CONSERVATION BY KEVIN M. DOYLE n early January this year, a handful tempers flared. The surveyors packed up and contentious issues that the country of residents in the coastal Kenyan their gear and left. The beach regained and its people have faced: in December Ivillage of Mkokoni noticed land a measure of peace – temporarily. Shali 2009, a new national land policy was surveyors setting up equipment on a Mohamed, a Mkokoni resident, said: “We adopted which, if and when implemented, stretch of undeveloped dunes. Tension feel that if we didn’t show them that we will address historical inequities and in the community had been growing are prepared to fight for our land, then emphasize the rights of citizens to the use as outsiders brazenly acquired prime all of it will be taken right out from under of and access to land. beachfront property while, under Kenyan our feet.” Mkokoni is just one of many villages law, the villagers themselves were still The confrontation was a microcosm in the northernmost corner of the Kenyan considered “squatters” on land they of the pervasive land tenure issues facing coast, just south of the Somali border, in had lived on for generations. Villagers coastal residents of Kenya, as conflicts one of Kenya’s last wilderness areas. This attributed these new developments to intensify between traditional users region includes the Lamu archipelago, possible corruption and backroom deals. of land and outside speculators and home to a most unique and diverse On this occasion, the residents rushed developers. ecology on both land and sea. back to the village to spread the news. Forty-six years after independence Lamu, which is separated into East Soon a crowd gathered, words were from Britain, Kenya is finally beginning and West districts, is home to the Bajuni exchanged, sticks and stones wielded, and to address one of the most fundamental and the Boni (or Aweer as they are also 32 | SWARA – 2010:3 EAST AFRICAN WILD LIFE SOCIETY CONSERVATION Opposite page: Pristine coastline of Kiwayu Island, Kiunga Marine National Reserve. Top: Newly hatched Green sea turtle (Kiunga Marine National Reserve). often called.) and a designated UNESCO villages along the coast, and either World Heritage Site. The Bajuni, closely moved to the safety of the islands or to related to the swahili, are seafarers, Lamu, or points further south. Inland, fishermen, boat-builders, farmers, and the Boni were even more affected. Most craftsmen – their lives are intricately were moved to makeshift camps along intertwined with the land and sea on government - controlled roads with the which they live. The Boni, one of Kenya’s promise of security, social services and last hunter-gatherer groups, still collect other benefits. This movement eroded a honey and wild fruits from the forest, large part of their delicate relationship have sacred forest shrines, and are with the forest. romanticised for their ability to whistle to The Shifta War officially ended in birds, which then lead them to honey. 1967, although armed bandits from For centuries, life was simple for Somalia continue raiding even to this day. the people of this region and natural To make things worse, soaring demand resources were abundant. But in the and prices for elephant ivory in the late THE confrontation 1960s, new forces came into play in 1970s led to a poaching epidemic in these remote corners of the archipelago, Kenya. Nowhere was spared, and the was A microcosm shaking the foundations of the age-old inland areas of the Lamu archipelago, at OF THE Pervasive society, and setting the stage for the the time considered to have one of the fundamental challenges facing the area highest densities of elephant (Loxodonta LAND TENURE ISSUES today. africana) in East Africa, came under severe facinG coastal The Shifta War broke out soon after attack. From an estimated 30,000 in the RESIDENTS OF Kenyan independence when ethnic 1970s, the current population of elephant Somalis in Kenya’s Northern Frontier in the region is estimated to be about 300, KENYA, as conflicts District attempted to secede and become and yet poachers are still at hand. INTENSIFY BETWEEN part of the Republic of Somalia. They Fortuitously, it was at about the traditional users simultaneously attacked and plundered same time that the Kenyan government, most of the villages in the area, sparking through the Wildlife Management and OF LAND AND OUTSIDE a mass exodus and migration southwards. Conservation Department (WMCD) SPeculators AND Locals refer to the period as “daba”, or - the predecessor of Kenya Wildlife when “time stopped.” In some ways, Service (KWS) - recognised the unique develoPers. particularly when it comes to economic biodiversity of the region and gazetted development and social services, the the Boni and Dodori National Reserves clock has seemingly never been reset. in 1976, and the Kiunga Marine National The Bajuni abandoned many of their Reserve in 1979. EAST AFRICAN