BirdLife position statement on Tana

Michel Laplace-Toulouse (www.africanlatitude.com) African Fish-eagles breeding in the Tana River Delta. Zoom In

BirdLife International Africa Partnership Secretariat supports the stoppage of the Tana Delta Sugar Project

BirdLife International supports environmental institutions from East Africa (including Nature Kenya, BirdLife in Kenya) and the rest of the world that are calling for a reversal of the approval by National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) of the Tana Delta Integrated Sugar Project.

BirdLife holds that the decision to approve the project was hurried and was done without exhaustive consultation with all those interested and affected, including local and the global community. More time should have been provided to allow for more input and comment. More critically, the results of the cost- benefit analysis carried out by independent consultants should have been considered before NEMA approved the project. The report showed that the project value was heavily overvalued because the costs of water, land and loss of community livelihoods were ignored.

Tana delta is important not only to Kenya but also to the global community. It has over 350 species of birds and a large assemblage of wildlife and unique plant communities, including nine plants, five fish, two amphibians and two reptiles that are globally threatened. BirdLife International (and its partners in 22 African countries) is particularly concerned that the site is an internationally recognised Important Bird Area which is critical for various rare, vulnerable, migratory and threatened species including the Southern Banded Snake Eagle Circaetus fasciolatus, Malindi Pipit Malindi Pipit Anthus melindae, Endangered Basra Reed-warbler Acrocephalus griseldis and Tana River Cisticola Cisticola restrictus. Kenya has a responsibility to ensure that these unique resources are conserved for the benefit of present and future generations.

Michel Laplace-Toulouse (www.africanlatitude.com) Northern Carmine Bee-eater photographed in the Tana River Delta, Kenya. Zoom In

In this regard we note that the approved proposals have implications for the implementation of at least three international conventions to which Kenya is a signatory. These are the Convention on Biological Diversity, which sets out a general framework through which the sustainable use of natural resources and their equitable sharing should be achieved, the Ramsar Convention and the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species. Kenya to date has one of the finest records on earth for protecting wildlife and natural ecosystems within national borders. BirdLife International submits that the proposed development will not only tarnish this well deserved excellent reputation but also severely damage the country’s attempts to recover from the current tourism slump

Critically, the livelihoods of the local communities in Tana Delta are inextricably linked to the ecosystem. The ecosystem supports the local pastoral livelihood system, serves as a dry season grazing ground and has a high tourism potential that is not yet tapped. The sugar project offers little in way of improving the lives of local people; yet threatens to destroy all this.

We believe that the lives of the local people will be better off if the natural resources of Tana delta are conserved, protected and sustainably utilised, as opposed to implementing the sugar cane project.