Paul Matiku (pictured with me below) is the Director of our BirdLife International partner organisation, NatureKenya and he is in the UK to attend the Royal Town Planning Institute award ceremony.

The Tana River Delta Land Use Plan and Strategic Environmental Assessment is a strong contender for the inaugural International Award for Planning Excellence and our fingers are crossed that it will do well. Here’s a little background.

I was fortunate to spend an hour with Paul – someone I have often mentioned and written about on this blog – hearing about what the plan means not only for the wildlife of the Tana Delta but even more so of the people who live and work there, the communities of the Tana Delta have suffered for years in the face of unconstrained ambitions to develop the Delta with scant regard to the legitimate interests of local people.

I’ll bring you an update from the ceremony as soon as possible – you can always follow me on twitter.