1. CHAPTER ONE
1.1. INTRODUCTION
Forest resources contribute significantly to Kenya’s economy. The agriculture sector, manufacturing and processing industry and the tourism sector which are backbone of the country’s economy directly or indirectly rely on our dwindling forest resources. Kenyan’s major river systems (Tana, Athi, and Ewaso Nyiro) source their water from mountain forest catchment.
These rivers traverse country providing fresh water for domestic use, industrial processing, irrigation and hydro-electric generation. Like river Tana alone supplies water for the seven fork hydro-electric power stations, providing more than half of the country’s electricity. In addition forest provides building and weaving materials pulp for the paper industry, herbal medicine, wild fruits and honey, regulates rainfall patterns, reduces sedimentation load in our rivers and provide environmental stability.
By 2003 Kenya forest had reduced to 1.4 million hectares which is less than 2% of the country’s land area 56.9 million hectares 15% of Kenya’s land area (Kenya Forest Working Group), this according to the united nations FAO group , Kenya is thus environmentally unstable. “Any country with less than 10% of its land covered by forest is environmentally unstable.” (United Nations FAO). At present, the world’s forests cover about 4 billion hectares which accounts for 31% of the world’s land area. The distribution of the world’s forest is shown in figure 1.1. It illustrates the distribution of forest on a global scale. Other wooded land covers about 1.1 billion hectares (FAO 2010). Then areas of world’s forest can be seen in table 1.1.
Fig 1.1 Distribution of the world’s forest (Source FAO 2006)
Table 1.1 Global distributions by region (...
... middle of paper ...
...stigation(Lillesand et al., 2008).
Sensors abroad satellites in space, record the amount of electromagnetic energy reflected from various objects on the earth’s surface at various wavelengths. From the spectral response patterns, information about the objects is derived. Through the analysis of remotely sensed data for different epochs change detection is possible. With time change analysis, monitoring of forest destruction can be done. The knowledge acquired from this information forms a basis for decision making in efforts to address the deforestation. It is with this mind that this project was carried out to establish factual information on the state of Nyambene Hills forest, in Meru North district in Meru County whose reported danger of extinction has attracted from the public and many environmental organizations considering the value of these forests resources.
Forests cover 31% of the land area on our planet. They produce vital oxygen and provide homes for people and wildlife. Many of the world’s most threatened and endangered animals live in forests, and 1.6 billion people rely on benefits forests offer, including food, fresh water, clothing, traditional medicine and shelter (drug war facts, Page 1).
The Mitta Mitta river has a large cost of its construction and the operation of the scheme to maintain it. However, it also has benefits to get return money of the investment. These benefits overwhelmingly beneficial to society and the local councils or regional water authorities, also it makes government’s budget to spend for the river maintenance decreases. Many economic activities can be done that directly attributed to the flow of water that worth as an economical value. One of the activity that directly attributed to the Mitta Mitta river is primarily agricultural and used for beef production. The agricultural and beef production is using large area of freehold land for around 100
Located in the Great Lakes area of East Africa, Kenya is home to an estimated 47 million. The country, covering over 223,000 square miles is bordered by Ethiopia and Sudan to the north, Uganda to the west, Tanzania to the south, and Somalia to the east. The areas around the coast of the Indian Ocean present a tropical climate, while the highlands are more temperate. There is no specific cultural normality with the nation because of such diverse ethnic backgrounds. As much of Kenya is riddled with poverty, her economy is based on labor-intensive industries, such as mining, manufacturing, mining, forestry, and agriculture. The
While she worked for a university, she discovered that much of the cattle and humans shared signs of malnourishment, she concluded that the poor condition of the fauna in kenya was to blame. As a response she created the ecological group ”Envirocare”, which promoted the planting of trees in deforested areas. The “Green Belt Movement” was created as a way to empower women by paying them to plant trees, this gave these women a source of income as creating a restorative effect on the environment. Although she received discouragement from some individuals, she kept on and created a significant change to the environment of Kenya. “Not only did the"belts" hold the soil in place and provide shade and windbreaks but they also re-created habitat and enhanced· the beauty of the landscape.”
