A Rocha Kenya

Yes, it’s true. Hard to believe in many ways given the feeling of hitting your head against a brick wall when trying to motivate Government to see the long term madness of clear-felling or draining natural wildlife-rich woodland and wetlands to plant 1000s of hectares of crops either for biofuel or for selling to industry in an area where the climate, soils and overall prospect are extremely marginal anyway. Yet it has happened. G4 Industries have pulled out of their plans to put in 28,000ha of oil seed such as castor and sunflower in the southern section of the delta stating reasons as ‘technical reasons with regard to soil types and chemical compounds’ as well as issues with mismanagement of delta resources by local authorities.They also state that calculations of the long-term effect of climate change on the climate of area has led to the risks being too high for sensible investment.

It is very interesting that they state very clearly that poor soil quality and an uncertain climate as some of the main reasons for pulling out. Reading their Environmental Impact Assessment, they state one of the reasons for going ahead with the project is:

“..to gain the benefits of extremely fertile soil areas and a year round growing climate”. (p.5, Annexe A – project feasibility).

Poor soils and a drying climate have been some of the foremost reasons we have been quoting all along as being why none of these large-scale developments in the Tana River Delta (or Dakatcha for that matter) should be allowed to go ahead. It is pretty much 99% certain that they will not succeed and we are thanking God that G4 Industries have ‘seen the light’ and realised the truth of the low quality of farming land and its significance for large scale agriculture.

Aerial view of the heart of the delta – when flooded like this, it is intensely alive with birdlife and fish and other wildlife…

Points go to our partners NatureKenya and RSPB for their lobbying and on-the-ground effort to show where these ideas of large-scale farming are going wrong. Also to the local community members who have stood and shouted that it is wrong what is going on – together with other partners like Tana Dunes Camp who work closely with the community – and in fact have the community where they are based as partners in the company and therefore benefiting directly from every guest that stays at the lodge.

However we can’t rest on our laurels – there are bigger and more serious threats to the delta in the form of Bedford Biofuels still planning to put in 64,000ha of jatropha biofuel and Mumias and Mat International wanting to put in tens of thousands of hectares of sugarcane. But it is encouraging to know that at least a small part of the delta is, for now, safe from immediate destruction. It would be awesome to get in there and do some thorough wildlife studies to see what birds, insects, reptiles, mammals etc really are there – and to put together a plan for turning it into a wilderness zone for tourism – to both provide a sustainable income for the communities that will continue into many years to come whilst at the same time protecting some of Kenya’s last remaining wilderness areas with amazing wildlife.

The newly discovered population of rare and endangered Red Colobus – in a small forest patch in the heart of the delta which would be threatened by the sugarcane plantations – image taken in 2010 by Olivier Hamerlynk.