Lamu county is determined to protect its indigenous communities, their cultural heritage and resources.
It launched the Bio-Cultural Community Protocol (BC), a report that outlines preservation of indigenous communities, their rights, natural resources and heritage.
Groups worked with community volunteers to record, document and consolidate the information collected from more than 46 villages in Lamu county since 2010.
The report launched at the Mwana Arafa Hotel in Lamu Town on Thursday was sponsored by the Save Lamu Civil Society organisation with support from Natural Justice, UNDP Small Grants Program, Kenya SECURE Project and GIZ.
The BCP also aims to protect and preserve Lamu old town as a Unesco World Heritage site.
It also analyses issues affecting indigenous communities.
The Old Town was listed in 2001 as a Unesco World Heritage Site due to its reservoir of unique and well-preserved cultures of Africans, Arabs and Asians.
However, the town was placed on the World Monuments Watch by Unesco in 2014 as being under threat by westernisation, forces of nature and the impact of social, political and economic change.
The BCP describes the traditional knowledge and indigenous methods of natural resource management for the diverse communities who claim Lamu as their ancestral home.
Lamu’s indigenous communities include the Bajuni, Orma, Sanye, Boni and the Swahili people.
“The BCP illustrates the love and pride we have in our identity. our historical attachment to our home, which is comprised of both land and sea," said Save Lamu secretary general Walid Ahmed.
"Our environment has provided our communities with resources over the centuries. We are guardians of our environment. We must utilise and conserve natural resources for future generations,” Ahmed said.
The report highlighted the dangers posed by various economic and industrial developments, such as the Lamu coal-fired power plant in Hindi.
The plant could result in delisting of Lamu town as a World Heritage site.
The activists said many upcoming mega projects in the region have little or total disregard for the culture and heritage of the region.
