Kenya wildfire threatens region of rare wildlife, plant species
Dann Okoth, Mongabay
February 4, 2025
See link
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/kenya-wildfire-threatens-region-of-rare-wildlife-plant-species/
for photos and map.
An environmental disaster is unfolding in Isiolo county, in northeastern
Kenya, following a recent wildfire outbreak that devastated large swaths of
the region, according to experts who are calling for urgent measures to
address the consequences of the tragedy.
The area hosts thousands of animal and plant species, including critically
endangered white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum).
On Jan. 21, hundreds of elephants were seen fleeing toward Marti Plateau,
at the border with Samburu county to the south, to escape the fire,
according to eyewitnesses.
“It is an ecological disaster of epic proportions,” says Mali ole Kaunga, a
local conservation group member in Isiolo.
“An entire ecosystem was wiped out in a matter of days,” Kaunga tells
Mongabay, adding, “But we are still to come to terms with the real impact
of this tragedy.”
According to John Wambua, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) senior assistant
director, eastern conservation area, the big animals may have escaped the
fire, with thousands of crawling animals and birds not spared.
“We do not have the complete inventory yet, but thousands of crawling
animals such as snakes, rodents and some rare bird species and indigenous
plants were lost in the fire,” Wambua tells Mongabay.
“Most were burnt to ashes and we may not even account for each one of them
at the end of the day,” he adds.
Besides the “big five” ― elephants, lions, leopards, buffalos, rhinos ―
Isiolo is also home to Kenya’s rarest animals, including the white rhino,
reticulated giraffe (Giraffa reticulata), Grévy’s zebra (Equus grevyi),
Somali ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes) and gerenuk (Litocranius walleri).
The inferno broke out on Jan. 19 in Merti subcounty and quickly spread to
other areas including Martaba, Korbesa, Malkagala, Iresaboru, Badana and
Sericho, wiping an estimated 81,000 hectares (200,000 acres) of grazing and
rangelands.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, according to officials
from the Kenya Red Cross and the Kenya Wildlife Society (KWS).
Bone-dry conditions occasioned by prolonged drought and winds of up to 200
kilometers per hour (124 mph) saw the fire consume huge swaths of grazing
and rangeland in minutes, locals say.
According to Gregory Macharia, Kenya Red Cross regional program officer, a
multiagency team comprising his organization, KWS, Kenya Forest Service and
the local community was deployed to fight the fire.
“However, our efforts were hampered by lack of proper firefighting
equipment to fight fire over such vast areas,” he says.
Instead, the team deployed bulldozers and other heavy equipment to create
buffer zones to prevent the fire from spreading.
By the evening of Jan. 24, fires in Merti, Martaba, Korbesa and Malkagala
had been contained, according to Macharia.
While the real impact on wildlife is yet to register, the bearing on
communities is immediate.
“We have lost two years’ worth of grazing resources,” Kaunga tells
Mongabay, adding, “Hundreds of herders are already stranded with their
animals”.
“Soon we will witness conflicts not just between humans and wildlife, but
between human and human, as people scramble for scarce resources,” he adds.
In order to prevent “a catastrophe,” he urges the government to enact
emergency measures to supply water and animal feed to nearby communities.
For conservationists, the bigger problem is not the fire but the potential
environmental fallout in its wake. “We will be in trouble if it doesn’t
rain soon,” Wambua notes, adding, “Wildlife will start to move to safer
areas — in this case, populated areas to look for food, which will cause
human-wildlife conflict.”
On the flip side, herders will likely encroach nearby wildlife sanctuaries
looking for grazing resources, he explains.
“Conservancies in Isiolo are holding rare wildlife like the white rhino —
if these fragile ecosystems are invaded, the fate of such endangered
species hangs in the balance,” Wambua says.
Philip Muruthi, vice president, species conservation and science at the
African Wildlife Foundation, notes that although the savanna vegetation is
expected to recover quickly from disturbances after the rains around March
and April, the wildlife will be displaced and animals that cannot move will
most likely perish.
“Endangered species like Grévy’s zebra will be at greater risk of
populations being affected than wildlife species with larger populations
across their range,” Muruthi tells Mongabay.
Large herbivores like elephants that require large amounts of pasture, and
animals that live in swampy areas, will suffer the most, as well as
livestock and people — especially in this dry season as they also depend on
the scorched areas for grazing, he says.
“Such fires are expected between January and March when temperatures are
high within the area,” he says.
Warning that tragedies like this will persist unless variables like climate
change that make fire events worse are contained, Wambua is calling for
controlled burnings to avoid destructive fires or enhanced grazing patterns
to reduce combustible forage during high temperatures.
He calls on authorities to incorporate local and Indigenous people in
developing solutions to curb the emerging threats of fire as well as
instituting fire management strategies with a landscape approach.
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/kenya-wildfire-threatens-region-of-rare-wildlife-plant-species/