserve, since there is no other place to build the dam. So, what do you do with Nanyuki’s water needs? In that specific case, the dam site they identified and we visited with KFS [Kenya Wildlife Service] is a totally degraded forest. There are no trees anymore, so a dam there would be a perfect source of water to extinguish fires within Kenya, especially the fire-prone zone of Mt. Kenya. There, a dam could become an asset.

We cannot be dogmatic on this matter of dams. It’s not about saying, “No, that’s it.” We must assess every dam individually, and ask:

–Will it impact the environment? To what extent?

–Is there a strict necessity to stop a dam?

–If a dam will impact the environment, what mitigation measures do we need?

In terms of mitigation measures, we will ask that for each hectare of forest land given to the proponent of a dam, the same acreage with the same ecological value must be given to KFS (Kenya Forest Service), to be added as forest reserve. Dam companies will have to buy that land, since we don’t want people moving to the forest thinking forest land is free. Forests are idle land, but they are public land. You can’t just take it. We must find ways to balance everything so we won’t lose our forest estates – but instead, we will get additional land.

NWNL I understand mitigation – an important tool in natural resource management. For instance, in the US, if Walmart or other large “box stores” want to be build in wetlands, resource managers and local officials will say, “Okay, but you must compensate us” – often using a 3:1 acreage ratio. Are Kenyan resource managers asking a larger ratio than that?

CHRISTIAN LAMBRECHTS We are not. Currently we’re looking at same acreage ratio; but we are considering whether a dam should be the only way forward. It should not be the main or only solution. A dam should be part of a much larger Integrated Water Management Plan.

ROOF RAIN COLLECTION v DAMS

CHRISTIAN LAMBRECHTS When we looked at the today’s efforts to collect water in the Mau Forest, we saw that less than 1% of buildings’ roofs have rain harvesting system. People are not collecting the water from their roofs. So, we said, “Okay, fair enough, if a dam is to be built in the Mau Forest, it must be installed within a larger program, financed by the government, requiring rainwater harvesting be put on all the houses in the Mau Forest.

Also, putting a dam inside the forest will attract large numbers of livestock, which will bring pollution. So, we said if any is built dam in that forest, a trough for cattle must be built outside the forest and fed by water from the dam so livestock doesn’t stay inside the forest. Instead, farmers would have to bring the livestock outside the forest.

There is also the broader issue of rainwater harvesting, used by less than 1% of Mau Forest residents. When asked why they don’t have it, a frequent answer is, “Oh, there is plenty of water in the forest.” People must be responsible water-managers, since it is a very scarce commodity. Especially as climate change impacts us, we must be much more prudent than ever before. We must assess our true needs. Regarding irrigation, people are outdated in the way they grow crops. With climate-smart agriculture, farmers could grow crops just as well as they do with irrigation. Irrigation brings additional problems, such as adding more salt to the top layers of the soil.

Past civilizations died due to issues of irrigation drainage never being properly conceptualized. It’s so important. One irrigation scheme in Tanzania collapsed, because of drainage systems. We must avoid jumping too quickly into irrigation schemes to boost yields. We must look at all options. There are big farms north of Mt. Kenya running with no water. They care for their water resources and don’t spray water into the air where it evaporates. No. They do a good job of minimizing water use in irrigation, because it’s precision-based.

NWNL Christian, thank you for allowing me to pepper you with all these questions during yesterday’s lunch at Solio and today’s breakfast here at Rhino Retreat. Your broad grasp of environmental issues and consequences of ignoring threats and solutions is extremely valuable. NWNL appreciates your willingness to take on these issues and will share them with all who are also anxious to adopt and support best-possible environmentally aware practices.

Posted by NWNL on August 29, 2024.
Transcription edited and condensed for clarity by Alison M. Jones.

Saving the Mau Forest Water Tower Mara River Basin