The Ogiek people, East Africa’s honey-hunting forest dwellers, are about to lose their home, according to Minority Rights International (MRG). The news comes as the Kenyan government has approved plans to forcibly remove thousands of settlers from the Mau Forest, the Ogiek’s ancestral lands.

Once a thick, resource-rich land in western Kenya, the Mau Forest has become a crucial water source in a time when staggering droughts plague the region. But forest rains that supplied regional waterways for centuries have all but disappeared due to government-sanctioned settlement and widespread deforestation.

Because the nation relies heavily on hydro power to light its cities, the water shortage has meant recurring blackouts, which in turn has fueled the spread of crime and unemployment. According to Reuters Alertnet, the destructive policies have led to soil erosion, flash floods, prolonged drought and exhausted waterways. Native species, including antelope and bees, are also fewer in number.

Acknowledging the growing problem, the Kenyan government has authorized the eviction of all settlers from the Mau Forest so they can plant millions of trees and secure the country’s water source again. Even the Ogiek, who have acted as conservators of the forests for centuries, will be forced to leave.

Attempts to force the Ogiek from the lands have persisted since colonial times. More recently, Kenyan police burned Ogiek huts in the 1960’s to drive the people out of the woods and in the early 1990’s, the Ogiek unsuccessfully sued the Kenyan government after politicians handed out large plots of forest to political friends.

Although the government has promised that the Ogiek will be permitted to return to the forest, many fear it is a ploy to remove them from their homes permanently. Their fears have only increased as timber companies, largely run by the very politicians sanctioning conservation, continue to log large areas of the forest.

International human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, now fear the indigenous group of nearly 15,000 will become the newest group of “conservation refugees”, forced from ancestral lands in the name of conservation.

Further Reading:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8057316.stm
http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/ogiek
http://www.ogiekpeople.org/
http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/FactsFigures/QandA/index.asp
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/world/africa/15kenya.html?scp=1&sq=ogiek&st=cse

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/58117789@N00/284804261/

Copyright 2009 — Amanda C. Becker