FAO: State of the World's Forests. Rome: Food and Agriculture Office of the United Nations; 2007. Print.
1990 Becoming Kenyans: Socio-economic transformation of the pastoral Maasai (Drylands research series), Acts Press, pp. 193-201
In Indonesia, 8.828 million hectares of forests have been destroyed (see appendix 2). Around fifty acres of forests are removed every minute, not o...
Nowadays deforestation is the one of the most important and controversial environmental issues in the world. Deforestation is cutting down, clearing away or burning trees or forests. Particularly tropical rainforests are the most waning type of forests because of its location in developing countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, India, central African countries and Brazil. Deforestation rate in those regions is high enough to worry about, because of large economic potential of forest areas. As the result of causes such as agriculture land expansion, logging for timber, fire blazing and settling infrastructure there might be serious impacts in future. For instance, extinction of endemic species of animals and plants which will be feral, increase of greenhouse gas emissions which may lead to global warming and consecutive catastrophes, destruction of home for indigenous residents which is considered as violation of human rights. Some people can argue with these drawbacks telling that deforestation have more valuable benefits such as growth of economics, production of food and providing better opportunities for life for poor families. However, these benefits are quite temporary and government of that countries and world organisations tries to halt deforestation proposing several solutions. Deforestation problem is especially acute in the Brazilian Amazon, where its rate is much high comparing with other regions. This paper will describe world-wide rainforests, causes and effects of deforestation, and evaluate possible solutions of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
Deforestation is a widely used term, but one with different meanings. Disturbance deforestation refers to all man made disturbances that alter a forest, these are the most common. This argumentative essay discusses the positive and negative aspects of deforestation. In the first part of the essay the pro arguments of deforestation will be discussed. For example, the issue of Global population and how forests are being used, land use and the ways forests contribute, wood use, forest growth, destruction and the reasons for cutting down the trees. The second half of the essay will cover the issues that are harmful to the environment because of deforestation. Many environmental issues take place everyday; a big question that arises, is if the global economy will ever finds middle on the issue of forest thinning. If deforestation was used only in the most crucial of times, the world might become a better place.
Rivers are a natural water source for civilizations, which water is essential for a civilization to sustain.
Rainforests once covered 14% of the worlds land surface, however now it only covers a mere 6%. It is estimated that all rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. Trees are becoming more needed and used everyday. We need them cut down for many reasons such as paper and timber, while also needing them ‘untouched’ for other reasons like oxygen, we have to ask ourselves, which is more important? At the current rate, most of the rainforests are being cut down for resources like paper and timber, but less importance is being placed on main resources like oxygen.
The main source of income for Kenya comes from agriculture. Coffee and tea are the most valuable crops. Together they account for approximately 50 per cent of all forigien exchange earnings. Because of the rapidly growing population, Kenya now imports large quantities of food, praticularly wheat. Unemployment is high. Expecally in the urban areas.
The forests around the world a supply a plethora of community amenities and commercial goods , nevertheless forested terrain progressively is becoming transformed to accommodate other uses, including cropland, pasture, mining, and urban areas, which can produce superior private financial returns. The wide array of benefits the forest provides that vanish directly tied to deforestation have resulted in several policies drafted with the sole intention to reduce the frequency of deforestation. This paper has two primary objectives. First, this paper will review and summarize both the preceding and current research on deforestation. Second, it will emphasize the significance of future research and development, as well as other solutions needed
The evidence of climate change in Kenya is undeniable, while its effects on economic growth are no more mysterious; rather, they are rapidly unfolding to a startling reality and concern for humankind. Accelerated emissions of green house gases (GHGs) globally, from combustion of fossil fuels and unsustainable land use practices is the key driver of anthropogenic climate change.
Allen, Julia C., and Douglas F. Barnes. "The Cause of Deforestation in Developing Countries." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 1985: 163-184. Print.