BUGOMA FOREST THREATENED BY SUGAR PLANTATION THE RISING RIFT VALLEY LAKES GROUND HORNBILL ITS CURVED EYELASHES THE ENVY OF A MANNEQUIN THE SECRETS OF SHOMPOLE/ OLKIRAMATIAN PLUS TRAVELLING IN TANZANIA CONSERVANCIES DURING A PANDEMIC Our 2021 wall and desk calendars as well as season's greetings cards now available! Boost your brand visibility by printing your 2020 calendars with us. You will benefit from our huge selection of wildlife photographs taken by some of East Africa’s top wildlife photographers. Give us your contacts/details and leave the rest to us! +254 20 3874145 / 20 3871437 +254 722 202 473 / 734 600632 [email protected] +254 20 3871335 / 20 3870837 Swara Magazine, the journal of the East African Wild Life Society, has championed conservation for over sixty years. We help shape legislation to protect natural resources, galvanize discussion on how best to solve conservation problems and connect networks for advocacy. 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Visit our website: www.eawildlife.org 4 | JANUARY - MARCH 2021 BIODIVERSITY 28 Jeffrey Wu discovers a vantage spot in the Maasai Mara from where to observe and photograph nocturnal wildlife activities. 34 The Ground Hornbill: Rupert Watson explains the salient characteristics of this fascinating bird. 39 Kari Mutu reports on an effort to rewild grasslands to restore the habitat of an endangered FRONTLINE antelope species. 05 Director’s Letter 06 News Update 43 Rupi Mangat revisits Kenya’s fascinating Amboseli National Park and reports that there was an elephant OPINION baby boom there in 2020. 12 Kaddu Sebunya urges greater effort to nurture nature in 2021. PADDOCK DIARIES 45 Brian Finch tells the story of ‘Blinky’, the one- 16 Denis Macharia Muthike argues that eyed migratory Great Spotted Eagle returning to the conservancies are key to boosting the welfare of Nairobi National Park. Kenya’s indigenous people. PORTFOLIO CONSERVATION 50 Delta Willis profiles broadcaster and natural 18 Rupi Mangat explains the phenomenon of swelling historian David Attenborough. lakes in Kenya’s Rift Valley. ON SAFARI 21 Kang-Chun Cheng looks into how marine 53 Adventure travel writer Chris Whittaker resources can be better managed to boost the “accidentally” escapes lockdown in Britain to spend livelihood of coastal communities. time on safari in Tanzania during the pandemic. 25 Gerald Tenywa reports on a controversial decision BOOK REVIEW to clear a swathe of a natural forest to make way for a 56 Kari Mutu reviews Impressions of Amboseli by sugar plantation in western Uganda. Sophie Walbeoffe and Cynthia Mosss. JANUARY - MARCH 2021 | 5 BOARD MEMBERS Davinder Sikand William Pike Otekat John Emily Cissy Walker Matt Walpole JANUARY - MARCH 2021 | VOLUME 46 | NUMBER 1 Michael Wamithi Elizabeth Migongo-Bake EAWLS MISSION The East African Wild Life Society is a trailblazing conservation organisation dedicated to helping protect the environment and promoting prudent use of natural resources in the region. The Society carries out its mandate mainly The Impala is the symbol of the East African through advocacy, implementing conservation Wild Life Society. SWARA is the Swahili word programmes, supporting field research, advancing for Antelope environmental education, promoting sustainable development and inspiring people through The East African Wild Life Society vibrant events on wildlife and environmental conservation. @eawildlife EAWLS WORLDWIDE REPRESENTATIVES USA WHY SUPPORT US Mr & Mrs Harry Ewell East Africa is rich in plant and animal Financial Representatives biodiversity. A partnership with the East 200 Lyell Avenue Spencerport African Wild Life Society is a great way NY 14559-1839 COVER PHOTO: LION for individuals and organisations to help BY JEFFREY WU conserve the region’s iconic species. Grant Winther Your contribution will help restore and 867 Taurnic Pl. NW Bainbridge Island, safeguard habitats, including forests and WA 98110 wetland ecosystems; protect wildlife EDITOR and marine life while promoting John Nyaga UNITED KINGDOM (UK) sustainable use of natural resources [email protected] Nigel Winser for the benefit of current and future The Old Forge, Brook End, Chadlington, generations. Nature sustains livelihoods EDITORIAL BOARD Oxfordshire. OX7 3NF (01608 676 042) and forms the foundation on which our Nigel Hunter UK mobile - 07495 469941 economies thrive. 