5.20.11

May 20, 2011

{excuse the retroactive posting - internet is a scarce commodity around here}

The week has really flown by! Pat (the final IU intern) arrived Tuesday morning, and Wednesday night we became official members of the Muguga Club, a small bar and club attached to the compound where we were staying. Our post-work activity of choice has been throwing the Frisbee and drinking warm beer, and while we were imbibing, a guy in a suit walked by laughing and asked to play. We tossed it his way, and after throwing it back, he invited us up to the club for drinks. Turns out that he, and the other guys inside were the directors of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). They were thrilled to have some new faces to talk to, and bought us round after round of drinks. Because it is wintertime, they were drinking a mixture of hot water, lime and Viceroy, which they subsequently forced upon Leah. I dubbed the drink ‘Hot-to-Trot’, though I stuck with Tusker, which is the Bud Light of the southern hemisphere. Aside from some new jokes, we got a great picture of the economic, political, social and environmental issues currently being discussed by leadership in Kenya.

Kenya is beset by a host of environmental issues, most of which are functions of a rapidly growing population and limited capital resources, though politics plays perhaps the most significant role. However, the issue at the forefront of everyone’s mind seems to be global climate change, indeed, the projects we will be working on this summer fall into this category. Interestingly, the effects of climate change are more evident at global extremes - in the Arctic and Antarctic, and here at the equator. Glaciers cap both Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro, and at the turn of the 20^th century, both peaks were visible from Nairobi, though now you are lucky to see either peak due to automobile emissions. According to one of the directors who drives to work in the mornings, the glaciers have become essentially invisible to the naked eye from the roadways – they have shrunk to about a quarter of their original sizes within the past three decades. I found it disconcerting to talk about the shrinking of glaciers in Africa of all places, but the location seemed to make the topic all the more dramatic.

Along the same vein, he started talking about regional temperatures in general. This time of year is the Kenyan winter, and as a boy, he recalled that temperatures would fall into the low teens (Celsius), and that at night, we would have needed thick wool sweaters to be comfortable. In the Highlands, a light frost was never out of the question. I was painfully aware that my attire consisted of flip-flops and a t-shirt.

Higher global temperatures are playing havoc with weather patterns in sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya included. Droughts that used to occur every fifteen years now happen every three. Drier, hard-packed soil is not as good at soaking up moisture when the rains do come, and as a result, Kenya is having problems with the runoff of valuable topsoil, which in turn pollutes rivers and other watercourses. KEFRI is placing much emphasis on reforestation – less than 5% of natural forest-cover remains in Kenya, exacerbating the runoff problem. Replanting forests serves numerous purposes including water filtration, improving and maintaining biodiversity, soil conservation and preventing desertification. Trees also serve as carbon sinks. The Directorate at KARI, as an agricultural institute, are devoting significant resources to developing seeds and strains that may be cultivated in a hotter, drier environment. Also, to promoting agricultural practices that conserve soil and minimize the environmental impacts of subsistence farming.

Any decent environmental discussion must also address politics, and it was interesting to hear the opinions of the heads of a government institute. The last round of elections triggered outbreaks of violence across the country, based on allegations of corruption. As with many African states, most people align themselves along tribal lines, so even though someone is Kenyan, they also belong to one of over 50 different tribes. The balance of power in the country is split amongst the three most numerous tribes: the Kikuyu, Luya and Luo. Government positions are for the most part dominated by these three tribes. The president of Kenya is Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu.

I steered away from asking about violence. Most Kenyans that I have talked to seem mortified that such a thing happened in their country, and fearful that something similar might happen in next year’s election if there is even a hint of unfairness. Instead, I asked how they thought the current administration has performed. I was expecting the top answer to have something to do with infrastructure investment or employment – driving through Nairobi, there are construction and road projects everywhere (it needs the upgrade, too). Surprisingly, the answer I got was that Kibaki has increased personal freedom. According to one of the directors, we would not even have been able to have this conversation during any of the previous presidential tenures. It must be noted that Kenya has only had two presidents before Kibaki: Kenyatta for 14 years and Moi for 24 years. There are pictures of either Kenyatta or Moi hanging in every room and office in the KEFRI compound.

Wow, this post has ended up being much longer than I intended. The moral of the story is that there is no moral. There are good things going on in Kenya, and some not so good. From an environmental perspective, institutional responses to pressing issues are probably best and are happening as we speak. However, the average Kenyan cultivating corn on the edges of the Mau forest fails to see the connection between cutting down a few trees to make new fields and desertification in Turkana. Leadership has the same goals as in any country, to be re-elected. The complication though is that Kenya lies at a nexus of climate change, and thus a balance must be found between growing the economy and improving the environment. These things take time. Hopefully leadership will take the proper measures.

Oh. Interestingly, several of the people I have met around KEFRI speak Russian. Back in the Cold War days, the Soviets flew African academics and leaders to Moscow to be trained or educated – I assume that we were doing the same types of things. Coming across these individuals is almost like taking a step back in time, or finding a fossil.

ANDDDD, I finally got a straight answer on my project for the summer. KEFRI is leasing tracts of land from private landowners near Kakamega Forest in the west. The lease terms are for 25 year periods, trees will be planted (not sure what types), and at the end of the lease the timber will be cut. The idea is to provide a sustainable timber culture and incentivize farmers to plant trees. Landowners will cultivate a variety of products within the forest tracts, like aloe vera and some other plants that I was not familiar with. Cattle will be grazed in certain parts. KEFRI provides the seeds, and guarantees a final market for all the goods produced – they either have access, or own the necessary upstream factories, like lumber mills. My job will be to construct a business plan for the endeavor. It’s going to be a hefty project, but it is exactly the type of thing I was hoping to do. More details to follow soon, and hopefully not three pages worth! Leah and Pat are leaving for Mombasa on Sunday, and I will join them there on Wednesday to explore the Sacred Forest. As we learned early this week, the Sacred Forest is home to tons of elephants!

One last thing. Seeing those monkeys the other morning was no big deal. There are troops of them everywhere. The people don’t like them because they get into the gardens.

Best!