“The conservation of biological diversity is emerging as one of the gravest global
challenges of the 21st Century. The rapid expansion of human population, coupled
with burgeoning development and rising consumption, has caused a biodiversity
crisis. Extensive land conversion and rapid climate change caused by greenhouse gases have ushered in a new geological era–the Anthropocene– in which all major planetary processes are dominated by human activity. The global environmental transformation has profound implications for economies and societies and will most severely affect poor communities dependent on natural resources. The natural capital that underpins land health and resource production is being rapidly depleted in many regions of the world, most especially in Africa and among marginalized peoples. The threats to biodiversity conservation in Kenya are varied and acute. Human population growth and the pressure on land and renewable natural resources are the biggest threats. With
a population of 38 million growing at over 1 million people a year, Kenya’s natural resources are dwindling and its lands degrading. Forest cover that is vital
to water catchment, carbon sequestration and other ecological services, has shrunk by half in a decade. Further erosion of its natural capital will severely curb Kenya’s development goals outlined in Vision 2030 unless reversed quickly.”
