Are the Mountains Safe from the Development Activities?

Are the Mountains Safe from the Development Activities? Or are they vulnerable just like the other parts of conservation areas.

From the previous blog, we were to get to know some of mountains found in the amazing Kenya. It’s important I let you know that some of those mountains act as the source of water to most part f the country. They literally hold our lives as water is life.

Apart from being a source of many rivers and springs, they offer habitat to our wildlife and allow engage in various outdoor activities.

Wildlife land encroachment and grabbing have been the greatest and deadliest threat to the survival of wildlife. The land being grabbed was the one considered convenient for farming and adjusted to the farms. Mostly, the flat areas.

This may make you think that mountains are safe. But that’s not the case. We are still losing them to developments and civilization.

Threats facing Mountains

• Best trees are mostly found in the mountains. Hence loggers will target these places. Promoting deforestation and distrusting the vegetation cover in these particular mountains. They will do their best to sneak into these forests and cut down the trees.
• Demand for geothermal energy. This mostly affect the active volcano mountains. Energy companies over exploit them, destroying them in return. They go ahead to build plants at the foot of these mountains, introducing tarmacked roads, among other developments. Which cause more destruction to anything in the mountains. Wildlife get killed by the speeding vehicles. Caves used by indigenous species get destroyed as they drill into the calderas. Continuous drilling lead to destruction of the vegetation within the mountains.
• Mountains are being bulldozed down to provide room for developments. This happens to the mountains that are within communities outside conservation areas. They are made flat like they never existed in the first place. It’s vegetation and animals, disappear in the process.
• The wildfires. The ones that occur naturally have less damage and more benefits. But the ones caused by humans, end up wiping away both vegetation and wildlife (insects, big animals, birds, etc).

Destruction of the mountains due to development activities is our loss

Read the full article here.

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