9/5/2011 - School
children taking part in a reforestation
exercise in Aberdare forest
Aberdare Fence Has Improved Livelihoods,
Land Values and Biodiversity, says New Study
Nairobi, 5 September 2011 - The now completed
400 km electrified fence enclosing the Aberdare
Conservation Area (ACA) has improved the
livelihoods of millions of people in central
Kenya, according to an independent study
launched today at the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi.
The study, The Environmental,
Social and Economic Assessment of the Fencing
of the Aberdare Conservation Area, also
attributes improved forest cover, safer
living conditions for local communities
and greater security for wildlife to the
fence, which was completed in 2009 after
20 years of construction.
The study was requested
by The Rhino Ark Trust, the Kenya conservation
charity that has pioneered the fence project,
with funding support from thousands of Kenyans
and friends of Kenya overseas. The study
was co-funded by UNEP, Rhino Ark and Kenya
Forests Working Group and supported by the
Kenya Wildlife Service, the Kenya Forest
Service and the Greenbelt Movement.
Speaking at the launch,
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General
and UNEP Executive Director, said: "The
Aberdares conservation efforts underline
the extraordinary and wide-ranging returns
possible when a more creative, decisive
and sustainable approach to managing nature
is undertaken-they also offer a model for
exemplary public-private partnerships".
"Indeed Kenya's
new policies on renewable energy to conservation
of its water towers including the Mau complex,
Mt. Elgon, Mt. Kenya, the Cherangany, and
the Aberdares, is demonstrating practically
and politically that a transition to a Green
Economy is as relevant to a country in Africa
as it is to countries across the world,"
he added.
"The study affirms
that the fence has proved a prime management
tool in the process of both conservation
integrity and ensuring better incomes for
all - fence edge farmers, as well as the
national and global interests that are derived
from the Aberdares as a prime water, forest
and biodiversity hot spot," said Colin
Church, Chairman of the Rhino Ark Management
Committee.
"The study re-affirms
that the Aberdares is offering a management
and policy blue print for the precious 'water
towers' of Kenya and other tropical mountain
ecosystems and upon which so much human
resource is increasingly dependent",
he added.
Over the last 15 years,
UNEP has been highlighting the vital role
of Kenya's "water towers", such
as the Aberdare Range and the Mau Forest
complex, in securing environmental stability,
economic development and human well-being.
The financial and technical support to the
Aberdare assessment study is part of UNEP's
ongoing work in enhancing the understanding
of the importance of ecosystem services.
Key findings in the
report confirm:
A 20.6% increase in
forest cover between 2005 and 2010
A 54% decrease in open areas (grassland
and cultivation inside the now fenced 2000
km² Aberdare Conservation Area)
A 47 % increase in exotic plantations outside
the fenced area
The report attributes
these improvements to the effects of the
fence and associated fence management guidelines
as well as more assertive policy interventions.
It emphasizes that there
should be an integrated management plan
for the Aberdares and by inference that
future government policy should incorporate
holistic approaches to the way high value
mountain forest ecosystems are managed.
The study also recorded
socio-economic effects, such as higher household
incomes and land values (as high as 300%
in some cases) due to improved farmland
security, crop yields and safer living conditions.
Wildlife crop destruction has been all but
eliminated and children travelling to school
face fewer risks from animals.
The number of fence
edge communities growing wood lots for farm
fuel is increasing. In some areas, communities
have initiated indigenous tree re-planting
inside the fence where previously illegal
logging, uncontrolled cattle grazing and
indiscriminate cultivation were rampant.
Cattle rustling using
the forest as an escape route has ceased
and disease transmission between wildlife
and livestock has greatly reduced.
The report confirms
that wildlife populations have increased,
though poaching remains a threat. It confirms
that whilst the fence protects farmers'
land, it is not, nor was designed, to be
human proof. The report calls for stricter
gate access policies to regulate access
to the Aberdare Conservation Area and to
tackle illegal activities inside the indigenous
forest areas.
On water resources,
the report says limited data indicates that
the Aberdares rivers are "more stable
than the Mount Kenya rivers" - a fact
it attributes to better land cover in the
ecosystem.
The report's economic
analysis gives a breakdown of identifiable
benefits provided by the Aberdares to many
parts of Kenya. The value of providing domestic
water supply to central Kenya, parts of
the Rift Valley and the Tana River valley,
for example, is estimated at KES 646 million
(US$ 6.9 million) annually. For Nairobi,
where almost all the water supply comes
from above and below ground Aberdare sources,
the value given is KES 1.46 billion (US$
15.6 million) annually.
The Aberdares is a key
contributor to hydropower, which represents
58% of the national total installed capacity.
The mountain range is a core provider of
water for the horticulture and floriculture
production around Lake Naivasha and is also
vital to the Ewaso Nyiro River, which flows
into Laikipia and the arid northern rangelands.
