UN in Nairobi asked to ‘kick the habit’ – again!

One of the sweetest surprises of the Blog Action Day 09 – Climate Change, was a post by Sukuma Kenya. As you already know, we have been ‘collaborating’ with this passionate Kenyan to try and end the show of opulence and total disregard for climate change – with the vehicles they drive – among UN employees in the Nairobi office.

Did UNEP staffers drive such a car on #BAD09?

Although I get carried away by wildlife conservation matters and tend to wander away from this ‘campaign’ to end ‘environmental impunity’ at the offices that house the global headquarters of the United Nations Environmental Programme, Sukuma Kenya doesn’t.

I was thus pleasantly surprised when he informed me that he had chosen to address the ‘Kick the Habit‘ campaign in his Blog Action Day 2009. Never mind the post was on 16th not 15th October, which is the official Blog Action Day, the post was simple but very powerful.

You might want to read it yourself…So UNEP, did you Kick The Habit (Just for today)?

FMC’s Ban of Furadan In Kenya: Good Judgement or Just PR?

Something interesting happened last week. On Sunday 29 March 2009, CBS News aired a documentary on 60 Minutes showing how lions were dying in the Masai Mara ecosystem due to Furadan poisoning. Almost immediately after that the American manufacturer of the potent agricultural pesticide, FMC, issued a press release declaring that they had withdrawn it from Kenya and other African countries. They even called the WildlifeDirect chairman, Dr Richard Leakey to tell him of their action.

Furadan as it is sold in Kenya

WildlifeDirect has been running a campaign against the sale of Furadan in  Kenya through the Stop Wildlife Poisoning blog because of its rampant abuse by herders and farmers to poison wildlife. Kenyan authorities have largely ignored this campaign. FMC, and Juanco – the products importers in Kenya – have not been very responsive either.

A lion goes through the stages of paralysis after consuming a carcase laced with Furadan in Masai Mara, Kenya

Furadan is a highly effective agricultural pesticide but a very nasty poison for mammals and birds. It has been responsible for the death of large numbers of birds in the USA where its granular form is banned (it also comes in flowable or liquid form). In Kenya, it has been used to kill birds thought to be crop pests and for human food! It is also being used to kill lions, hyenas and other predators that are, or are percieved to be, preying on livestock.

The question is, did FMC ban exportation of this lethal poison because they are suddenly pious or they are just playing PR? My hypothesis is that FMC, having realized that Furadan has suddenly been identified as a poison of choice for herders, and this happened in popular American media, FMC took the obvious route: damage control. They don’t want to look bad. Why did they have to wait until the 60 Minutes for them to do something about this major problem in Africa? It is hard to believe that they did not know about the problem. If that is so, then they need to fire their entire PR team.

This is just an hypothesis and should not be read to mean that I dont support their action. If it works, then it will indeed have a phenomenal positive effect on lion population in Kenya and elsewhere.

I say if it works for this reason: when I updated my followers on Twitter on this turn of events, recycleme replied ‘what about the surrounding countries? Is it likely to get into Kenya from the countries still using it?’. I got worried.

We hope that FMC are serious about their pronouncement and they will follow it through. That they will also seal the loopholes spotted by recycleme and others.

The Saga of Nairobi’s UN Fuel Guzlers

The bad guys

Sukuma Kenya knows how to kick up a campaign. He’s unrelenting in his quest for an environmentally, and carbon neutral UN office in Nairobi. If you don’t already know, Nairobi is where the global headquarters of the global United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is located.

Sukuma Kenya and others in the blogosphere are totally appalled by the largess with which the UN staffers in the UN office complex at Gigiri, Nairobi move around town. Sukuma and the said others apparently get migraines whenever they see the colossal 5-liter engine fuel guzzlers that most of the UN people drive around, garnished with their red diplomatic plates, clearly separating them from the regular Kenyan motorist in his 1400cc Toyota Corolla.

These behemoths of locomotion have galled Sukuma for ages and he’s made personal the quest to make the UN people ‘Kick the Habit‘ . No wonder – or not – Sukuma’s blog is now banned at the UN complex in Gigiri. In short, inside of the sprawling complex, you cannot access the blog. And here I was thinking that the freedom of speech is one of the fundamental freedoms that the UN stands for.

