The women fighting to save the planet

The protector of wetlands

Serah Munguti, 44, is the Policy and Advocacy Manager at Nature Kenya, a job that has seen her make great contributions to the protection a host of Kenya’s wetlands. One of her biggest projects – the Tana River Delta Land Use Plan – won a prestigious international award for planning excellence in 2016 and saw her nominated for a Tusk Conservation Award in 2017.

She has also played a huge role towards the conservation of the Yala Swamp – Kenya’s largest freshwater swamp, as well as Lake Natron.

“I was a little girl when nature made its first major impression on me. My father worked at a hotel in Amboseli National Park. One day, I accompanied my mother to visit him, having travelled from Makueni. It’s during this trip that I saw elephants for the first time. They were these huge majestic and enchanting animals playfully throwing dust on themselves. Unknowingly, the elephants had left a huge impression on me and I ended up joining the wildlife clubs in primary and secondary school. Naturally, while choosing degrees, I went for wildlife management at the University of Nairobi and followed up with a master’s in water and coastal management at the University of Cardiff in Spain.

My job is about the recognition that all the productive sectors of the economy – which is what we connect with immediately as human beings – are dependent on nature.

Nature is wide but at the basic level, it is wildlife and the water we drink – which comes from the forests. It’s the food we eat, which comes from soil, and which relies on those waters. It’s the air we breathe, which is purified by trees. The human existence is founded and dependent 100 per cent on nature.

Take for instance the current water shortages in Nairobi. How many people can associate them with the cutting of trees at the Aberdares? When we cut down trees and there is soil erosion, the water deposited in our dams will be too soiled and much harder to process for consumption. The dams also end up filling up with soil and silt, giving us the impression that they are filled with water. That’s how we sometimes end up with water shortages despite heavy rains and ‘full’ dams.

Additionally, deforestation causes air pollution. Trees and green vegetative covers like grass and shrubs act as wind breakers and hold soil together, which prevents suspension of soil particles or dust. Dust is one of the biggest sources of air pollution in Kenya. Other heavy pollutants include traffic, industrial plants burning of heavy oils, residential heating and burning of refuse.

Our environmental problems here in Kenya stem from ignorance and policy failure. The environment is never seen as an important sector, never mind that our livelihood depends on it. The Cabinet secretary for environment is not seen as a powerful minister. In fact, when the late John Michuki was transferred from transport to the environment, the media wrote that he had been demoted.

But taking care of nature is not just the job of the government and policy makers. You and I should play our part. Here are a few ways we can protect nature.”

Simple but effective ways for you to play the part

1. Plant trees

Currently, there’s a lot of emphasis on water supply. But remember you can’t supply what you can’t produce or manufacture. Water is produced in the forest, so we need to protect forests.

Restoration of forests needs to be done through tree planting and better land management. As a farmer, if you are growing food, practice agro-forestry and tree cover. As an individual, please plant a tree too. If you have no land to plant on, sponsor a community or train people who live near forests. There are existing mechanisms for supporting such groups through organisations like Nature Kenya, Kenya Forest Service, the ministry of Environment, the Nairobi Upper Tana fund and The Green Belt movement amongst others.

2. Conserve water and electricity

We need to conserve water and electricity in our homes because natural resources are finite. You can start by ensuring there are no water leakages in your house and gadgets that are not in use are switched off since electricity is produced using water. When building houses, everybody should install gutters and water storage for water harvesting. Not only will this reduce your water bill, you will have plenty of free water for doing laundry and watering your garden or flushing toilets.

Water used to do laundry should never be discarded. You can use the same water to flush the toilet, mop the house or water the garden. Instead of installing a septic tank whose wastes are dumped in our wetlands hence polluting them, install a biodigester. It converts human waste into water which can even be reused for flushing the toilet.

3. Go green

Plant grass and vegetation. It not only helps in the absorption of carbon from our own breathing but will also cover the ground and hold soil together which in turn prevents air from being polluted with dust. Avoid using charcoal, firewood or kerosene for cooking or heating at home and preferably use green energy like cooking gas and electricity. Avoid burning waste too as this releases harmful gases into the atmosphere and engage composting and recycling of reusable waste as an alternative.

4. Start caring

The reason you couldn’t get home on time, is because of the plastic bottles you threw out on the streets. The roads got flooded due to blocked drainages and therefore building traffic. Start realising that even if you are in Nairobi, you have a huge stake in what happens in Mt Kenya forest. Start showing care about where your waste goes by reusing or dropping off your recyclable waste like plastic and glass bottles to a recycler.

THE ENVIRONMENT POLICY ENFORCER

Kahembo Odera, 30, is an Environmental lawyer whose passion for conservation started at a young age. A terrestrial conservationist, her job involves the promotion of biodiversity, ecosystems and species protection on land. She works as a legal consultant in Wildlife Law Enforcement, Policy, and Species protection.

“I didn’t really get into conservation, rather, I feel that conservation found me. As a young girl, I often found myself enraged whenever I saw people throwing garbage on the side of the road. Their actions would hurt me, and I would wonder why they were trying to hurt the earth.

