Human Presence And Environment Degradation Of National Park. A Case Study Of Aberdare National Park In Kenya

LIST OF ACRONYMS EIA Environmental Impact Assessment FF1 Flora Fauna International 0 0 K Government of Kenya IUCN International Union Conservation ofNature KWS Kenya Wildlife Service NGO Non Governmental Organisation NEMA National Environmental Management Authority UNEP United Nation Environment Programme UNESCO United Nation Education, Scientific and Cultural organisation TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION APPROVAL DEDICATION iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv LIST OF ACRONYMS v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF PLATES ix ABSTRACT x CHAPTER ONE 1 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Scope ofthe Study 1.1.1 Location 1 1.1.2Landuse 3 1.2 Statement of the problem 3 1.3 Objectives of Study 3 1.3.1 General objective 3 1.3.2 Specific Objectives 3 1.4 Research questions 3 1.5 Purpose of the study 4 1.6 Significance of the study 4 CHAPTER TWO 5 LITERATURE REVIEW 5 2.0 Introduction 5 2.1 Communities and their way of life 7 2.2 The link between human activities and environmental resources degradation 8 2.3 The impacts of environment degradation 16 2.4 Measures that are in place to sustainably manage the park 19 2.5 Conceptual framework 22 vi CHAPTER THREE ..23 METHODOLOGY 23 3.0 Introduction 23 3.1 Research Design 23 3.2 Sample Techniques and Size 23 3.3 Data Collection 24 3.3.1 Interviews 24 3.3.2 Questionnaires 24 3.3.3 Observations 24 3.3.4 Focus Group Discussions (FGD5) 24 3.3.5 Using available information and documented evidence 25 3.6 Data Processing and Analysis 25 3.7 Limitation of the study 25 CHAPTER FOUR 26 RESEARCH FINDINGS 26 4.0 Introduction 26 4.1 Communities and their way of life 26 4.2 The link between human activities and environmental resources degradation 28 4.3 Impacts of environment degradation 37 4.4 Measures that are in place to sustainably manage the park 38 CHAPTER FIVE 40 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 40 5.0 Summary and Conclusion 40 5.1 Recommendations 40 BIBLIOGRAPHY 45 APPENDICES 47 APPENDIX 1: RESEARCH QUESTIONAIRE FORMAT 47 vfl LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Pie chart representation of the communities in the Aberdare region 28 Table 2 : A pie chart showing the number of charcoal kilns 31 Table 3: A pie chart showing number of livestock 34 viii LIST OF PLATES Plate 1. The Aberdare range 26 Plate 2. Charcoal production in a kiln 30 Plate 3. Clearing of vegetation and cutting trees respectively 32 Plate 4. Crop farming 35 Plate 5. A Quarry 36 Plate 6. Destruction of charcoal kilns and law enforcement 39 ix ABSTRACT

The Aberdare national park is in the Aberdare range which is in Nyeri, the central province in Kenya. The climate is of equatorial type and luxuriant vegetation. The human population is increasing at high rate which raises an alarm to the fragile ecosystem which to some is considered as “wastelands”. The key objective of the study was to identif~,r reasons of resource degradation as influenced by human presence. We all ask ourselves how the future environment will look like when human are developing new ways of development at the expense of the environment and increasing on pollution. Humans are a great threat to the environment and that’s why they need to be examined and given sustainable solution. The study was both descriptive in design, and it based on primary and secondary data to establish the magnitude of the problem. The primary methods included interview, questionnaire and observation. It gave a chance for ground truthing or counter checking with the secondary data which was obtained from numerous books, newspapers and journals. The major findings in deterioration of the environment in the area of study were illegal activities like logging, charcoal production, poaching, mining and marijuana planting. Poor policies have pave way for crop farming in the forest, which later has become a problem. Nomadic pastoralist and deforestation also had their share. The activities cause or initiate climate change, global warming, inadequate rainfall because of the loss of trees which are forever having numerous benefits and loss of bio diversity. At least the problem was not the first time for the community to hear about, they knew about it and they had some measures which they were practising to curb the deterioration Recommendations were also raised with a purpose to address the weak points which went unmentioned, and as a means of updating the community with the current and best strategy to curb the current dynamism of the topic problem.