Kenyan government taken to court over Tana Delta destruction
Wildlife and community groups have filed for a judicial review of the £175 million development of the Tana River Delta, a vast area of lakes, mangrove swamps and forests critical to wildlife, farmers, fishermen and a major tourist attraction.
Temporary injunction
The court action has been backed by Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Wangari Maathai and follows the granting last Friday of a temporary injunction against the 80-square mile (50,000 acre) scheme. Plans to grow sugarcane on the delta have been halted and the issue of land deeds and water-use permits blocked.
The move, by wildlife and community groups and a leading Kenyan lawyer, claims the development would break five Kenyan laws and the Kenyan constitution.
Crocodile on the Tana River. Michel Laplace-Toulouse (www.africanlatitude.com)
Paul Matiku, Executive Director of Nature Kenya, which is supporting the court action, said: "This is a very welcome and significant move. It is victory for local democracy and makes us even more determined to fight this ludicrous plan until permission is refused outright."
Tana Delta Birds
The Tana River Delta is designated an Important Bird Area for three reasons:
+ It shelters birds that are globally threatened, including the southern banded snake eagle, Malindi pipit and the Tana River cisticola, which is close to extinction. It also harbours the Basra reed warbler, whose breeding grounds in Iraq are under threat.
+ It hosts several bird species found only in a small area of East Africa, including rufous chatterer, scaly chatterer, long-tailed fiscal, three-streaked tchagra, golden-breasted starling, Fischer's starling and eastern violet-backed sunbird.
+ It contains one of the few, highly important water bird breeding sites in Kenya attracting, more than 5,000 breeding water birds from 13 species. These include the African darter, purple squacco heron and black-crowned night heron, sacred and glossy ibises, and African spoonbill.
One of Kenya's most important wetlands
The Tana Delta is one of Kenya's largest and most important freshwater wetlands. It hosts more than 345 bird species, lions, hippos, rare reptiles, fish and plants.
The Kenyan Government gave permission for the sugarcane project last month despite strong claims that the scheme's environmental assessment was biased towards development.
An independent report, commissioned by Nature Kenya and the RSPB, showed the project to be heavily overvalued because the costs of water, land and the loss of community livelihoods were ignored.
Eco desert
Nature Kenya says the cultivation of sugarcane on such a massive scale would turn the delta into an "ecological desert". Sugarcane needs considerable irrigation and its cultivation would cause substantial drainage of the wetland.
Paul Matiku said: "This is the only dry-season grazing area for hundreds of miles and its loss will leave many hundreds of farmers with no-where to take their cattle. This development would be a national disaster, wreaking havoc with the area's ecosystem and spelling the end for wildlife across much of the Delta."
Professor Maathai, who in 2004 became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, is against the
Tana River. Michel Laplace-Toulouse (www.africanlatitude.com)
Conservationists want the most important part of the Tana Delta made a protected area so that developers and the government are forced to take the value of wildlife into account.
Paul Buckley, an Africa specialist at the RSPB, said: "The court's ruling will buy time for this fantastic wetland so that more considered decisions can be made. Instead of quick fix developments which have failed before in the delta, we need a conservation and development plan to ensure local people benefit, while preserving the area's unique natural environment for good."
Tana Delta wildlife
The Tana River Primate National Reserve was established in 1976 to protect the endemic and critically endangered Tana River red colobus and Tana crested mangabey, both primates. The Tana Delta is also part of the Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa Hotspot and is regarded as being of international importance for wildlife.
There are thought to be more than 40 fish species in the Tana Delta. Fishermen supply coastal markets but also city outlets in Nairobi. Fishing is an important source of food and employment, which could be seriously affected by development.Three sharks species seen in the Delta are protected by CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). Marine turtles nest on the Delta's 22-mile coastal strip. The fluctuating salinity of the river mouth creates habitats for high numbers of snails and other invertebrates, in turn luring up to 15,000 water birds in a single day.
The Delta will be polluted by farm chemicals, silts and industrial effluents from the sugarcane development, which would lie next to the river.
At least 60,000 cattle graze in the Delta in the dry season, of which 20,000 stay throughout the year. Crops grown in the Delta include rice, maize, mango, cassava, bananas, melons, beans, peas and many other vegetables. Most farmers belong to the Pokomo ethnic group.
In April, the UK government introduced a law forcing oil companies to sell more biofuel. Under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, proof that important wildlife habitats have not been destroyed for biofuel manufacture and that fuel production is cutting emissions, is not currently required. The current requirement is 2.5 per cent of petrol and diesel rising to 5 per cent by 2010. The EU is considering doubling that target by 2020 but a recent report for the UK government advised that both the UK and European targets be reduced because of increasing environmental harm being caused by energy crop developments.