Kenya

THE REPUBLIC OF Kenya remains the center for east African trade and finance and is a world-renown destination for tourism. It is also beset by multiple, interrelated environmental concerns, including climate change, a rapidly growing human population, and a significant decline in flora and non-human fauna.

Straddling the Equator, Kenya is comprised of 225,000 sq. mi. (582,650 sq. km.) of diverse landscapes. These include wide, sandy beaches and coral reefs along the Indian Ocean coast in the southeast; the eastern African plateau and its semiarid plains; the Rift Valley, with freshwater and saltwater lakes surrounded by fertile uplands; northern deserts flanked by Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia; southern grasslands that blend into neighboring Tanzania; and, in the west, a portion of Lake Victoria, as well as densely farmed highlands that run partly along the border with Uganda. Mt. Kenya's glacier-capped peaks top out at 17, 057 ft. (5,199 m.) above sea level, making it the second tallest mountain in Africa after Tanzania's Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Over the past century, both Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro have experienced marked recessions in the thickness of their glaciers, as well as the output of melt water absorbed by other landscapes and their inhabitants.

While nearly 75 percent of Kenya's labor force is engaged in agriculture, more than 80 percent of the land is arid or semi-arid.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, sub-Saharan Africa is most vulnerable to projected changes due to global warming because widespread poverty and reliance on small-scale, rain-fed agriculture limit adaptation capabilities. Kenya has a population of 35 million, over half of whom live below the international poverty line. Although tourism and manufacturing contribute significantly to the Gross Domestic Product, the Kenyan economy relies heavily on export-oriented agriculture, with chief cash crop exports including water-intensive and climate-sensitive cut flowers, tea, and coffee. Nearly 75 percent of Kenya's labor force engages in agriculture and livestock production. More than 80 percent of Kenyan land is classified as arid or semiarid, and 30 percent of its population and more than half of its livestock reside there. Only 5–8 percent of Kenya's [Page 581]land is considered suitable for horticulture. Other Kenyan exports include cement, petroleum products, and fish. The expanding industrial sector of Nairobi is home to a number of multinational corporations. Emissions standards are variably enforced.

Periods of drought and flooding have been typical across millennia in East Africa. Still, scientists note that human-induced climate change has led to erratic rainfall and land transformations that, since Kenya's independence in 1963, have been record-setting in terms of the severity of their impacts. Since 1963, Kenya's population has doubled twice, and the concomitant pressures on land, flora, and fauna are exacerbated by drought and flooding. Thus, climate change, along with population growth and a reduction in farmland and grazing land, is closely connected to armed conflicts. Efforts by 2004 Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai and the Greenbelt Movement emphasize the link between environmental issues and peaceful governance.

From Kenya's agricultural base to national parks and reserves, there are likely to be substantial shifts in species diversity and community composition. The first sub-Saharan African country to do so, Kenya hosted the 2006 United Nations ministerial conference on climate change, comprised of the 12th Conference of the 189 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the 2nd Meeting of the 166 Parties to the Convention's Kyoto Protocol.

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