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March 1, 2010

By Thomas D. Rowley*

Like parents everywhere, those living on the edges of the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Reserve and National Park on Kenya’s coast want a better life for their kids. And like parents everywhere, they realize the key to that better life is education. Finally, like parents everywhere, they’re finding that education can be horrifically expensive. While primary school in Kenya is subsidized and therefore affordable, secondary school is not. Tuition costs nearly $300 per student per year. And for the 100,000 people living next to the forest on less than $1 per day, that is a princely sum.

Sadly, one of the only ways for families in the area to try and raise money for tuition is by plundering the forest and its waters through illegal timbering, poaching and over fishing. The resulting damage to flora and fauna is great even if the monetary returns are not. Much of the timber cut is the native Muhuhu tree used in wood carvings for tourists and for export to Europe and the United States. Not surprisingly, however, most of the profits end up in the pockets of outsiders and middlemen, not in those of the local people who cut the trees and need the money so desperately. As a result, 90 percent of the children qualified to attend secondary school do not. They simply don’t have the money.

To help both the people and the environment, A Rocha Kenya launched in 2001 the Arabuko-Sokoke Schools and Eco-tourism Scheme–ASSETS for short. The concept is elegant in its simplicity: replace the incentives for local people to damage the forest with incentives for them to protect it. How? By building viewing platforms and a 270-meter suspended walkway into the forest and training guides to show eco-tourists the forest’s incredible and endangered wildlife. (Arabuko-Sokoke is home to six globally threatened bird species and one of the most species-rich yet most endangered regions in the world). The eco-tourism revenues fund school scholarships for local kids—provided their families agree to refrain from environmentally destructive practices. Now education is paid for not by cutting trees, but by preserving them.

Unlike other eco-tourism projects that benefit only those employed in the industry, ASSETS spreads the benefits by making scholarships available to children throughout the communities in the region. The program also teaches environmental stewardship and awareness of the connection between the economic health of the people and the health of the forest. Finally, ASSETS provides each of its scholarship recipients with seedlings to establish their own sustainable woodlots for use as fuel and for wood to sell.

As has become abundantly clear in the last half century, the future of the natural world depends in large measure upon the behavior and wellbeing of the people who interact with it. We are an integral part of the environment. Regulations are not enough. Nor are platitudes and bumper stickers. If ecosystems, habitats and species are to survive, local people must value them—as critical inputs to their health and wellbeing and as God’s good creation. And they must act upon that value. ASSETS in particular, and A Rocha projects in general, help people do just that. According to A Rocha Kenya Director Colin Jackson, “As Christians, we have a responsibility to look after God’s creation. An as human beings, we are part of the environment. We can’t conserve ecosystems, habitats and species without including people and working alongside with them. It’s a crucial thing to work with the communities.”

For more information on the effort, please see http://assets-kenya.org/

*Executive Director of A Rocha USA

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