PANDA MITI OKOA MAU (PLANT TREES SAVE MAU FOREST)- Kenya

PANDA MITI OKOA MAISHA(PLANT TREES SAVE LIFE)

This is a campaign to plant trees and conserve Mau forest in Kenya your donation will go to buying of tree seedling and planting cost each tree will cost $0.4 therefor $20 will plant 8 trees and you will save lives in kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan and Egypt who depend on the Mau ecosystem.

The Mau Forest Complex is the largest closed-canopy montane ecosystem in Eastern Africa covering over 7 counties of Nakuru, Bomet, Kericho, Narok, Nandi and Uasin Gishu in Kenya. It encompasses nine forest blocks within the Mau Narok, Tinderet, Maasai Mau, Eburu Eastern Mau, Western Mau, Southern Mau, South West Mau and Transmarra regions. The area is thus the largest water tower in the region, being the main catchment area for 12 rivers draining into Lake Baringo, Lake Nakuru, Lake Turkana, Lake Natron and the trans-boundary Lake Victoria. However, in the past three decades or so, the Mau Forest Complex (MFC) has undergone significant land use changes due to increased human population demanding land for settlement and subsistence agriculture. The desirability of many of these areas for agricultural development attracts a rapidly‐growing population, leading to “overnight” conversion of large areas of forest to farmland. Extreme land cover changes have had serious consequences, both within the forest and downstream in the form of water shortages, desertification, habitat destruction, sedimentation, erosion and even alteration of the local climate. The loss of forest at this rate has become unsustainable and threatens the future development of Kenya. Realizing the goals of Vision 2030 will thus depend on sustainable management of this Kenya’s natural assets, including this “water tower”.

Importance of Mau to Counties Economies

The economic benefits of forest ecosystem services are more than four times higher than the short-term gains of deforestation, but trees continue to be felled due to multiple and complex reasons, including unregulated charcoal production, livestock grazing and human settlements. The forest stretches over hills between the Rift Valley and Lake Victoria and is the source of no fewer than 12 rivers flowing through the heart of Kenya - Njoro, Molo, Nderit, Makalia, Naishi, Kerio, Mara, Ewaso Nyiro, Sondu, Nyando, Yala and Nzoia. Mau Forest Complex also supports the country’s two largest foreign exchange industries: tea and tourism in Kericho, Bomet and Narok. The Mara River, which drains the Maasai Mara and Serengeti Parks, finds its source in the Mau forest. The forest also contains and maintains nature-based assets worth an estimated $1.5 billion a year to the Kenyan economy. In the last three decades however, physical evidence has revealed that the rivers in the MFC have had significant decline in discharges, coupled by dwindling water quality. The complex has also the largest indigenous montane forest covering an area of about 2700 km2 at present. Further downstream is a hydro-electric power station on the Sondu River. Approximately 90% of the Sondu's flow comes directly from the Mau Forest and the station itself generates as much as 6% of Kenya's total power supply. The study calculates that the Mau Forest's value to the electricity sector is $131.6m. Further from the forest is Lake Nakuru, renowned for its population of brilliant pink flamingos. Tourism is one of Kenya's biggest earners, and the study reckons this industry receives $65 million in benefits from the forest. Other services provided by the forest include an estimated $89million in storing carbon, $98million in controlling soil erosion and $21million in support for fisheries. In the higher mountain ranges, bamboo forests are largely predominant. Kenya has already signaled its intent to build up this natural capital as a vibrant and sustainable engine for growth and prosperity.

The local people in Mau complex depends on water directly for their domestic use and animal both domestic and the wild.

Renewed Approach toward Mau Rehabilitation

Previous approaches towards the rehabilitation of Mau Forest Complex have not been very successful considering sensitivities toward compulsory land acquisition, resettlements, forest benefits sharing, power plays, political sensitivities, ethnic characterization of the excised areas among other many contentious issues. Behind these pressures are political and economic forces that shape encroachment, illegal in-migrations, illegal land ownership, continued and unlawful forest excisions and corrupt forest management. The ability to successfully coordinate, negotiate and work between national and county governments within Mau Complex region is key to successful Mau rehabilitation process. Counties within the region need to work together and have a shared vision of the need to rehabilitate the complex. They must share in the national government desire rehabilitate the forest. They must rally their people in the vision and take sustainable approaches towards conservation. For this to succeed, new set of institutions and approaches that bring counties within Mau Forest landscape to the common vision must be initiated. These efforts must be coordinated among the counties themselves and with the national government policy. Importantly, local communities within Mau watershed must also buy into the vision and in the benefit of their conservation efforts of Mau. The new initiatives will most likely lessen, reverse or halt unsustainable use of the natural resource base in Mau Forest through an integrated natural resources management approach to conservation. The focus will be on influencing change in the community behavior regarding Mau Forest Complex by promoting favorable incentives to improve rehabilitation efforts of Mau. The identified challenges on Mau will be addressed first by political and community mobilization of the Mau counties and their key actors sharing in the vision towards sustainable rehabilitation. Once everybody is on-board and shares the vision, three initiatives can be anchored on the vision, namely: One, Forestry Rehabilitation programs with activities such as land reclamation, watershed management, compensation and resettlement programs; Two, Livelihood related initiatives that include development of nature-based businesses which include support to community-private sector partnership deals, and three, support for participatory collaborative county policies reform. To achieve these objectives, this concept proposes formation of a strong inter-county initiative toward Mau rehabilitation. The initiatives intend to rope in the counties of Nakuru, Narok, Bomet, Kericho, Nandi and Baringo. These counties will set up Common Inter-County Vision and Strategy for Mau Rehabilitation that is sustainable, participatory, beneficial, fair, humane, and shared.