Game changers: Marsabit’s football teams scoring conservation goals

Despite its pristine culture and diverse ethnic communities, Marsabit County has long been plagued by ethnic segregation, hindering unity of purpose.

However, nothing has continued to foster social integration among different ethnic groups than the participation of community members in sporting activities.

According to Bongole Football Club Captain Basil Sanget, engagement in sports such as football tournaments not only helps them overcome the intolerance of different ethnic communities but also develop effective coping strategies, fostering respect and empathy.

At the same time, football is playing an increasingly important role in promoting and supporting environmental sustainability.

"I strongly believe that integrating sports and conservation activities can encourage community participation and youth engagement in environmental conservation," Mr Sanget said.

He noted that sporting activities in the county have gradually become engines for environmental and wildlife conservation. Recently, the club held a one-week tournament that is uniquely designed to combine sports and environmental conservation, bringing together about 19 football clubs at Karare Primary School grounds in Marsabit Central.

For the organisers, the event was not only about fun and togetherness but also about the most effective means of promoting a healthy environment and raising awareness about the urgent need to protect the ecosystem.

Mr Sanget detailed how sporting activities are increasingly helping the younger generation in the region to explore the linkages between social approaches to conservation and biodiversity conservation.

Through the support of the Nature and People as One (NaPo) organisation, they have learnt about life-changing experiences that can be derived from sporting activities.

The NaPO Conservation Cup is an annual football tournament that empowers youth to restore their landscapes through football. More than 2,000 young people have been reached through sports for conservation. They are now actively engaged in tree planting and regenerative activities in areas such as Hula Hula, Parkishon, Kituruni, Badasa, Kamboe, Karare, Ilpus and Songa in Marsabit Central.

Bongole Football Club, which won the tournament, comprises more than 20 players, most of whom are high school and college students. Three are primary school pupils.

During their one-year active engagement in tree planting, courtesy of football matches organised by NaPO, they have planted over 3,000 trees, which are currently under their management.

Daniel Pinto of Gudhas Football Club, which also participated in the tournament, said the Football for Conservation project has motivated them to plant more than 3,000 trees and mark 3,000 others to discourage the public from destroying them.

"I have organised my 25 team members to take an active role in uprooting the fast-spreading Mathenge weed that is threatening to choke indigenous and exotic trees in Karare ward," he said. "Sports has given us the impetus to take the lead role in environmental conservation, which we previously believed was only a preserve of the old."

He said several youths across the county are using football to increase Marsabit Forest cover, which is at 2.6 per cent.

However, he appealed for financial support from the government and non-governmental organisations to help youths sustain such projects.

The Karare Football for Conservation match climaxed on the eve of Earth Day –April 22.

The 19 teams that participated in the tournament planted 1,400 seedlings, and the two teams that planted more trees competed for monetary prizes and trophies.

NaPo Co-Founder Elizabeth Pantoren underscored the need to leverage the young populations surrounding Marsabit Forest to become the custodians of wildlife and the environment as they are also beneficiaries.

"Besides sequestering carbon by planting trees, the initiative provided diverse social, economic and environmental benefits in a region frequently hit by droughts and floods that have resulted in land degradation and loss of livelihoods. That is why engaging youths in this initiative is key," Dr Pantoren said.

She noted that young people can be easily mobilised and their energy harnessed for the greater good if they are engaged in football matches.

The Football for Conservation project aimed to raise public awareness about the challenges of the planet's well-being and all the life it supports.

"The Rio Declaration of 1992 called for collective responsibility and promotion of harmony with nature and the Earth in a bid to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of the present and future generations of humanity,” Dr Pantoren said.

Marsabit County's forest station manager Abraham Kipchumba said plans are underway to develop a Forest Management Plan to increase the participation of local communities in conservation efforts.

He said the plan will ensure an all-inclusive approach to community engagement in the conservation processes and activities.

International Tree Foundation Executive Director Wycliff Matika underscored the need to integrate sports, conservation, and rural development in counties that have volatile climate stresses like Marsabit to ensure that young people are not left out.

Due to its widespread popularity and cultural significance, Mr Matika believes that football can be an effective tool for conservation and peace-building among young people and the community. "Football has power that could be leveraged to communicate with people and instil positive attitude changes toward community development, wildlife and environmental conservation

 “Young people can effortlessly be liberated from environmental degradation by bringing their heads together through constructive activities such as sports.”

Similar sentiments were echoed by the Inuka Africa Project Co-Lead Melyn Nabisa, who held that football, being the most popular sport in the world, can be harnessed to empower young people economically, end poverty and unemployment and bring them together to have constructive dialogues about the thorny challenges that affect society, especially the climate change crisis.

Tree planting has been widely touted as an inexpensive way to meet multiple environmental goals for mitigating climate change, reversing landscape degradation and restoring biodiversity restoration. Such initiatives can help reduce carbon emissions in Marsabit County by 50 per cent by 2030, in accordance with the Paris Agreement.

In addition, it can boost Marsabit's forest cover from the current 2.6 per cent and is in alignment with President William Ruto's Declaration of planting 15 billion trees by 2032.

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