Planting trees on Mazingira Day will not save our environment

Kenya has been marking the October 10 Mazingira Day for some years now, and with much success. Every year, a good number of Kenyans plant trees on this day to preserve the environment. This year, the President planted seedlings and promised to produce 2 billion seedlings every year so as to reach a target of 15 billion trees by 2032.

But when there are so many larger forces working to destroy our environment, can the individual actions of a few once a year be enough to save the planet?

In the recent past, there have been multiple cases that have posed danger to the environment. At the start of the year, massive logging was discovered in Karura Forest, with many people speculating that this was the work of a private investor looking to put the land to personal use. Although it was later revealed that the logging was part of the process of restoration of the forest, and that the trees being logged were exotic ones that needed to be replaced with indigenous species, the reaction of the public was not unwarranted.

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Then in May, it was discovered that Ngong Road Forest sanctuary had been encroached upon. Following this revelation and much unrest from the public, it was announced by the Kenya Forest Service that there had been plans to construct a luxury eco-camp within a zone of the forest that had been set aside for ecotourism. After the public outcry, however, the project was suspended. The necessity of having a luxury camp in a protected forest was seemingly not  questioned much, particularly in a country with indigenous populations that work to preserve nature.

This prioritisation of luxury over indigenous coexistence is in line with the fortress model of conservation which views the native as a danger to their own land, and the outsider as true custodian. Fortress conservationism, started by Richard Leakey and supported over the years by elites including Prince Harry, devalues local lives, viewing them as being ignorant of the importance of the environment, even though the impact of the locals is minimal compared to corporations that exploit the environment and use protected spaces to build hotels that only a minority can access. Not only are the locals locked out of their natural homes, but they do not benefit from the activities that outsiders establish there.

The onslaught continues in this fortress model. The Mara reserve, home to the great wildebeest migration, and site of much local dispute as it locks out the local populations who seek to graze their livestock, was discovered in July to have allowed the construction of yet another luxury camp, this one run by the Ritz-Carlton, on the very corridor of the migration, ostensibly obstructing the natural movement of wildlife. Dozens of luxury camps already occupy the Mara, and every year tourists from across the world flock into the reserve, in the process disrupting the movement of wildebeests as they jostle for the perfect picture. Not only is another luxury camp not needed, but order needs to be restored, and the animals and native peoples given pride of place in preserving this wonder of nature.

Against the backdrop of these developments, we must question why certain invasive acts are seen as positive while the citizenry is left helpless to only plant a few seedlings a year in a bid to mitigate this harm. Understandably, Kenya is the site of many attractions that draw people from all over the world, and tourism is a huge income earner for the economy. However, if we are to truly work to protect an environment that is under such siege, we ought to rethink our capitalistic priorities. Tourism is one source of stress for our forests and reserves; the carbon credits, too, makes us sell away our precious land to foreign interests, so that multinational corporations can continue to recklessly plunder the planet. These are not matters than can be offset with an annual Mazingira Day, and no amount of seedling planting can compete with the astronomical dangers we are forced to watch our country being put through.

Ms Gitahi is an international lawyer 

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