Forest conservation to protect life in dry NEP

By Dennis Ochieng

“Keen habitat protection is the key to wildlife conservation in remote regions,’’ says environmentalist Farhia Hajir of Pastoralist Girls’ Initiative (PGI). She states the greatest factor influencing the decline of wildlife is habitat destruction in the arid North-Eastern (NEP) region.

She cites overgrazing, wild forest fires, soil, wind and water erosion, deforestation and cultivation along rivers as major environmental degradation causes in NEP covering over 126,000 square kilometres.

“Obviously, agriculture is of great importance to humanity and there is no way we can do away with it, but at what cost? Can we control it?’’ asks Hassan Sheikh of Hirola Home Range in Garissa. 

Hassan says in arid areas like Garissa, where agriculture hasn’t been exploited fully due to poor rainfall and infertile soils, the fragile natural habitat ought to be preserved.

“However, that isn’t the case as residents are busy destroying the forest through logging and burning charcoal,’’ says Farhia. She regrets that habitat loss and climate change have led to human-human and human-animal conflicts. 

She points out that when domestic animals are brought to these decimated areas, they have difficulty coping with parasites like ticks and mites, but wildlife have natural ways of dealing with such pests.

“While some animals like buffaloes wallow in mud, others roll around in the dust to clean themselves and get rid of the parasites or are pecked clean by birds.”

Fortunately, while all animals can be ‘cleaned’ by birds, not all domestic livestock roll in the dust or mud to get rid of their new-found dependents.

Farhia says the bottom line of conservation lies in residents not destroying the forest. 

“Ironically, these same residents rely on flora as their economic mainstay in charcoal burning and logging and as a forest pharmacy since the dispensaries are few and far between,” she says .

“That being the case, we have started preserving the natural habitat by establishing indigenous and exotic tree nurseries in the remote and marginalised NEP, which has a fragile ecosystem,” says Hassan.

He refers to deforestation as forest general mutilation and the culprits behind this as eco-terrorists biting the hand that feeds them.

“We shouldn’t destroy the forest that serves as a source of food, medicine and pasture. We must make more efforts to replenish it,’’ Farhia says.