A 73-year-old German woman has fulfilled a dream of setting up a nature park in Malindi, Kilifi county, after over 20 years of conserving indigenous trees.
Silvia Pirelli, an international artist, has finally achieved her objective on 20 acres in Kwa Upanga along the Malindi-Tsavo road.
She bought the land in absentia and fell in love with it after her first night camping there. That is when she decided to conserve the 20 acres with a view to ensuring nature is protected and the environment conserved. She named the area Lmagiro farm. Lmagiro means eagle in Samburu.
Pirelli is a mother of one who lives alone with only five staff members. She had first settled in Samburu before moving to the farm in Malindi.
Today, 20 years later, the area has grown into a conservancy and has nearly all the indigenous trees inside. It also harbours a wide variety of animals, such as Tsavo cats, dik diks, elephant shrew, snakes and many unique bird species.
I caught up with Pirelli at the farm early this month. Dressed in cowgirl style with sunglasses, she took us around the entrance to see the guests’ dining table and her private house, where she has lived for the last 20 years.
Inside the compound, one is welcomed by trees and messages written on the walls of the guest room, restaurant and even her house.
It’s here where I came to learn of her love for nature and how she abandoned her rich life abroad to come and live in the remote village to conserve trees.
"I found this was a beautiful place to live and decided I will protect it. I did not have a lot of money so I first built a mud house to live in," she said.
I found this was a beautiful place to live and decided to protect it. I did not have a lot of money so I first built a mud house to live in... People were laughing at me, they thought this Mzungu is crazy
HOW SHE STARTED
On the first day at the area after buying the land, Pirreli pitched a tent and slept alone in the bush. Early morning when she woke up, she saw a lilac-breasted roller bird, as her tent was on top of a hill.
So enamoured was she that she started a journey of protecting nature and setting up a proper building.
Due to limited funds, construction was not easy. She had to undergo difficult times, getting raw materials.
At times, she had to buy two blocks and carry them with a motorbike to her place, and when they reached a certain number, she would buy cement and use the local sand to build in person.
"People were laughing at me, they thought this Mzungu is crazy," she says, laughing at the memory.
She started planting trees within the 20-acre farm. She would carry them using a wheelbarrow and then go ahead to water them.
It took 10 years for her to start seeing the fruits of her work, as the trees she planted slowly turned into a plantation.
The success did not, however, get a positive response from locals, who were just interested in cutting down trees to get money.
Her efforts to form conservation groups flopped as people were more interested in being paid instead of volunteering to protect the trees and nature.
All her workers, including the communities, understand her as a strict woman who will do anything to protect the forest, and had it not been so, it could just be bare like the neighbouring farms.
As she takes us around her home, which comprises a restaurant, guest room, kitchen, public toilets, personal residence and guest house, there are many writings on the wall, all talking of nature.
Among them is: First there was air, water, lights, plants, trees and animals. Those are our ancestors, they are older and wiser than us, and we should honour and respect them.
Another one says: It’s not the task of nature to adapt to mankind, nature is the better artist, for us is only to copy.
Yet another says: Conservation has no compromise. Among many others.
Pirelli picks her huge sword with a waist wrap and leads us towards the forest, which has walkways for easy movement during a tour.
NATURE TRAILS
We come to learn that the artist, who is now ageing, does not even know the names of trees but has championed for conservation so as to protect nature.
Pirelli takes the lead and encourages us not to touch any tree or branch as there could be snakes or other dangerous creatures.
Inside the forest are many basins for the animals to drink water safely and there are special areas for tourists to enjoy nature with the natural sounds of birds and view of the natural forest.
She says the area is ideal for travel writers, students eager to learn about conservation and tourists on adventure who love nature.
Her 20-year commitment was one way to encourage locals to conserve nature, as it can create employment through eco-tourism.
Prominent personalities to have visited her place include former Environment CS Judy Wakhungu and Lands CAS Gideon Mung’aro, a former Malindi mayor.
Pirelli says it’s not easy to deal with the locals, who are always out to destroy nature. She wishes the government would recognise her efforts and help her advocate conservation.
She has tried several times to reach out to Environment CS Keriako Tobiko to come in and offer support in vain.
Currently, she depends on small donations from friends in Germany and her little pension to run the facility, as alone she cannot promote ecotourism activities.
Her hope is that one day, she will be remembered for her dedication to conserving the area, which has now become a lovely tourism attraction site due to the conserved natural ecosystem.
Through the help of friends from Germany and her sale of artworks, Pirelli has come up with a school project in Kwaupanga, an ECD to help children get an education.
Furthermore, she has been helping children with school fees. She also supported a poverty-stricken family by constructing a modern house as they had nowhere to stay and the parents were ailing.
"I have had fights with locals here, who were out to destroy the forest. I believe through conservation, wildlife will come," she says.
To her, conservation has nothing to do with the money; it requires passion to protect nature.
After every four years, Pirreli travels to Germany to do paintings for sale in international exhibitions to get money to run the conservancy together with little donations.
Her vision is to make the place an eco-lodge, where university students and researchers can come to visit and study about conservation.
One experience she never forgets is a lake which was destroyed just because people refused to protect the ecosystem.
Lake Chem Chem is not very far from the conservancy, and it dried up completely due to human activities.
"People began destroying trees, claiming it was their land. One day there were no trees left," she says.
A look at the surrounding clearly shows it's only Lmagiro farm that is still left with natural trees.
AWARENESS CAMPAIGNS
Her prayer to the county and national governments is to begin awareness programmes and use her project as an example of how conservation is important to nature.
"I wish the departments concerned would come back for awareness. The Agriculture department should also stop advocating the spraying or burning of shambas, it's nonsense," she said.
She is sad that Tobiko is always talking about planting trees, yet there are people like her who have been doing it for over two decades.
Pirreli believes she will not live much longer, and she has accepted the reality of thinking about death.
Already she has identified a gravesite where she will be buried, and who will take over the Lmagiro farm.
Despite her old age, she wakes up every morning at 5am, and after breakfast, goes around the forest to check on the progress.
Edited by T Jalio
