VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHNR #0759/01 1051425
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 151425Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY NAIROBI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9199
RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS NAIROBI 000759 
 
DEPT FOR AF/E Driano 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958:N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL SENV KE
 
SUBJECT:  Visit to Aberdares and Mount Kenya Highlights 
Environmental Issues 
 
UNCLASSIFIED - ENTIRE TEXT. 
 
¶1. Summary. A recent visit to the Aberdares Forest and Mount Kenya 
highlighted the serious environmental challenges Kenya confronts. 
Conservation efforts in the Aberdares have yielded impressive 
results, reflecting good cooperation between the Kenyan government 
and non-governmental groups.  Efforts to conserve the Mount Kenya 
ecosystem have produced at best mixed results.  The U.S. is 
providing substantial assistance for environmental programs. End 
summary. 
 
¶2. In March the Ambassador and members of the Mission team visited 
the Aberdares Forest and Mount Kenya to highlight environmental 
issues.  Conservation efforts in the Aberdares are a success story; 
the mixed results of such efforts in the Mount Kenya ecosystem are 
not. 
 
¶3. The Aberdares is one of the last remnants of the East African 
tropical mountain rain forest which one time stretched from central 
Kenya to the Congo (the other remnant is in Kakamega district in 
western Kenya).  The Aberdares has suffered from both deforestation 
and severe poaching.  There were 3,000 rhinos there in the 1960s, 
and now less than a dozen.  However, concerted efforts by the Kenyan 
government and non-governmental groups have brought about an 
impressive and sustainable conservation program.  The Kenyan 
Wildlife Service (KWS), one of the most professional and least 
corrupt organizations of the government, continues to work closely 
with the Rhino Ark Trust (a conservation NGO) and others to preserve 
the Aberdares.  As a result, before the end of this year, the 2,000 
square kilometers of the forest will have been fenced.  The fencing 
has been carried out with the help of local communities, which 
benefit because wild game cannot get out of the forest to destroy 
their crops.  As a result, the price of land in the local 
communities has risen by 300 percent.  Nobel Prize Winner Wangari 
Maathai and her renowned Greenbelt Movement are helping with tree 
planting on farms and in the lower elevations of the Aberdare 
Forest. USAID/Kenya is supporting this effort in a critical water 
catchment west of Nyeri town. The fencing has greatly reduced 
illegal logging and poaching. Conservation of the Aberdares is also 
vitally important because the forest is the water source for several 
major rivers (by some estimates, one in three Kenyans are dependent 
on water than emanates from there). 
 
¶4. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has provided a small amount of 
assistance to Rhino Ark, and a number of private American citizens 
have provided support. 
 
¶5. The Aberdares is also where the famous Treetops lodge is located. 
 Burned down by the Mau Mau in 1952, it was quickly rebuilt and it 
is there, in 1954, that then Princess Elizabeth learned that she 
would be the Queen of England. 
 
¶6. Mount Kenya, by contrast, is an example of where conservation 
efforts have had mixed success.  All Kenyans familiar with the 
mountain -- which, at 17,057  feet, is the second highest in Africa 
-- will tell you that they have noticed a dramatic acceleration in 
the reduction in the snow cap and recession of the glaciers during 
the past five years, presumably as a result of global warming. The 
impact of global warming has been exacerbated by a spotty record in 
conservation..  This variability is due to the mountain coming under 
two GoK agencies - KWS which manages the National Park and the Kenya 
Forest Service that has jurisdiction in the National Reserve (mostly 
forest land) on the mountain's lower elevations. Over the years 
Kenyan farmers have steadily encroached into the mountain's lower 
forested areas, and only a few have been moved out.   The resulting 
deforestation has had a substantial negative impact on the water 
flow from the lower slopes of Mount Kenya.  Over abstraction of 
water for irrigation is also a problem. A large hydroelectric plant 
on a river whose source is Mount Kenya has for some time not been 
able to operate due to insufficient water volume.  Several rivers 
sourced in the ecosystem are drying up, and there is strict water 
rationing in some communities in the Mount Kenya area.  The kind of 
coordinated public-private partnership effort so evident and 
successful in the Aberdares is just beginning to emerge around Mount 
Kenya. It is mainly driven by community-based water user 
associations working in concert with KWS, some non-governmental 
groups, and UN agencies. 
 
¶7. Mount Kenya, with about 40,000 tourists a year, nevertheless 
provides significant revenue for KWS.  The Chief of the KWS mountain 
rescue rangers  noted that during the past 16 years 47 climbers have 
died on Mount Kenya, and he recounted numerous rescue operations. 
Franklin Roosevelt's son successfully climbed the mountain in 1932. 
As in the Aberdares, the British colonial connection remains present 
in the Castle Forest Lodge on the southern side of Mount Kenya that 
King George built in 1910, which still stands.  Americans' 
longstanding love affair with Kenya is also evident at the Mount 
Kenya Safari Club, built by American William Holden and others. 
 
¶8. At present, the U.S. is indirectly engaged in the conservation of 
the Mount Kenya ecosystem, through USAID's e substantial support to 
KWS.   Another USAID project soon to start with the Laikipia 
Wildlife Forum will tackle the issue of community-based water 
catchment management to improve water flows. Overall, U.S. 
environmental programs in Kenya amount to about 6 million dollars 
annually.  We are working on a new project to help save the Mau 
Forest water catchment area, the degradation of which is perhaps the 
most serious environmental problem facing Kenya (septel will report 
on this). 
 
RANNEBERGER