where we work

SALT is currently working in three counties of Kenya: Tharaka Nithi County in the Eastern Kenya on lower side of Mt. Kenya towards River Tana (Tharaka South Sub-County). Further, SALT has established strong links with Embu County in Mbeere and Narok County in Loita Forest, reaching the two through community exchanges.

Context and Background

The areas where SALT is working fall within Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL). These areas have increased climatic instability where communities are experiencing growing challenges, such as rising temperatures hitting as high as 40 degrees. Climate change, together with ecological degradation in those areas sometimes result in drying up of permanent rivers, periodic floods or droughts and thereby loss of livestock and biodiversity.

There have been human-to-human and even animal-to-human conflicts over dwindling water and pastures. This has impacted on livelihoods resulting in reduction in food production and increasing famine. The communities living in SALT areas of coverage are becoming more vulnerable to the effects of climate change because of growing poverty. Tharaka, Mbeere and Narok are all considered as some of the poorest and more marginalised regions in Kenya. On the other side, the same areas have very rich cultural traditions. Elders have deep ecological knowledge, which was at the centre of their governance systems. The customary laws protected their forests, rivers, mountains and springs over millennia. Traditionally women are the cultivators of seed diversity and the food system which they adapted to those semi-arid regions. These traditions have however been increasingly undermined by the promotion of projects ill-conceived for the regions, including livelihood projects promoting livestock and seeds that are not adapted to their conditions, by government and external agencies. The traditional governance systems have been eroded and also the customary laws that controlled cutting of trees, hunting of animals and farming too close to water sources. These factors have all contributed to the increasing vulnerability of the communities to climate disruption.

Rationale

Given those stark contexts, SALT is working to strengthen the capacity of communities and ecosystems to rebuild their resilience to deal with climate change and disaster risks. SALT is thus working to tap into communities indigenous knowledge for the protection and regeneration of their ancestral territories.

Traditionally governance institutions are responsible for the protection of sacred natural sites (SNS) and watershed areas. SNS play a central role in community governance systems by maintaining the vitality of the community’s ancestral lands. They are recognised internationally and by the African Commission as places of socio-cultural, ecological and spiritual importance. These SNS are becoming increasingly threatened by economic development projects such as mining, tourism and dam construction. Their destruction will have a major effect on water sources, thus compromising the capacity of the communities and ecosystems to deal with the effects of climate change, disasters risks and poverty. In Tharaka for instance, one of the major threats currently facing the community is construction of a mega dam project in one of the major SNS for the community – a waterfall on the River Tana named Kibuka. These threats impacts on critical ecosystems and are very serious given the fact that we are already experiencing the sixth mass extinction of species globally – with one million species threatened with extinction.  
SALT’s Rapid Response

SALT engages communities through community dialogues, experiential learning, drawing of ecological maps and seasonal calendars around the issues that really affect them. SALT does monthly community dialogues working with farmers, clan leaders, spiritual leaders (Mugwe and Laibon), healers, diviners and seers and custodians of seeds and sacred natural sites. SALT has done most of its work over the years without any external funding. Rather, SALT has been tapping into self-supporting cultural practices: encouraging everyone to share what they can to ensure that everyone, who wants to, can reach the monthly dialogues. This practice has built a firm foundation of solidarity and commitment amongst the communities SALT works with based on their love and passion for their culture and biodiversity. SALT team, having learnt from the experiences of other African communities and the Amazonians in Latin America, went back to their roots to learn from their elders about the traditions that regenerate their ecosystems and natural cycles. This experience has enabled effectiveness in delivery of social change to the communities.

Vegetation and biodiversity in areas of work

1. Unique biodiversity with over 800 species of vascular plants of which about a dozen figure is on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species,

2. Two of the world’s most threatened primates recognised by Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),

3. Significant populations of water birds, some like the Madagascar Pratincole also red-listed and covered by the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Water birds (AEWE),

4. The area is a vital lifeline for dry-season grazing of tens of thousands of head of livestock and wild animals and for fishing

In Tharaka South County SALT is working within 601.7 square kilometres with a population of 64,548 people. This area has been mapped by the community and will be under the customary governance system of Tharaka community once the customary laws are written and passed by the county government of Tharaka Nithi to protect bio-cultural diversity.