Tea and runners that is what comes to mind when one mentions Kericho County. These two jewels of our nation have been exported to almost every corner of the globe. Kenyan coffee is loved by Americans, but our tea is coveted by the rest o f the world, with tons being shipped to different parts of the world annually. Another jewel that is found in this region is the Mau Water Catchment. It is our nation’s most important water catchment with 12 rivers draining into Lake Turkana, Lake Victoria, lake Nakuru, lake Baringo and Lake Natron. Within the catchment is the Mau Forest Complex with over 400.000ha making it the largest continuous forest block in East Africa. It is a reservoir of unique biological diversity. But it is like a diamond in the rough because our people have not always understood the incalculable value of this vital natural resource.
Conserving this resource has not always been our priority. The destruction of the forest has far reaching consequences both in Kenya and regionally. These include: the inability of the ecosystem to absorb the impact of climate change; increased vulnerability to global warming; widespread drought brought about by the destruction of major catchment areas which has led to water and electricity rationing across the country; loss of earnings annually from losses in key economic sectors supported by the Mau ecosystem services – energy, tourism, agriculture, and water supply. Historically society in general and business in particular have taken our environmental infrastructure for granted. However our global consumption pattern is higher than the planet’s capacity to support life. Global supply chains are exposing business to increasing operational risks and there is now no argument that responding to the challenge of declining natural capital makes economic sense. The international study on the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), found that protecting natural capital gives economic returns of 10-100 times what it cost to protect it.
Tea is one of our nation’s major earners and the destruction of the Mau forest (through encroachment, settlement timber collection, mismanagement and government excision) has had a significant impact of the tea industry which doesn’t bode well for our economic development. Scientists have noticed a change in the rainfall patterns in the tea growing region and an increase in the incidence of drought and hail and they attribute this to the destruction of the forest. This in turn has affected the tea industry through crop damage, lowering of yields and an increase in fixed costs. The challenge of environmental degradation is not that of the business community alone. We are all stakeholders. In 1986 tea projects commonly known as “tea zones were established to provide a buffer between settlements and gazetted forest reserves. The Corporation is mandated to protect the gazetted forests from human encroachment by establishing continuous belts of tea bushes and assorted tree species which acts as a buffer between forests and communities living adjacent to the forests. The tea zones not only help to protect the forests but also in the rehabilitation of ecologically fragile areas.
Finlays and Unilever the biggest players in the industry recognized the importance of conserving natural capital and through their sustainable agriculture program undertook to address deforestation by planting indigenous trees, using waste plastic products to construct the longest wildlife conservation fence in the world, and conduction trials of the possibility of bio-gas energy production from the waste from tea factories. It is estimated that two thirds of the tea produced in western Kenya is growing in areas that benefit from the ecological functions of the Mau Complex, including the maintenance of favorable micro‐climatic conditions (constant moisture, air temperature, soil temperature).
Traditionally the markets have not been known to value the ecosystem they are in. But like a pilot who is asked if he would be willing to part with any component of her airplane and says no because all components must be present and working as an ensemble, they are recognizing that the value of the pieces as part of a system is vastly greater if losing one means the difference between flight and doom. By negatively affecting just one of these elements, the risk of both productivity losses and price volatility rises. Sustainable agriculture in this case meant producing crops with high yield and nutritional quality to meet existing and future needs, whilst keeping resource inputs as low as possible; ensuring that any adverse effects on soil fertility, water and air quality and biodiversity from agricultural activities are minimized; optimizing the use of renewable resources whilst minimizing the use of non-renewable resources and enabling local communities to protect and improve their wellbeing and environments.
The Ogiek are a forest community that has lived in the Mau forest since time immemorial. However, the rights of the Ogiek people to their traditional lands and resources within the Mau Forest Complex have not been adequately recognized and respected; neither historically nor during the recent process of developing measures to protect and rehabilitate the Mau Forest Complex. James Anaya former special rapporteur to United Nations reported that On 15 September 2009, the Kenyan Parliament adopted the Mau Taskforce Report, which called for the removal of all current inhabitants from the Mau Forest Complex in Narok District, purportedly in the interest of conservation. If implemented, the provisions of the Mau Taskforce Report would result in the displacement of Ogiek tribal members from their traditional lands within the Mau Forest Complex. The main cause of loss of forest-cover and degradation of the forest is not due to the presence of the Ogiek people. It is rather the recent encroachment of private and commercial interests, that is the key source of environmental degradation in the region. Anaya reported that while the Ogiek face eviction, logging companies have been permitted to remain within the Mau Forest, raising doubts about the legitimacy of the environmental justifications for the resettlement of the Ogiek. For the sake of the prosperity of our nation, our government has the duty to provide special attention to the social and economic welfare of indigenous peoples who have been disadvantaged historically or by recent circumstances.
The 2014 “Living Planet” report indicates that globally we are no longer living off the dividends of natural capital, but off the capital itself. In a world where so many people live in poverty, it may appear as though protecting nature is a luxury. But it is quite the opposite. Nature provides a lifeline to all of us. We are all in this together.