BBy Ruth Keah – rkeahkadide@gmail.com
Moimuna Aboud stands poised in her diving gear, prepared to embark on a remarkable underwater journey.
For two years, the dedicated member of the Wasini Beach Management Unit (BMU) in Shimoni, Kwale County, epitomises the spirit of a health promoter determined to enlighten her community about the importance of preserving the delicate dry land and vibrant ocean ecosystems.
By Njeri Murigi – healthreporter3@gmail.com
Kihansi spray toad was discovered in 1996 in Tanzania in a five acre micro-habitat created by the spray of nearby waterfalls in the Kihansi Gorge.
In 1999, the construction of a hydroelectric dam in the gorge dramatically changed the Kihansi spray toad’s habitat. By 2009 the toad was declared extinct in the wild by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
By Sharon Atieno
Although Africa has a target of restoring 100 million hectares of forest landscape by 2030 in an initiative referred to as African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), the progress has been slow. By 2022, only about five million hectares had been restored.
Peter Ndunda, Resources Lead, Forest and Landscape Restoration, World Resources Institute- Africa said during a biodiversity training held by Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture (MESHA) in Nairobi, Kenya.
He observed that with the current rate, Africa will not be able to achieve this target, thus there is need to change course including working closely with local communities who are already engaged in restoration activities.
Landscape restoration is the process of bringing back the productivity or ecological functions of the land. Productivity of food, water, energy resources, biodiversity and the entire range of ecosystems that human beings rely on for survival.
Ndunda says there is need to restore African lands because they suffer from continuous pressure for settlement and agriculture among other activities. The land is also decreasing in productivity with about 65% of arable land being degraded, he said, adding that poor communities are the most affected by the degradation
By restoring the 100 million hectares, the continent will be able to sequester from the atmosphere 5.9 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2040. This will be at a rate of about 730 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum.
In the spirit of working with local communities to restore landscapes, WRI and its partners rolled out a programme dubbed TerraFund for AFR100 in 2021 to finance non-profit community organizations and for profit businesses that restore Africa’s land.
The programme focuses on three major landscapes which have suffered decades of degradation. These are: Kenya’s Greater Rift Valley, the Lake Kivu and Rusizi River Basin of Burundi, DRC, and Rwanda, and the Ghana Cocoa Belt.
In 2022, after an extensive selection process, the programme deployed its first grants and loans of $50,000 to $500,000 to 100 of these innovators that work across 27 countries.
In 2024, with support from Bezos Earth Fund and the Audacious Project, $17.8 million was allocated to a second cohort comprising 78 non-profits and 14 enterprises through grants, loans, and equity investments.
The cohort includes 36 organizations from Kenya, 20 champions from Rwanda, 11 organizations from Burundi, 10 projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and 15 projects in Ghana.
Through 2030, the cohort is expected to plant 12.7 million trees and restore 47,000 hectares of degraded landscape while creating 52,000 temporary and full-time jobs and benefitting nearly 600,000 people living in these regions.
The impact of this investment is tracked through the TerraMatch platform, which uses cutting-edge monitoring, reporting, and verification techniques from Land & Carbon Lab that combine field-collected data with insights from satellite imagery.
By Francis Mureithi – mureithifrancis1964@gmail.com
Investors targeting the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria, the world’s second-largest freshwater lake are at crossroads, faced with a huge potential but negated by plastic pollution and other waste released into the water body.
By Wakio Mbogho – wakiombogho@gmail.com
From engraved art on trees to gorges, nature trails, monumental buildings and exhibition walls, human history has left its mark across Kenya, the home to a rich cultural and natural heritage.
By Diana Wanyonyi – wanyonyidiana@gmail.com
Situated in Bamburi on the Mombasa-Malindi Road along the Indian Ocean coastline in Kenya is the Haller Park.
The facility named after its founder Dr René Haller is a success story of the transformation of a quarry wasteland into an ecological area. It holds a variety of plant and animal species that serve as a recreation spot for tourists and locals.
By Joyce Chimbi – j.chimbi@gmail.com
In the face of a snowballing climate crisis and biodiversity loss, experts are calling for a review of the relationship between man and nature for the good of both.
Reports have shown that wildlife populations have declined by 69 per cent since 1970 and that only 37 per cent of rivers that are longer than 1,000km remain free flowing in their natural state. The reports also indicate a decline of 83 per cent among monitored freshwater populations in the last 50 years.
By Ruth Keah – rkeahkadide@gmail.com
Experts are calling for reassessment of approaches being used in mangrove conservation in Kenya in order to achieve maximum benefits.
According to research findings by Wetlands International highlighted by its Director In charge of East Africa Region, Julie Mulonga, mass mangrove planting efforts have proven ineffective since a significant number planted seedlings die.
By Joyce Chimbi – j.chimbi@gmail.com
Powered by the Indian Ocean, Kenya’s coastal region is a natural wonder of an exotic ecosystem of numerous beaches, coral reef and a variety of unique plant and animal species.
“We define the blue economy as an umbrella term for sectors such as fisheries, aquaculture and mariculture, marine tourism, offshore oil and gas, maritime transport and logistics, safety and security and maritime domain awareness,” says Raymond Mwashigadi, a maritime expert and independent consultant on blue economy.
In 2021, the Ministry of Tourism estimated the contribution of travel and tourism to GDP at 24 per cent. It said tourism employed over 1.6 million people, making it the second most significant sector after agriculture.
The coastal region is the backbone of Kenya’s domestic and foreign tourism, supporting millions of people directly and indirectly.
By Joyce Chimbi – j.chimbi@gmail.com
Kenya’s large and unique diversity of ecological zones and habitats including lowland and mountain forests, wooded and open grasslands, semi-arid scrubland, dry woodlands and inland aquatic as well as coastal and marine ecosystems have made the East African nation a hub for tourism.