WILD LIFE SOCIETY 2010:3 – SWARA | 33 The Kiunga Reserve incorporates 250 km2 of coastal wilderness. Including over 50 calcareous islands and atolls, it forms a rare mosaic of terrestrial, estuarine, and marine ecosystems. Gazetted primarily as one of the only nesting areas for the Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii) and other migratory seabirds, and a critical nesting area for Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas), it persists as one of the few remaining places in East Africa where intact wilderness meets the sea. The waters of the region host rich coral reefs and sea grass beds, which host the critically endangered Dugong (Dugong dugon), (Rhynchocyon chrysopygus), African no formal or public announcement, and six species each of dolphin and wild dog (Lycaon pictus ), Abyssinian threaten turtle nesting sites and sea turtles, while the coastline is bushbuck (Tragelaphus sp), Ader’s duiker other habitats within the Kiunga hugged by the most extant mangrove (Cephalophus adersi), Desert warthog Reserve. And although legal, forests in Kenya, boasting seven (Phacochoerus aethiopicus) and the mangrove harvesting is difficult to varieties. critically endangered Hirola (Beatragus regulate and current practices risk The Boni National Reserve hunteri) or Hunter’s hartebeest as it is being unsustainable. For the Dodori contains 1,339 km2 of indigenous also known. Reserve, unclear boundaries invite coastal forest, harbouring densities of The Dodori National Reserve covers encroachment by farmers, and there almost implausibly tall hardwood tree 877 km2 of coastal savanna, woodland is even a call by some to degazette species and at least five threatened and mangrove forest, sustained by the all or parts of the reserve to make plant species. It opens out to the west Dodori Creek which flows out of the Boni way for expanded farming and other into acacia bush, supporting herds of forest through the reserve which now unspecified enterprises. And in the over 1,000 buffalo, with associated bears its name to the sea. A crucial water forest areas adjacent to the Dodori predators such as lion, leopards, source for diverse populations of wildlife, Reserve, called the Boni-Lungi and hyenas. Gazetted primarily as a it was primarily gazetted as a breeding forest, illegal logging, widespread dry season refuge for elephants and ground for Coastal Topi (Damaliscus slash-and-burn agriculture and other wildlife, not least of which are lunatus spp.) and Hirola. Today it still shifting cultivation threaten to wipe the Golden-rumped Elephant shrew hosts large populations of buffalo, out a forest rich in biodiversity and Coastal topi, and unknown essential to maintaining a semblance populations of lion, leopard, and of the Boni way of life. Outside the other species. national reserves, rumours persist “These three reserves,” said that large areas, ranging from 2,000 - Michael Gichure, the senior 5,000 hectares, have been irregularly warden for KWS in Lamu, “are allocated to multinational companies true gems, even if they may not to be turned into ranches. shine as bright as some of the Other ideas, such as the proposed well-known parks and reserves Lamu Port and associated railways, in the country. And it is our hope roads, oil refineries, etc., have so that through scientific research far been floated with no plan for we will better understand this mitigating the potential negative unique ecosystem, which will help impact on tenure security of residents, us better manage it in partnership possible escalation of conflicts, land with the communities in the speculation, or the effects on fragile region. ” ecosystems. A new project to tarmac Top: Yellow-Billed Storks (Ibis ibis) in But the reality is that the wildlife the often impassable dirt road, which Kiunga Marine National Reserve and the viability of their habitats in the cuts through the corridor between Below: Slash and burn agriculture and Lamu region are under severe threat. the Boni and Dodori Reserves and illegal logging of hardwoods is destroying As is the case along the shoreline in ends in the border town of Kiunga, large swaths of the ungazetted Boni-Lungi and around Mkokoni, irregular land is overwhelmingly welcomed by forest. allocations on Kiwayu and other islands residents for the improved security to land speculators and developers, with and access to markets it will provide. 34 | SWARA – 2010:3 EAST AFRICAN WILD LIFE SOCIETY But little if any consideration has been given to the potentially devastating impact the paved road could have by facilitating land grabbing, illegal logging and slash-and-burn agriculture, not to mention the blow to the fisheries of the Kiunga waters, regarded as perhaps the richest in Kenya, as the road would allow for fish and shellfish to be shipped to Lamu and Malindi within hours of being caught, perhaps stimulating overfishing if proper controls are not put into place. But it is not all bad news.