It’s not just strangers that I got upset at for littering. I would tell my parents off too for throwing garbage out of their car window. I was seven years old and may not have totally grasped the total concept of conservation, but I knew that littering was bad for the planet. As I grew older, I became more passionate about it. I knew that I needed to go beyond a little girl who lectures everybody about littering and started asking myself what I could actively do about it. I joined wildlife clubs at school, which gave me a chance to see environmental conservation first-hand.

I got my aha! moment during a school wildlife club trip to the Maasai Mara. At 11-years-old, seeing lions, elephants, giraffes and wildebeests in real life for the first time was life changing. The fact that this trip was during the wildebeest migration made it even more spectacular. That for me was the real-life version of the lion king movie and I found myself asking how I could preserve the animals so that future generations could have similar experiences.

My formal training in conservation started at the University of Kent where I studied English Law and French Law with a focus on Environmental law. I later did a masters in Global Environment and Climate Change law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Studying global environment and climate change law really helped me see things from a totally different landscape. I realised that people look at conservation in a very abstract perspective without realising that we are we are all involved.

I work as a legal consultant for the law institute and wildlife organisations who use me to help them make interlinkages between the science and the laws in conservation.

Why does an elephant or any other animal matter to you as a woman? Elephants help us in conserving the environment. Think about the chronic water shortages in Nairobi. You probably know that the shortages are caused by deforestation and landslides. Many people think that elephants just destroy vegetation as they go along in their migratory routes. But they don’t. In fact, elephants are natural re-foresters. They do this through seed redistribution. For instance, while eating, elephants – which are such messy eaters by the way—swallow the flesh of fruits and spit out the seeds. The seeds end up embedded in another part of the forest where some eventually germinate and grow into trees. So instead of killing elephants because they are destroying your shamba which is on their migratory route, what are the alternative solutions that are mutually beneficial?

How you can protect animals

I worked with a community in Ruaha in Southern Tanzania where they created buffer zones by planting avocados in the elephants’ migratory routes. This effectively prevented the elephants from destroying avocado trees and other crops in their farms as they had enough to feed on from the fruit and vegetation planted on the migratory path.

Here in Kenya, there are initiatives like the Maasai Olympics which are helping eliminate lion hunting as a form of rite of passage for Maasai warriors. Instead killing a lion to compete for recognition, the warriors take part in sporting competitions where winners are awarded medals and cash prizes. The Maasai Olympics were first held in 2012.

Proactively fight for nature

Become proactive in protecting your natural spaces and cause a ruckus if natural spaces like forests and water bodies are invaded. Make noise online and even lobby and use people that can help you make louder noise. You should also donate to wildlife organisations and civil society organisations to empower them to take on these fights.”

THE FARMER WITH A PASSION FOR SOCIAL IMPACT

Jepkorir Lagat, 35, is a farmer who is passionate about environmental conservation and agri-enterprise social impact. She practices and trains other farmers about sustainable farming.

“My experience both as a farmer and a service provider in the agricultural space has made me appreciate that agriculture cannot be de-linked from the environment. The constant need to feed a growing population makes agriculture, to potentially be one of the largest vehicles for environmental degradation.

Unsustainable agricultural practices in Kenya have had a negative impact on our environment. The use of nitrogen fertilisers in crop production has led to poor soils and the rearing of animals for meat have led to significant emission of greenhouse gases – a major contributor to global warming and soil acidification. These greenhouse gases include Carbon dioxide, Methane and Nitrous Oxide. Rapid desertification in the face of increased land demand for agriculture has created the need for massive irrigation.

Because of these practices, we are now faced with climate change, desertification, diminishing ground cover, loss of surface and underground waters and loss of species like bees and birds due to overuse of agrochemicals.

While I appreciate that food production to feed a growing world population is necessary for our survival, I also know that food security is achievable through sustainable food production where water resources are well utilised, and our soils and environment are protected.

Being a farmer, my conservation efforts go beyond tree planting to Good Agricultural Practices which take into consideration environmental issues such as minimisation of soil and water contamination, rational handling of agrochemicals and concern for biodiversity. I know that taking on small things such as good agricultural practices, organic waste management and recycling at the household and kitchen garden level would go a long way in inculcating a culture of environmental awareness.

Here are useful tips that individuals at household levels and large-scale farmers can use to help conserve our air, soils and water bodies, even as they strive to feed the nation

Integrate

Strive to integrate agroforestry and food forests in your farm and practice mixed farming to complement resources. We should also use increased vegetation cover to absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, otherwise known as carbon sinking. There are lesser known carbon sinks like brachiaria grass which besides being a carbon sink, helps with methane and nitrous oxide absorption while providing a very nutritious protein source for livestock. It being an easily digested forage, livestock fed on brachiaria release less methane. On the soil, brachiaria helps minimise the conversion of soil or fertilizer nitrogen to free nitrous oxide gas. You should also intercrop to optimise on productivity and practice minimum tillage where possible and employ the use of organic fertiliser and agrochemicals only if very necessary.

Avoid pollution

Soil, air and water pollution from agrochemicals happens through pesticides when spraying and leaches through the soil contaminating surface water. This presents the risk of unwanted agrochemical residues on land and water bodies. Farmers should use prevention measures to keep off pest, then organic agrochemicals that have little or no risk of pollution, first, before going for the highly poisonous inorganic alternatives. When farming, apply water saving irrigation practices such as drip irrigation and hydroponics.