He’s been alerted by a friend that his blog is no longer wanted in Gigiri. What followed that is is not particularly clear but he’s now received somewhat official communication confirming that his blog is actually banned. Now the Media Department at UN-Gigiri has informed the IT Department to unlock that blog. Someone should check on that.

This is totally unconfirmed and is not an accusation, but I have had it mentioned that the newest – and most obscene – entry into the fuel guzzlers’ stable at UN office, the banana-yellow Humvee , belongs to a staffer in the IT Department.

The good guys

Perhaps it is Sukuma’s campaign or it is just that there are genuine environmentalists in the UNEP. I saw a Toyota Hybrid Prius the other day with UNEP plates. I couldnt have been happier. Here is the picture.

A much 'greener' car

It seems that not all the people at UN want to drive around in ‘planet-killers’.

Kenya’s Bio-safety Bill vs Organic Farming

Former UN Secretary General, Kofi Atta Annan once said that Africa should embrace biotechnology in food production. He even said that GM foods would alleviate the problem of hunger in the continent. Late last year, Kenya’s parliament passed the Bio-safety Bill with a little push by the US producers of genetically modified corn (USGC).

The USGC is openly beating it’s chest declaring that the passage of the bill is a direct result of years of their work promoting the technology in the region. They proudly declare that members of Kenya and Malawi’s parliaments – who were still debating the laws that would legalize importation of GM foods – were part of a contingent of African leaders who visited its project plot in South Africa.

According to Kurt Shultz, USGC director in the Mediterranean and Africa, in May 2006, a high-level delegation from Kenya, Malawi and South Africa consisting of Members of Parliament from each country, visited Council-sponsored biotechnology test plots in South Africa. “The timing was significant in that Kenya and Malawi were debating bills to adopt the commercial cultivation of biotechnology,” he said. “The positive impact and practical benefits the Members of Parliament saw at the USGC-sponsored test plots convinced them that Kenyan and Malawian farmers could benefit immensely from the technology if its products were made available to them.  As a result, the Members of Parliament resolved to fast-track the introduction of the technology into their respective countries.”

Su Kahumbu (right) of Green Dreams at the Kibera Organic Plot

The bio-safety bill was scheduled to be ascended to by Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki before 1 January 2009, but that has not happened yet. As a result, organic farmers are stepping up their efforts to lobby the President not to ascend the Bill into law.

I was sent a link to an online petition calling on President Kibaki not to sign the bill on Facebook today from group called Green Dreams. Green Dreams is also the name of the organic marketing firm that is behind the group.  The petition is here for those of you who don’t want GM to be legalized in Kenya.  I don’t know how well that will work given that the entire media fraternity was all over him and he still ascended to the controversial so called Media Bill.

I am not sure, either, if the importation and/or production of GM foods is really going to change the food situation in Africa. As a matter of fact, it could bring more harm than good. Europe for instance will still prefer organic tomatoes over GM tomatoes – for those who want to export fresh produce to pay school fees for their children. With growing environmental and biodiversity awareness and sympathy, the chances of GM production methods remaining attractive in the long run is not a guarantee.

One can plainly see why the USGC wants the biosafety law – or in their words – “U.S. producers of genetically enhanced corn may soon see their products in the Kenyan market as Kenya recently passed a bio-safety bill permitting importation and cultivation of biotech crops and products.” They want a market for their products. Period.

One Kenyan legislator opposing the law in parliament on around 9 December 2008 pointed out in countries where GMO technology is used, such crops are solely used for animal feeds and not for human consumption. I believe he was saying that Africans are being treated like animals. I wonder if that is true.

While those MPs who supported the Bill said that Kenya is food insufficient and GM should remedy that, the opposing MPs countered that Kenya, and indeed Africa, is food insecure not for lack of GMOs but for lack of proper planning adding that low irrigation, lack of water harvesting coupled with poor infrastructure and effects of climate change is hampering countries in the region from ensuring food security of her citizens. And I agree with them.

The organic revolution is however catching up and the Kibera Story should wow you at any given time. Today I also read in the Independent online a story about a farmer in Malawi who chose to go organic for a very unusual reason. He owed his government $17 for fertilizer and government officers threatened to take away his 11 pigs if he didn’t pay up. Luckily, he borrowed the money from the local pastor, but he swore he’d never depend on fertilizer again. He’d grow his crops the way his father, and his grandfather grew their crops – the natural way.

