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A forest in North Eastern Province? Most people would be surprised to learn that Ijara District in North Eastern Province has a forest as good as any in Kenya.

However, like the Aberdare, the Mau, Karura, Kakamega and Ngong forests, Ijara's Boni forest is threatened with extinction.


It has rare tree species targeted by loggers, who have taken advantage of the fact that it is little known to mercilessly cut and cart its trees away.

The precious evergreen trees, foresters say, are not found anywhere else in the country.

We recently set out on a fact-finding mission,

following claims that a cartel of unscrupulous Government officers was colluding with loggers to deplete the forest.

Situated some 300 kilometres south of Garissa Town, Boni is a costal rain forest that attracts rain between September and November, and April to June.

It covers a quarter of Ijara District, stretches all the way to the Eastern part of Lamu District and the Western section of war torn Somalia.

"The forest covers an area of 283, 500 hectares in Ijara alone. It has tree species rarely found in other forests," North Eastern Provincial Forest Officer Stephen Karega said.

However, a storm is brewing between the Government and the local community over its wanton destruction. Each side is now demanding to conserve it.

The community, which started practising farming three years ago, claimed the provincial administration through the forest department had put on hold their farming activities.

Community members were furious over a directive issued in June this year stopping tilling the land.

"We were told that after harvesting, we should not cultivate the land again," said Hamdi Muhummed Ali, the chairman of a local farming association, Eldere, pointing to a cleared forest patch.

"We have been farming here for long. We don't cut down trees indiscriminately to warrant the order. We expect the rains in a few weeks yet we haven't tilled the land for the next planting season," Dubow Yussuf 60, a mother of seven said.

They said the ban was uncalled for, adding that it would condemn them to dependence on relief food.

"We have never relied on relief food like our colleagues in Wajir, Garissa and Mandera Districts," she said.

The farmers questioned the Government's sincerity in the fight against hunger saying: "It is ironic for the Government to advocate for a working nation while frustrating our efforts at farming."

However, Ijara District Commissioner Nelson Marwa denied that residents were stopped from cultivating their farms adding that they were only asked not to expand into the forest.

"The directive was clear: Do not extend your farms as we weigh the next option. It would be against Government policy to reduce the more than 300, 000 people to dependence on relief food. But at the same time, the indigenous forest cover has to be protected," the DC said.

He said the directive was reached after the

Government established that loggers were using bogus farming activities as a proxy to logging.

He said the farmers were enticed with less than Sh5,000 to clear areas purporting to be farmland. "If you go deeper into the forest, you will establish cleared patches and tree stumps," he said.

A survey by The Standard revealed stumps of newly cut trees jutting out and a fresh trail made by a lorry.

Further inside, we saw a cleared pathway ostensibly to ease lorry transportation, and saw dust.

"We have to act fast. We have so far taken the first step and if the situation persists we will have to stop the farming activity all together. We are monitoring," the DC said.

But even as the administration's eyes were fixed on the farmers, we established that the real threat was from external loggers.

Residents said they had reported a notorious logger from the neighbouring Lamu District to authorities, but that their information had been ignored.

"The logger descends on the forest with power saws targeting hard wood. Intelligence personnel are aware, the police and provincial administration know him, and the forester mingles with him. There is a cartel that colludes to deplete the forest cover," the Eldere farmers' group chairman lamented.

The DC agreed: "I was posted to this District barely two months ago. I received information of one Mr Chege, who comes from the adjacent Lamu side. We are working closely with our Lamu counterparts to zero in on the culprit," he said.

"I can assure you that we are making a breakthrough in deterring the culprits. We have beefed up surveillance to protect the endangered forest. It is the kind of forest you will rarely find in the world and arid regions in particular. We will not sit and watch as it is destroyed," he said.

But even with forest guard patrols, the forest is still being mutilated.

Provincial Forest Officer Stephen Karega said Ijara had 12 forest guards, each assigned to a portion to protect. Their duties include reporting cases of suspected logging and other forms of forest destruction, he said.

He said each forest guard was accountable for any destruction in their area of surveillance.

The PFO also expressed concern that due to the vastness of the forest, charcoal burners from Somalia were encroaching on it. He said they were constrained by lack of legal backing. Unless the forest is gazetted, he said, they would remain helpless.

However, Ijara County Council chairman Bashir Dahir said they would oppose the move to gazette the forest.

"We rejected their proposals and we will oppose the move. If the forest is gazetted, it would disappear in a few years due to invasion by rogue businesspersons. What has happened to Karura, Mau and other gazetted forests in Kenya? Why did the Government fail to protect them from illegal logging and encroachment?" Dahir asked.

However, the council has not been blameless either. The PFO said most of the deforestation occurred in 2001 when the council colluded with loggers to cut and cart away trees. It took the intervention of the forest department to stop the wanton destruction of the forest, which is a water catchments and sanctuary to various wildlife, he said.

He said educating communities on the importance of the forest would help deter the destruction.


Source:The East Standard of Kenya