Earlier I posted the great news that the Tana River Delta Land Use Plan and the Tana River Delta Strategic Environmental Assessment had won the Royal Town Planning Institute’s inaugural International Award for Planning Excellence at a ceremony in London last week.
This is great news and reward for the team who has been working for years to secure a better future for the Tana Delta, its people and its wildlife.
Receiving the award from DFID's Rubbina Karrune (left) is Paul Matiku (NatureKenya's Director), Sarah Sanders (formally RSPB's Head of Partner Development in Africa and Asia), Peter Nelson from Planning Green Futures who provided vital consultancy input to the project and the RSPB's then Head of International Casework Helen Byron. Sarah and Helen have now moved onto other roles and projects within the RSPB. Photo credit RTPI.
The plan was entered for the award by RSPB, Nature Kenya, Government of Kenya, Inter-Ministerial Committee on Sustainable Management of Deltas in Kenya, Governments of Tana County and Lamu, County and Planning Green Futures. An indication of the partnerships and cooperative working that has brought the plan to this stage.
This is in stark contrast to the situation a few years ago when as recently as 2012 civil unrest in the face of a land grab for biofuels led to many deaths, a situation that was covered by the Guardian at the time.
Our BirdLife International partner, Nature Kenya, has been at the heart of developing the plan and recently I sat down with their Director, Paul Matiku, to hear firsthand about the challenges and obstacles that one, by one, have been overcome.
Paul ran through some of the achievements of the plan; evidence has been at its heart, it’s the first such land use plan not just in Kenya but in the whole of Africa, it’s the first rural land use plan and the first for Kenya’s Ministry of Land written from a conservation perspective.
And critically it is a plan that has included the people directly affected, the communities and user groups that live in and depend upon the Delta.
Paul is realistic that there is much hard work still to do. A plan is only, ultimately, as good as its implementation and securing the necessary funding and political commitment to turn the plan’s aspirations into reality remain ahead, but for now it is time to celebrate this important stage in the story of the Tana River Delta and congratulate everyone involved in securing this important award.
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