By Jeckonia Otieno
For years, Dakacha villagers have watched helplessly as their indigenous woodland is decimated by greedy people.
The woodland in Magarini constituency, Kilifi County, is a hotbed of conflict with both locals and investors claiming ownership. As they say, when bulls fight, the grass suffers and for the Dakacha woodland, the vegetation cover is nearly gone.
Rampant charcoal burning and interest in the proceeds from the woodland is threatening the ecosystem of the area.
After watching the turn of events over years, now some people, mostly the young, from the area have got together to stop this blatant destruction of their environment.
The local group is continually fighting to conserve the land as well as the woodland.
Recently, the members of the group, Community Forest Association, got information that an investor who had been allocated a huge chunk of land for plantation farming is moving out of the county and has abandoned the project.
The ministry of Environment had ordered all plans of extensive farming in the area halted. When they broke news to fellow villagers, everyone sang and danced.
disaster
Finally, they said, they were going to ensure that the area does not become an environmental disaster in future due to careless and reckless environmental and economic activities.
But not everyone celebrated this good news. There are some villagers who strongly feel that economic activities such as plantation farming and charcoal burning should go on.
They claim with rampant joblessness in the area, their only source of income is the burning and selling of charcoal.
The association, which is made up of environmental enthusiasts, is more concerned about ‘investors’ being invited to farm in the land. These destroy the woodland to make way for their farming activities.
sneak in
These investors, says the association, collude with local influential leaders to “sneak in projects that will not benefit local people”.
Samson Katisho, a local, says the community has farmed in the woodland for many years without destroying it. They grow indigenous crops such as cassava which they depend on for survival and these crops, he says, are not a threat to the environment.
“Plantation farming will destroy our environment. It will decimate the few remaining trees and leave the area even more susceptible to vagaries of weather,” says Katisho.
Katisho says this should continue in order to preserve the woodland as well as the diverse wildlife that live in the area which would be interfered with by plantation farming.
Rodgers Mwabayo, a bird watcher, says some of the area’s unique wildlife like the Clarke’s weaver — a rare bird — and other wild animals would be in danger of extinction.
Joshua Pekesha, 52, who is the chairman of the group, has seen so much of his homeland being degraded by illegal logging and says he is tired.
He recalls the good old days when trees were safe unlike today when people only see charcoal in any standing tree.
reclaim land
Pekesha says as a community leader he is mobilising people to start reclaiming the land. If they don’t do this, he says, their land will become a desert.
But other pertinent issues stand out for Pekesha who says he knows more about land issues around Dakacha than the young men around him. He has noted that those eager to give out the Dakacha land to investors have settled elsewhere and are assured of the safety of their residential homes. Therefore, says he, they don’t care about what becomes of the people near the proposed project.
don’t care about us
“After studying this map carefully, I realised that the people from Dakacha who are really fronting this project are those whose land is outside the proposed area of its implementation,” says Pekesha.
“In short,” the old man says, “they really don’t care about us. They are just seeing the economic benefit this project will bring here; not the environmental degradation.”
Luckily, this project has been halted for now.
Apart from stopping commercial farming in their beloved woodland, the group is determined to extinguish plans of charcoal burners.
It is a tough assignment. Every few kilometres there lies a smouldering furnace where charcoal is manufactured. And fresh tree stumps protrude everywhere. The pieces of freshly chopped trees await the charcoal burning process.
The determined group has set out to resuscitate projects that were long forgotten to restore the woodland. They are starting massive re-afforestation to preserve the environment.
Pekesha says the group has an ambitious plan to plant 200,000 trees every year.
Urgent need to conserve home of unique birdlife
Generally, where forests are devastated, people blame poverty and joblessness.
Indeed, unless there is overt action by government to stop forest destruction, many people seeking quick man find forests the easiest target for quelling their desires.
Among the Dakacha people of Kilifi County, poverty has created desperation among them.
The people here live from hand to mouth.
In order to earn a living, most have turned to charcoal burning, a situation that threatens future livelihoods.
Paul Matiku, the executive director of Nature Kenya, a conservation organisation, notes that there is serious need to put measures in place to save the dying environment along the coast.
Matiku says animals and plants are in danger of decimation if the trend continues.
“It is for this reason that Nature Kenya has been in the forefront to stop any mega project deemed not friendly to the environment,” says Matiku.
unique birds
He further notes that areas like Dakacha has birds which are found nowhere else around the world hence the need to conserve the woodland.
To encourage local people to stop cutting trees, then they should be given alternative economic activities such as tourism and beekeeping for income.
Luckily, the poeple of Dakacha have realised the need to conserve their land and are working hard to start reversing the degradation that the area has seen over the past years.
