Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoKENYA / MAU FOREST
Download
There is no media available to download.
Share
STORY: KENYA / MAU FOREST
TRT: 2.11
SOURCE: UNEP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 9 SEPTEMBER 2009, NAIROBI, KENYA / FILE
FILE – MAU FOREST, MARCH 2009
1. Various shots, aerials of Mau Forest complex
9 SEPTEMBER 2009, NAIROBI , KENYA
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Wanagari Maathai, Nobel Laureate and Environmentalist:
“What I saw personally is a commitment that I hope will start rolling to action. The final thing, which is extremely important, is really to get everybody out of the forest because the minute people get out of the forest you will be amazed how quickly nature takes over and the restoration begins especially since we are anticipating rains.”
FILE -- MAU FOREST, MARCH 2009
3. Med shot, waterbuck
4. Wide shot, cape buffalo
5. Med shot, rhino
9 SEPTEMBER 2009, NAIROBI , KENYA
6. Wide shot, meeting
7. Med shot, Raila Odinga, Prime Minister, Kenya seated at panel
8.SOUNDBITE (English) Raila Odinga, Prime Minister, Kenya:
“We have been talking not just about Mau, we have been talking about all the water towers in our country. Although the emphasis has for the moment been focussed on Mau, we know that Mt Kenya is also not safe, the Abadeares is not safe, Cherengani and Mt Elgon.”
FILE -- MAU FOREST MARCH 2009
9. Various shots, aerials dry land
A multimillion dollar appeal by the Kenyan government and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to save East Africa’s most important forest complex was launched on Wednesday.
The appeal aims to mobilize resources for the rehabilitation of the Mau, the largest closed-canopy forest ecosystem in Kenya covering over 400,000 hectares.
SOUNDBITE (English) Wanagari Maathai, Nobel Laureate and Environmentalist:
“What I saw personally is a commitment that I hope will start rolling to action. The final thing, which is extremely important, is really to get everybody out of the forest because the minute people get out of the forest you will be amazed how quickly nature takes over and the restoration begins especially since we are anticipating rains.”
The strategic importance of the Mau Forest lies in the ecosystem services it provides to Kenya and the region, including things like river flow regulation, flood mitigation, water storage and reducing soil erosion.
Over the last two decades, the Mau Complex has lost around 107,000 hectares, or 25 percent of its forest cover due to: irregular and unplanned settlements, illegal logging and charcoal burning, the change of land use from forest to unsustainable agriculture and change in ownership from public to private.
A new report (‘Rehabilitation of the Mau Forest Ecosystem’, released by the Kenyan Government’s Interim Coordinating Secretariat for the Mau Forest Complex) warns that if the forest continues to be exploited, it will only be a matter of time before the entire ecosystem is irreversibly damaged with significant socio-economic consequences and ramifications to internal security and conflict.
The Mau Complex is also the single most important source of water for direct human consumption in the Rift Valley and Western Kenya.
Raila Odinga, Kenya’s Prime Minister reminded audiences that the Mau Forest is not the only ecological jewel that desperately needs protecting.
SOUNDBITE (English) Raila Odinga, Prime Minister, Kenya:
“We have been talking not just about Mau, we have been talking about all the water towers in our country. Although the emphasis has for the moment been focussed on Mau, we know that Mt Kenya is also not safe, the Abadeares is not safe, Cherengani and Mt Elgon.”
The report also warns that continued destruction of the forests will inevitably lead to a water crisis of national and regional proportions that extend far beyond the Kenyan borders.
