Articles and Press Releases
Ozi Village Chief in Kenya Explains Impacts of Dams on Tana River
In this video, made by Brian Richter of The Nature Conservancy, Chief Omar Abdalla Hama explains the plight of his community in the Tana River Delta as they struggle to catch fish and grow crops.
Civet cats, sand dunes and starlight: community conservation in Tana Delta
Storm Stanley, first published in Swara April-June 2011 edition
Storm Stanley goes on safari, exploring the rich biodiversity of the Tana River Delta and meeting the communities who depend on it.
Download the full article (application/pdf, 703.1 kB, info)
UK 'green' fuels will destroy an extra 1.6 million ha of natural habitat by 2020 – new research
Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, RSPB and ActionAid press release, 8th November 2010
The UK’s increasing demand for biofuels will destroy more natural habitat and create more climate changing emissions than previously estimated, new research launched today by environmental and development charities reveals.
The analysis of national biofuel action plans for Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the RSPB and ActionAid shows that, to meet its renewable energy target for transport, the UK has chosen to implement the highest increase in the use of biofuels of any EU country – making it the biggest importer of biofuels in Europe.
It shows that factors not currently accounted for in biofuel policies mean that the UK’s drive for biofuel could destroy an extra 1.6 million hectares of wildlife habitat – bigger than the size of Northern Ireland – by 2020. And up to 13 mega tonnes of additional carbon dioxide emissions could be created per year – equivalent to putting nearly six million extra cars on the roads. More
Let them eat sugar: life and livelihood in Kenya’s Tana Delta
By Leah Temper - Autonomous University of Barcelona, Ecological Economics and Integrated Assessment Unit
Abstract: The Tana Delta in Kenya is one of Africa’s most valuable wetlands. It is home to two dominant tribes, the Orma pastoralists and the Pokomo agriculturalists, both competing for control of water and land resources in the delta, sometimes in violent conflict. But the delta also holds much of Kenya’s potential of irrigable land. A variety of projects have been proposed. Among them two sugar plantations, which will transform over 200,000 ha into a sugar monoculture, producing industrial and table sugar as well as ethanol. Another project would see the leasing of a large tract of land to the Qatari government, part of a trend of middle-eastern economies appropriation of land in Africa. This article, based on a field trip to the Tana Delta and on a CEECEC seminar organized with the East African Wildlife Society and Nature Kenya at the ISEE conference in Nairobi in 2008, examines the historical background of development projects in the delta and how ecological economic indicators such as virtual water, HANPP and Energy Return on Energy Input can be used to argue for sustainable development of the delta in line with existing livelihoods there.
Download full article from CEECEC
Brief on a public hearing concerning the proposed Tana oil explorations
Public hearing held in Kipini, 10th August 2010 - adapted from Francis Kagema, Nature Kenya
An Australian company called Flow Energy has developed a proposal to explore for oil in the Tana River Delta. The company has exclusive exploration rights on an area that stretches from Lango la Simba in the Tana Delta District to beyond Mpeketoni in Lamu and then extends out into the ocean.
To detect the seismographic contents of the earth’s crust, Flow Energy propose to plant small bombs ten metres underground and detonate them, producing vibrations that would be picked up by sensors. More
The communal forest, wetland, rangeland and agricultural landscape mosaics of the Lower Tana, Kenya, a socio-ecological entity in peril
Olivier Hamerlynck , CBD Technical Series No. 52 (2010)
Summary: Kenya is a water‐scarce country with an annual renewable supply of about only 650 cubic meters per inhabitant per year and over two‐thirds of the country arid or semi‐arid (<500 mm annual rainfall). Demographically dynamic and characterised by a strong urbanisation trend, demand for water is increasing rapidly and competition between different sectors (often with contradictory policies) and with more traditional water use and water for the environment is increasing. At the same time funding for hydro‐meteorological monitoring and analysis, water infrastructure (including catchment management) is lagging behind while extreme events (floods and droughts) have increasing economic (Mogaka et al. 2006), social and environmental costs.
Download the full article from the Convention on Biological Diversity
New scramble for Africa hits Kenyan wildlife oasis
RSPB press release, 24th June 2009
One of the most important wetlands in Africa is under unprecedented threat as corporations and foreign agencies scramble to exploit its riches for export crops and biofuels. Tens of thousands of people would lose their livelihoods, and globally endangered birds and primates and crucial wintering sites for migratory birds would be lost if a rush of schemes in Kenya’s Tana River Delta goes ahead. More
Travels in the Tana Delta
By Olivier Hamerlynck, April 2009
We were in the Tana Delta again from March 29th to April 1st 2009...
The Tana Delta is teaming with Palaearctic migrants these days, with large numbers of European Rollers, Golden Orioles and Eurasian Cuckoos living in any area where there are trees. The derelict wastelands of the failed JICA irrigation scheme (TDIP) are now becoming bushy and small Acacia are sprouting up, with regular Red-backed and Red-tailed Shrikes in all of them... More
Flourishing wetland sacrificed for sugar and biofuels
Statement by Paul Matiku, NatureKenya - given during a press conference on 25th June 2008
The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) has approved a controversial plan to grow sugarcane for sugar and biofuels on an internationally important coastal wetland—the Tana River Delta. More than 20,000 ha of the Tana River Delta will be destroyed and replaced with sugarcane for biofuel. This decision by NEMA will lead to a national environmental and social and economic disaster... More
Tainting Kenya's Wetland Wilderness - The Sour Side of Sugar
By Cheryl-Samantha Owen, February 2008
The Tana River Delta, one of Kenya’s last coastal wildernesses, is the floodplain ecosystem of the mighty Tana, a river born on the slopes of Mt Kenya that finishes its 1014km journey in East Africa’s Indian Ocean... More
There are no comments.