Stories from the field
5 June 2009
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Caritas Australia's Africa
Regional Representative Scott Martin in Kenya during World
Envionment
Day.
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2009 World Environment Day: We are all in this together… in
Kenya
“Massive deforestation, uncontrolled fires and the opening up
of land for cultivation has seen large scale devastation of forests
around the Marian Shrine at Subukia, Northern Kenya”, says Jack de
Groot CEO of Caritas Australia who is in Kenya for World Environment
Day.
“The link between a flourishing environment and the well being
of local people is increasingly clear. Here in Subukia today we are
reforesting degraded land. More than 40,000 trees of the planned 120,000
trees have already been planted. And the replanting of trees is only
part of the program. What we are seeing here is local communities taking
control of their environment through support from organizations like
Caritas Australia and WWF. This is world’s best practice
development. It’s sustainable and everyone is benefitting.
Caritas Australia, in partnership with World Wildlife Fund for Nature
(WWF) is tackling the problem of degraded land in Kenya through the
leadership of local communities in a clear indication of the growing
recognition of environmental issues in Kenya.
The Marian Shrine is pilgrimage sight for more than 80,000 Kenyans
every year and the impact of so many people has also left its mark on
the land and each are encouraged to plant a tree.
The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) approached Caritas Australia
to support the project in 2006 because of our expertise in integrated
community development projects. WWF had attempted a similar program in
the past but due to lack of community ownership the project had
failed.
“The problems facing these communities are severe but there is
growing recognition within the communities themselves of the importance
of maintaining the environment. By conducting this project at such a
popular pilgrimage destination, we are also able to get the message out
way beyond the local community who are involved in the project”,
said Scott Martin, Regional Representative of Caritas Australia in
Africa.
Through utilizing the environmental expertise of WWF, the community
development focus of Caritas’ local partners and the local
knowledge of the community, the project has become a massive
success.
The goals of the project now include community education to local
schools and organisations, who are mobilised to improve on-farm
conservation and economic activities through environmental education. A
key plank of the project is to rejuvenate degraded sites through
reforestation and soil conservation, and implement the community
designed sustainable reforestation plan.
The primary aim of the project is really to protect the water system
which has been diminished as the trees and forests have disappeared
explains Mr Martin. “The trees protect the fragile water table.
Planting more trees directly increases the water volume and improves the
quality of the water supply. Improvement in the avialabilty oand quality
of water will increase the local communities understanding of
environmental issues benefitting the farmers and the local community
“Partnerships like these are a clear recognition that
approaches to environmental sustainability are bigger than just a focus
on the environment and clearly indicate the growing understanding of the
interconnectedness between a healthy environment and the wellbeing of
the people. Importantly too, this example illustrates the expertise of
many different individuals and organizations working together and how we
can really amplify our impact by working together,” says Mr de
Groot.
Mr Martin says: “The tragic irony of climate change for
Africans is that the region which has contributed least to the
accumulation of green house gases and other damaging pollution stands to
lose incredibly. Already climate change has severely affected food
security and livelihoods on the world’s poorest continent. An
overwhelming majority of people in Africa rely on rain fed subsistence
agriculture for their survival and have done for centuries. In the
recent past this reliability has been alarmingly undermined.”
Caritas Australia and the international Caritas network are committed
to ensuring the protection of the environment and work in 162 countries
to ensure environmental protection and community wellbeing are delivered
in combination. Read the recent Caritas Internationalis
CIDSE report on adaptation to climate change.
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