On carbon sequestration
and soil erosion control, the report assesses
the annual value at just under KES 1.9 billion
(US$ 20.3 million). .
Carbon credits account
for KES 450 million (US$ 5 million) annually.
The report stresses
important values to fence adjacent communities
and key revenues from the Nyayo tea zones
and tourism.
Total products and services
values are put at KES 39.3 billion (US$
420 million) and biodiversity at KES 20
billion (US$ 214 million) - an overall total
of KES 59.3 billion (US$ 633 million).
The overall distribution
of economic benefits from the Aberdares
gives the central Kenya/Rift Valley area
71 %, whilst the total national benefit
is logged at 12%. The fence adjacent communities
receive 7.6% of the total cake. The global
value from agricultural exports, tourism
and biodiversity is just under 7%.
In per capita terms,
the 40,000 families whose land borders the
fence and gazetted forest line are receiving
by far the largest value benefits at KES
14,580 (US$ 155) per capita compared to
a regional figure of KES 4,661 (US$ 50)
per capita.
However, despite these
substantial positive changes, the study
affirms that the fence is under-supplied
in both human and capital needs.
It recommends that the
Ministry of Finance be further sensitized
as to the value of the Aberdare ecosystem
and to provide appropriate budget allocations
to its overall contribution to the economy
and GDP of Kenya.
The report affirms that
a public-private partnership using a trust
mechanism should be formed, which would
enable stronger 'participatory management'
by communities with the relevant government
agencies. It stresses that there is an urgent
need to ensure a properly implemented gate
management and access policy for gazetted
(vis à vis national park) forest
areas.
The report proposes
that given adequate financial and human
capital support through immediate Treasury
funding, the long term financing could be
derived from Payments for Ecosystem Services
(PES) mainly from water and electricity
users. In addition to ensuring ecosystem
stability, PES could then be re-directed
to accelerate income generating and non-exploitive
activities for fence adjacent farmers.
The study recognizes
that the fence adjacent communities could
place new exploitive pressures on the forests
and so need greater long-term support to
create income activities that are compatible
with conservation.
It concludes by affirming
that management of the buffer zone - the
five kilometre area around the fence - should
be clearly identified and every effort made
to create "positive benefits by deliberate
investment in support of local livelihoods."
+ More
GRASP Welcomes U.S.
Government Decision to Review Chimpanzee
Status
9/13/2011 - GRASP is
hopeful that chimpanzees in the U.S. will
soon receive the same legal respect and
protection as those in the wild in Africa
The Great Apes Survival
Partnership (GRASP) welcomed the United
States government's recent announcement
it will re-examine the conservation status
of captive chimpanzees, a decision that
could close a controversial loophole that
many believe hindered attempts to protect
the apes.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service (FWS) stated on August 31 that it
has initiated a review of whether captive
chimpanzees should be "up-listed"
from the current "threatened"
status to "endangered."
Although chimpanzees
are classified as "endangered"
in the wild - and some sub-species have
dwindled to just a few hundred in select
regions - the estimated 2,150 chimpanzees
in the U.S. are regarded differently because
they were once needed for bio-medical experiments.
The FWS will accept
public comments on the review for the next
60 days before rendering a decision.
"GRASP is hopeful
that chimpanzees in the U.S. will soon receive
the same legal respect and protection as
those in the wild in Africa," said
GRASP coordinator Doug Cress. "Whether
chimpanzees were ever useful as test subjects
is debatable, but there is no doubt that
a species classified as 'threatened' lacks
the conservation urgency of one that is
'endangered.'"
The FWS decision was
prompted by a 144-page petition that states
"sanctioned exploitation" by the
U.S. in laboratory testing, entertainment
and private ownership undercuts legitimate
attempts at conservation. Important testimony
in the petition was provided by GRASP patrons
Dr. Jane Goodall and Dr. Richard Wrangham,
along with GRASP envoy Ian Redmond.
The petition quoted
Dr. Brian Hare of Duke University as saying
the "hypocrisy of the U.S. in allowing
domestic exploitation of chimpanzees while
simultaneously arguing they must be conserved
in Africa, results in a loss of political
capital, making it more difficult for western
conservationists to convince African communities
and decision-makers to take action to protect
chimpanzees."
The U.S. originally
adopted the so-called "split-listing"
of chimpanzees in 1987, when the AIDS epidemic
spurred breeding programs for chimpanzees
to be used in testing programs. But AIDS
tests on chimpanzees were halted years ago,
and breeding programs ceased in 1996.
GRASP was established
by the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) in 2001 to respond to the global
conservation crisis facing chimpanzees,
gorillas, orangutans and bonobos and lift
the threat of imminent extinction.
For more information, please visit www.un-grasp.org.
