Here’s some great news from Kenya’s Tana River Delta – and a new chapter in a story we’ve following on this blog for three years - here's the beginning of the story.
In a historic landmark ruling, the Kenyan judiciary have ruled in favour of the communities that had taken the Kenyan Government to court over the large scale agricultural projects planned for the Tana River Delta.
They have ruled that no projects should go ahead until short, medium and long range land use development plans have been developed with full participation of the community as well as the agencies and stakeholders.
The judgement is a great result for communities and the environment recognising that proper forward development planning with full participation and coordination is needed
With funding from Department for International Development, the RSPB is working with our BirdLife partner NatureKenya to help put together a comprehensive and inclusive plan together for how the land is used for the long-term conservation and sustainable development of the Tana River Delta (due June 2013). The process is co-ordinated by the Delta’s Secretariat at the Office of the Prime Minister and involves 14 government institutions – vital leadership that signifies the importance of this process.
The Tana River. Photo credit P Usher
There’s delight here at the RSPB that that the judgement endorses the concerns, expressed by NatureKenya and the RSPB, about how planning has been happening in the delta recently. We all welcome the mandate this judgement gives for the new plan.
So how does this look from the perspective of our friends and colleagues in Kenya? Here's the story NatureKenya put out to the media after the judgement.
The judgement has been received positively by communities in the Delta.
High Court Judge Lady Justice Mumbi Ngugi noted that there was a need to have one agency to oversee the development of the Tana River Delta. She ruled that the short, medium and long range land use development plans for the Tana River Delta will have to be developed with full participation of the communities as well as government agencies and other stakeholders with an interest in the area.
TARDA (the Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority), one of the respondents to the suit, was requested to share its short and long term land use development plans with communities and stakeholders. The judge also called for periodic evaluations of the plans.
In August 2010, representatives of farmers, fishermen, pastoralists and conservation groups in the Tana Delta went to court seeking to halt large-scale commercial developments in the Tana Delta until a master plan was in place. The communities sued the Attorney General, National Environment Management Authority, Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority, Tana River County Council, Commissioner of Lands and Water Resources Management Authority.
“The essence of the case is not to stop or deny development, but to have the Government agencies undertake a responsible, transparent and collaborative approach to planning in order to avoid the disasters of the past, whilst ensuring that all the Millennium Development Goals are achieved within a sustainable living framework that respects the rights of all stakeholders, indigenous peoples and wildlife“, says Ms. Serah Munguti, the Advocacy Manager of Nature Kenya, a environmental conservation organization advocating for the conservation of the Tana Delta.
The Delta is home to more than 100,000 people, who are mostly fishermen, herdsmen and farmers. The landscape is a vast patchwork of habitats including savannah, forests, grasslands, wetlands, beaches, lakes, mangrove swamps and the Tana River itself
Mangrove kingfisher - part of the array of wildilfe that the Delta supports Photo P Usher
Poverty and environmental destruction
Even though rainfall is unreliable and soils are sandy and prone to seawater flooding, the Delta is fertile and supports local livelihoods. However more than half a dozen companies are poised to try and exploit its potential riches.
The developers claim that they will reduce poverty in the Delta. However all large scale projects that have been attempted in the Tana Delta in the last half century have failed, and many of them left a trail of poverty and environmental destruction.
There is a scramble for land in the Tana Delta, with no clarity in land allocation and no central decision making and management for development. The rush for riches leads to the rights of the local people being ignored.
“This scramble, allied to a growing local population and the impacts of climate change, such as more frequent droughts, has led to the recent tragic conflicts between local communities faced with a growing scarcity of resources” says Mr Michael Gachanja, Executive Director of the East African Wild Life Society. The Society is partnering Nature Kenya in the advocacy of the conservation and sustainable management of the Tana Delta.
In October 2012 the Tana Delta was designated Kenya’s newest Ramsar site. In addition to being an internationally important area for birds and wildlife, the Tana Delta is vital for the herders who depend on the water and grasslands during the dry season, the farmers who cultivate rice, mangoes and other crops and the fishermen who fish from its lakes and watercourses. The Delta is designated an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International, Key Biodiversity Area by Conservation International and it is one of Kenya’s Endemic Bird Areas meaning it is vital for birds that are found only in Kenya.
Nature Kenya and the East African Wild Life Society have worked with communities for six years to promote ecological sustainability in the Tana Delta and collaborated with the Kenya Red Cross to help the victims of the recent clashes experienced in the area.
And it this partnership that is supporting the efforts of the Office of the Prime Minister together with other state agencies and ministries to develop the multiple land use plan for the Tana delta.
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