• The group of environmentalists said the review will establish the viability of proposed measures.
• It will also show whether environmental impact assessments were conducted and their outcome.
Image: KWS
Some environmentalists have called for an audit of the built structures in Nairobi National Park before a proposed facelift can take place.
The 45 conservationists are graduates of environmental studies from Kenyatta University.
The Kenya Wildlife Service's Draft Management Plan 2020-2030 has proposed a facelift to the park “to improve its attractiveness”.
The management considered whether to maintain the status quo or improve the habitat through controlled burning, mowing and mineral supplementation.
The third option was to enclose the entire park with a predator-proof fence.
The last option was to improve the park habitat by progressively fencing off willing landowners in the park’s buffer zone.
Under the plan, a multi-billion ecolodge will also be put up.
KWS claims that the move is meant to cure 12 issues that threaten the park founded in 1946.
They include habitat loss and fragmentation in the dispersal areas, a decline in the wildlife population, poaching, human-wildlife conflict, alien and invasive species, pollution, mining and quarries, climate change, low park visitation, increased urbanisation, settlement threats on the sheep and goats ranch and infrastructure development.
The service has however admitted that it may have contributed to the challenges facing the 117 square kilometre park by allowing mega projects inside and on its periphery.
These include the Southern Bypass and the Internal Container Depot roads and the Standard Gauge Railway.
The group of environmentalists said the review will establish the viability of proposed measures.
It will also show whether environmental impact assessments were conducted and their outcome.
The audit would also allow for a renewed focus on biodiversity, natural resource and sustainability planning for the parks, game reserves and wildlife ecosystems in the country.
They worried that the proposed developments in the park pose a serious threat to the sustainability of the biodiversity.
“There has been observed encroachment into the park over the past few years that have not only put the flora and fauna at risk but have also breached the ethos for which the nation stands for with regards to biodiversity protection,” part of their letter said.
The letter is copied to the director general, Kenya Wildlife Service John Waweru, the acting director general National Environment Management Authority Mamo Mamo, CS Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife Najib Balala and Environment CS Keriako Tobiko.
The group said the regulations guiding the management of the park outlived their validity period in 2010.
They said the outbreak of coronavirus offers an opportunity for introspection into the human-wildlife nexus and how to provide proper guidelines for protection, conservation and implementation of management frameworks.
The group said the public must be allowed a say in the draft plan.
The progress of this process will compromise citizen participation and the opportunity to exercise their right.
Friends of Nairobi National Park says it has no objections to 90 of the 122 objectives of the draft plan.
“We are in full agreement to 90 of those actions, in other words, about 75 per cent.”
Friends of Nairobi National Park have asked any plans to be put off for a minimum of three months.
“We, therefore, ask that you stop the process of formulation and pending approval of this document until the current state of the country improves and we are no longer faced with restrictions due to Covid-19,” the FoNNaP said, recommending a minimum of three months.