Long-tailed Fiscal
Surfbirds News: RSPB Archives
A flourishing wetland on Kenya’s northern coast is under serious threat from plans to grow vast amounts of sugarcane, partly for biofuel production.
Developers want to transform nearly 50,000 acres (20,000 hectares) of the spectacular Tana River Delta into sugarcane plantations with other parts of the Delta earmarked for rice.
The area, about 120 miles north of Mombasa and largely untouched by development, teems with wildlife luring more than 345 species of birds including the threatened Basra reed warbler and Tana River cisticola. The golden-breasted starling and long-tailed fiscal are seen there too together with 22 waterbird species in internationally important numbers.
Long-tailed Fiscal © Nik Borrow, from the surfbirds galleries
The Delta is also home to more than 800 hippos, elephants, lions and crocodiles. It supports numerous small communities and pasture for their livestock, especially during the dry season.
'This development would be a national disaster, wreaking havoc with the area’s ecosystem and spelling the end for wildlife across much of the Delta,” said Paul Matiku, Executive Director of Nature Kenya.
'Large areas would become ecological deserts. The Delta is a wildlife refuge with cattle herders depending on it for centuries as well. There is no commitment to mitigation for the damage that will be done and no evidence that local incomes will be in any way improved. The sugarcane scheme cannot be allowed to go ahead.'
|
