The Tana River Delta, one of Kenya’s last coastal wildernesses, is the

floodplain ecosystem of the mighty Tana, a river born on the slopes of Mt Kenya that finishes its 1 014-kilometre journey in the Indian Ocean. Its wetlands comprise a mixture of salt, fresh and brackish lakes and tributaries, riverine forest, woodland and bushland, mangroves and extensive grasslands.

This great diversity of intact habitats and its vast expanse have made the delta a globally important site for bird conservation. Some 22 species of international importance have been recorded there and it is a critical foraging and breeding ground for thousands of resident and migratory waterbirds – earlier this year, 15 000 waterbirds of 69 species were counted in a single day. It is also a vital breeding, spawning and nursery ground for fish, and home for a significant number of wildlife species – including elephant, crocodile and hippo, and the rare East African coastal subspecies of topi Damaliscus lunatus topi.

Although few other places on earth have elephants swimming across the mangrove channels or lions roaming the beaches, the delta is not formally protected and it is currently facing destruction by a major sugar-cane project, which is threatening over 33 000 hectares of wetland. The environmental and social implications are significant, as the plantations will stretch into the heart of the wetland, transforming the delta’s abundant diversity into an ecological desert.

According to Colin Jackson, the director of A Rocha Kenya, an organi-sation committed to the sustainable use and conservation of endangered habitats and species, important questions still need to be addressed concerning effluent released from the sugar factory and the containment of sewage and rubbish generated by the

large influx of workers from outside the area. The local Orma pastoralists, who have used the wetland as a grazing area for their livestock for generations, are opposed to the project, and elsewhere in Kenya, sugar-cane has brought more poverty than relief.

14 A F R I C A G E O G R A P H I C • d E C E m b E R 2 0 0 7 / j A n u A R y 2 0 0 8

Conservationists are fighting to save Kenya’s pristine Tana River

Delta, which is under threat from a sugar-cane factory.

Cheryl-Samantha Owen reports.

the sour sideof sugar

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enviRonmenTalisT of The yeaRAndrew Muir, executive director of the Wilderness Foundation, was named Environmentalist of the Year and received the Nick Steele Memorial Award for his work, at the 2007 SAB Environmentalist and Environmental Journalist of the Year Awards. During his 20-year career, Muir has raised over US$30-million for conservation and social development programmes and has been very effective in using wild habitats has a context for both social and environmental reform. Programmes that he initiated have impacted on nearly 100 000 South Africans, mostly from previously disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Tana River Delta is an important wetland for birds, a vital breeding, spawning and nursery ground for fish, and home to a significant number of wildlife species.

margot muir

cheryl-samantha owen