Nature destroys those who disrespect it

The gradual degradation of Kenya’s Mau Forest Complex has been attributed to decades of mismanagement, compounded by irresponsible and corrupt practices by the very people who were expected to protect it.

Besides encroachment to establish monocultures of eucalyptus and cedar trees — the shamba system — there was uncontrolled expansion of human settlements and cultivation of food crops, charcoal production and grazing of livestock. Politicians’ friends and supporters were often rewarded with chunks of forest land.

These destructive practices greatly reduced the forest cover and the “environmental services” it renders us, which we take for granted.

Such services include control of rainfall patterns, conservation of rainwater in underground water reservoirs and wetlands, conserving biodiversity, controlling water flow and therefore soil conservation and serving as a carbon sink and thereby reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Although climate change is blamed for the melting of ice and snow on Mt Kenya and Mt Kilimanjaro as well as the drying up of wetlands, it is quite possible that a greater contributor is the long-term destruction of indigenous forests.

Life is unsustainable in East Africa without these environmental services from forests.

When forests are degraded, rainfall patterns and micro-climates change, volumes of water in rivers are reduced and finally disappear, lakes recede, underground water levels go down, vegetation and crops fail and biodiversity gradually dies. Once life around us is threatened and begins to die, we should remember that we shall be the next in line.

Prolonged drought, failure of rainfall, drying up of rivers and wetlands, crop failure, famine and death are events that are regular occurrences in Nature.

What most countries do is to mitigate against them by protecting their watersheds and forests, harvesting rainwater, avoiding overgrazing and other desertification processes, planting trees, conserving the soil and building granaries and dams.

Some countries are also able to do away with leaders who misuse power and privilege to promote wanton destruction of the environment.

Nature does work with countries that respect it. But it also destroys those who disrespect and mismanage it.

Failure to manage our environment is the reason there are conflicts over land and water, hunger and death of livestock, wildlife and even humans.

These are all familiar signs of an environment that is gradually losing its capacity to sustain life.

It is extremely important therefore, that all stakeholders come together to save our forests, the largest of which is the Mau Forest Complex.

We also need to save wetlands and rivers.