As part of its continued effort to create sustainable habitats and restore forests, the Africa Wildlife Foundation (AWF), in partnership with other conservation organizations, has adopted a total of some 50,000 hectares in the Eastern Mau Forest of Kenya. In the coming years, plans are being implemented to help restore the area to its position as a leading provider of ecosystems for wildlife in the area. The land had been identified by the groups as being vital to the protection of wildlife and helping to maintain healthy forests for centuries to come. The effort will help preserve wildlife in the new protected area. AWF specifically adopted 8,600 hectares. In order to adopt the land, AWF, partners and the Mau Restoration Secretariat, headed by Hassan Noor, were able to successfully and without incident relocate the 1,500 families two years ago, who had been living in the Enderit forest. Noor said in a statement to media that the Enderit area was extremely critical to the future survival of the Lake Nakuru National Park. “Most of the rivers flowing into the lake, including Njoro and Makalia, have become seasonal. The exception is River Enderit, whose headwaters are found in Enderit,” he said. The Mau Forest Complex is one of the single most important water catchment areas in the Rift Valley and western Kenya. It is a natural asset of national importance. Its forests provide vital ecological services to the country in terms of water storage, river flow regulation, flood mitigation, recharge of groundwater, reduced soil erosion and siltation, water purification, conservation of biodiversity, and micro-climate regulation. For its part, AWF is taking on the Enderit block. Its leadership is vital to the success of the rehabilitation process, which has seen the degradation of land hit alarming levels. In the initial phase, AWF will work with the secretariat and Kenya's national Forest Service on the adoption of the Enderit block and begin to implement a program of sustainable ecological policy. The first part of the phase was to plant more than 25,000 trees in the area and assist local community forest associations in the overall implementation plans for work that is to be done in the area. The forest used to cover hundreds of thousands of hectares, but due to logging for wood fuel, charcoal, and construction lumber it has been significantly reduced. These protected areas serve as ecological and economic anchors for the Heartlands and are critical parts of much larger landscapes, surrounded by dispersal areas or connected to other parts of the system by natural corridors. All this comes on the backdrop of Kenyan government calls for the private sector and conservation organizations to take action to help reclaim areas of the country that were being devastated by human settlement. Through these ecological services, the Mau Forest Complex supports key economic sectors in the Rift Valley and western Kenya, including energy, tourism, agriculture, and industry. As a leading wildlife foundation, AWF continues to work closely with protected area management to improve authorities capacity, visitor experience and economic potential in this and other areas across the continent. BM