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Opin- PATRONS ions ex pressed by con trib u tors are not nec es sar i ly The President of Ken ya AFRICAN JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY the official view of the Society. SWARA ac cepts The President of Tan za nia The African Journal of Ecology is Published by the in for ma tion given by con trib u tors as correct. The President of Ugan da Wiley – Blackwell in association with East African Wild Life Society. Purchase a copy of this Journal CHAIRPERSON at Wiley Online Library: wileyonlinelibrary.com/ Elizabeth Gitari journal/aje VICE-CHAIRPERSON SWARA OFFICES Cissy Walker EAWLS Head Office P O Box 20110 – 00200, HON. TREASURER Riara Road, Kilimani, Nairobi Davinder Sikand Tel: + 254-(0) 20-3874145 + 254 (0) 20 3871437 + 254 (0) 722 202 473 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR SWARA appreciates the continued support it Nancy Ogonje + 254 (0) 734 600 632 receives from Fauna & Flora International 6 | JANUARY6 | JANUARY - MARCH - MARCH 2021 2021 Uganda’s Bugoma Forest Must Not Be Destroyed for Private Gain ome 5,770 hectares of Assessment (ESIA) report. It is Bugoma Forest Reserve unfortunate that a state regulatory in western Uganda have body mandated to protect the reportedly been leased to environment would endorse the SHoima Sugar Ltd who will clear the destruction of a public forest to woodland to make way for a sugar make way for a sugar plantation that plantation. The process of converting benefits a private entity. forestland into farmland is being The Rai Group has a large footprint carried out in blatant disregard of in the manufacture of wood products laws on environmental protection. in East Africa, including Kenya, Some sources say that a Kenyan and has also been implicated in the company, the Rai Group, is a destruction of the Mau Forest in shareholder in Hoima Sugar and is Kenya through logging, according providing the necessary management to press reports. Mau Forest is a key expertise. water tower. It is a catchment for According to Uganda’s National crucial rivers such as the Ewaso Nyiro Forest Authority (NFA), remote and the Mara rivers, whose volumes sensing surveys show that 190ha of have been in decline, largely due to the forest have already been degraded deforestation. despite an injunction issued by the Allowing Hoima Sugar Limited to Uganda Cabinet stopping any clearing convert Bugoma Forest Reserve to of woodland until the boundaries a sugar plantation means a double have been demarcated. gain for the shareholders of Hoima Bugoma Forest Reserve is a Sugar. Besides growing sugar, they but the High Court reinstated the tropical natural forest that is rich in will benefit from the sale of the document on legal technicalities. biodiversity, including endangered mature timber in the cleared area. Handing back tracts of land to chimpanzees. It is also a water At an estimated value of $65,000 tribal kingdoms in Uganda does not catchment for Lake Albert and a per hectare, Hoima Sugar will make allow them to lay claim to natural migratory corridor for wildlife. It was a windfall gain of US $37.5 million resources which still belong to the gazetted as a forest reserve in 1932 from clearing the Bugoma Forest for central government, but this is what and placed under the management sugar cultivation. is happening in Bugoma Forest. of NFA. The forest covers a total of A scrutiny of the ESIA report The NFA is seeking a fresh hearing 41,144ha. shows that the proposed activities at the Court of Appeal and the East The spectre of encroachment was will cause great damage to the forest African Court of Justice and intends unleashed in August 2016 when ecosystem. It does not make sense to submit new evidence. In the the Ministry of Lands, Housing to destroy a natural forest and then meantime, the contested forest area and Urban Development issued seek to plant trees in the “buffer is being cleared with workers and a title deed for 5,770ha (about 22 zones” as suggested in the ESIA equipment guarded by armed police, square miles) of Bugoma Forest report. Governments cannot purport soldiers and private security guards, to Bunyoro-Kitara tribal kingdom to support ecosystem restoration according to environmental activists without following the legal process of and reverse biodiversity loss while who have visited the area.