Troubled northern Kenya seeks peace through conserving resources

“We are encouraging people to restore the degraded land through planting of trees, conserving water points and rejecting charcoal burning,” said Steven Ali, chief of the Pastoralist Community Development Organisation, a lobby group promoting peaceful coexistence in the region in an interview with Alertnet. The effects of climate change and poor land management has led to a situation in northern Kenya, in which locals find it increasingly difficult to earn a livelihood.

“Life changed,” says Halima Halake local resident. “When we are not hiding from dust storms, we are fleeing from floods.” Families displaced by the weather extremes “settle back (only) when these are over.”

he International Small Group and Tree Planting Program help farmers to mitigate deforestation, drought and famine in order to prevent conflicts over limited resources.