How world leaders are failing nature one meeting at a time

Four rangers dressed in olive green attires stand at ease on the vast grassland located at the base of Ngama Hills near Sekenani swamp in Narok County. They stare with prying eyes when we stop to meet them.

It is half past eight in the morning and the blue sky hides the sun’s wrath that we expected to encounter. On our right, some 300 metres away, is a herd of buffaloes, stealing glances at us — the strangers in their habitat. We are at the Mara Siana conservancy –one whose conservation story is a testament to gradual growth but human activities and climate change are on the verge of reversing the gains made so far.

Fidelis Mpoe, one of the rangers, was born and raised in Siana, which is located on the eastern side of Maasai Mara National Reserve. Two years ago after completing her course in Nutrition and Dietetics, her love for conservation gravitated her to work at the conservancy.

“I have always been passionate about conservation. When the opportunity came, I had to change my career. I am happy that the benefit of the conservation is already showing since the locals bring their animals here for grazing when we allow them during dry seasons. Our wildlife too, has benefited,” says the 23-year-old ranger.

Her work involves conducting patrols at the confines of the conservancy every morning and evening. Mpoe and her colleagues also monitor the movement of animals at the conservancy and help communities in solving human-wildlife conflict. They also do voluntary training within the conservancy.

Even as Mpoe is living her dream of conserving nature, it took a series of deliberations to convince about 1, 500 land owners (including her father) to lease 6.5 acres each, of their land for a period of 15 years.

Mara Siana Conservancy manager Evans Sitati recounts the deplorable state of the conservancy before the management took over.

“We had one zebra, one topi, about 150 elephants, less than 200 buffaloes and fewer lions. Most livestock stayed here and could sometimes cross over to the other side of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. The landscape had degraded because of over-grazing,” he said.

Years later, the conservancy swarms with a variety of animals and according to Simon Lenjir, Mau-Mara-Loita sub landscape coordinator for World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the area now has the highest number of elephants in the Mara region.

“This place has the highest diversity of animals, plant species and habitat in the region. When you have such, it tells you that the habitat has been secured to accommodate wildlife,” he explains.

However, the glare that the canopied acacia trees and the green grass that the conservancy has boasted to have since its inception has been affected by climate change, one which is caused by human activities, according to Evans. 

“Things here are drastically changing. The idea of a conservancy is to have communal land, but lately people want to privatise their land and are fencing off to sell to potential buyers.,” he says.

“We have long spells of drought that wreak havoc on animals. We lost some elephants between September and December last year. After restoration, the land used to be dense, but elephants, when stressed and while looking for food and water, fall trees and that has an impact on our tree cover,” Evans explains.

He adds that human population increase is also straining the co- existence of animals in the conservancy. 

Evans observes that some of the interventions inspired by partners like WWF is to educate landowners to reduce livestock numbers, keeping fewer but high quality animals that can produce more milk and beef.

Globally, data shows that biodiversity (plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat) loss is about 68 per cent. Even as the biodiversity crisis is clear, world leaders in that space who met in Nairobi at the end of June for the fourth round of negotiations at the Convention on Biological Diversity showed little progress and lack of urgency.

The discussions were centred on the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework asking countries to find a common ground and set targets that will benefit nature. The final agreement will be in Canada at the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) on biodiversity.

Gavin Edwards, director of WWF’s Global Nature Positive Initiative, who was part of the negotiations in Nairobi, breaks down what happened during the negotiations.

“A target of protecting and restoring at least 30 per cent of land, freshwater and seas globally by 2030 is essential to addressing our escalating nature crisis. 

“The talks in Nairobi saw strong support from many countries for a target of protecting and restoring at least 30 per cent of land and water globally by 2030. However, it is still not confirmed in the text. Similarly, if the whole Global Biodiversity Framework does not achieve consensus in Montreal, Canada, then it will not be agreed,” he added.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has endorsed the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature, committing to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 for sustainable development. He has also pledged to ensure a set of clear and robust goals and targets, address the indirect drivers of nature loss, as well as ensuring the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and local communities to secure a strong monitoring and review mechanism to ensure full implementation of the agreement.

Kenya is also part of the High Ambition Coalition for nature and people, committing to protect and restore at least 30 per cent of land and water globally by 2030.

Even so, what impact will a few leaders like President Kenyatta have if the rest do not join and speak in one voice to save nature? Gavin explains that there are still huge differences on key issues such as finance and the equitable sharing of benefits. “We knew arriving in Nairobi that some of these issues wouldn’t be resolved at the negotiator level. A strong biodiversity agreement is still achievable but it will require leadership and engagement at the necessary higher political level - ministers must step up and step in to rescue this negotiation.”

Bringing this to perspective Guido Broekhoven, WWF-International Head of Policy, Research and Development says reversing nature loss is attainable just as we have plans for climate change.

“We need something similar for nature. For instance, when it comes to conservation, the quality of management is important. We should not only focus on the areas inside the conservancy but beyond and look out for how they practise their agriculture, what are their footprints of production like and is it sustainable,” he says.

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