Now, isn’t that a story? You are free to comment here and let the world know what your views are. Organic or GM?

Having a Family? You Must Plant a Tree

I was quite amused when I got my daily dose of Reuters’ Planet Ark bulletin this morning. Tucked away somewhere in the middle of the bulletin was one link: “Trees for Kids: Indonesia’s Way of Beating Global Warming“. I said I would read that and I did.

Section of Rainforest in Kenya (in Wikimedia Commons)

It turns out that a certain Indonesian city grappling with the effects of deforestation has instructed all family-hungry citizens to plant a tree before they start these social units. Everyone who wants to get married or apply for a birth certificate must plant a tree.” Syahrum Syah Setia, the head of Balikpapan City’s Environmental Impact Management Agency is reported to have said.

The agency is worried that the city’s condition, which is already worrying could get worse and they have to do something to tackle global warming. Now this is some radical action by the local council. A while ago I posted in this blog a simulation of how many children were being born each minute. Imagine if the entire world would plant a tree for each child born.

According to the Reuters report, East Kalimantan loses 350,000-500,000 ha (865,000 – 1.24-million acres) of forest each year and the government can only replant 30,000 ha (74,000 acres) of that. The report also says that Indonesia has lost an estimated 70% of its original forestland. Luckily there are still some 91-million ha (225 million acres) still left.

That is Indonesia which incorporates parts of the Bornean rainforests. Imagine a country like Kenya with only 1.7 million hectares of forest cover (of which 160,000 ha is plantation forest) and a population of 35-million people. This forest cover is less than 2% of the entire area of land in the country. If Kenya would implement this principle of a tree per child, then we could re-generate the lost forest cover and expand it further in a very short time.

The worlds other largest rainforest are mostly in Brazil and Congo. These are dissappearing rather rapidly and the only reason they are not entirely gone is because they are huge. But given the current rate of destruction, humans will surely lay waste to these important biodiversity areas within our lifetime.

So once again. Let’s emulate this obscure Indonesian city and start planting a tree for every child you have brought into this world…and…er…for every marriage you have blundered into.

How to Tree a Lion: Lessons from Samburu buffaloes

Samburu buffaloes is not the name of a rugby team but it might as well have been. The same manner in which a rugby player would charge through the opponents is the same way some three buffaloes tore through the thickets at Samburu Buffalo Springs wildlife reserve chasing after some rather alarmed male lions sometime last month.

Unfamiliar territory: Picture (c)Ewaso Lions

This story is told in the Ewaso Lions blog and it really cracked me up when I read it. I had forgoten how hilarious wildlife encounters can be: especially when the hunter becomes the hunted.

Apparently, the blogger was going on her business when all of a sudden two lions zoomed past ahead of her vehicle. In hot pursuit was a trio of huge buffaloes breathing fire and brimstone. The pair of lions, the burly buffaloes in their tail, disappeared into the thicket at the opposite side just as fast as they had come. The blogger proceeded to follow them and on rounding a corner, found one of the lions up a tree with one of the buffaloes glaring at him from below the tree. The other lion was seen disappearing in the distance with the rest of the buffalo team in pursuit. The buffalo that was keeping vigil of the treed lion got bored and headed towards where real action was.

I read in the blog that the blogger followed the action further only to discover a third lion – not any of the flying two – up a tree. Her prognosis is that the new lion must have freaked out when the commotion of the chase tumbled through the shady spot he was napping at.

Now everyone knows that lions don’t particularly fancy trees. They are clumsy climbers and generally – in human terms – lazy (especially the males).  The lions – I suspect – must have been badly shaken as to opt for a trip up the forbidden branches – judging from the pictures posted in the blog.

I have been having a bad back (probably due to slouching as I squint at my laptop for lengthy periods of time) and thus I haven’t been in so good a mood lately. But this story was just fun. I hope the original blogger will not “tree” me when she sees how I have pimped her blog post. I just couldn’t resist the temptation to tell the story my way.

The monkey bridge

The people at Diani at Kenya’s south coast have come up with an ingeneous way of preventing the beautiful Colobus Monkey from being run over by cars as they cross the road to move from one forest patch to the other. They build the monkeys ladder bridges which are now saving these cloaked monkeys. Catch the story on Baraza.

You can also make it a habit of reading the daily goings on at the Colubus trust here.