A million flamingos could lose home as Kenyan lake dries up

[lovuian]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=609189

A million flamingos could lose home as Kenyan lake dries up
By Rob Crilly in Nairobi
09 February 2005


Kenya's Lake Nakuru, one of the world's great natural spectacles and home to more than a million flamingos, is in imminent danger of drying up, conservationists have warned.

The sight of the birds taking flight in a dense pink cloud has become essential viewing for hundreds of thousands of tourists on safari in Kenya, but the lake is dying because of deforestation around the national park and water levels are dropping dramatically. Joseph Warutere, national park warden at the lake, said that without protection Nakuru could disappear.

Local business leaders said its loss would have a catastrophic effect on tourism. Peter Kinya, chairman of the Nakuru Business Association, said the time for action had come. "We cannot afford to lose such an important national heritage by sitting back and watching man-made activities destroy it," he told the KenyanDaily Nation newspaper. "We have to rise up and protect our lake."

more...

evidence of Man's mischievous!!!

[ClarkUSA]

1. Hint: Plant some damn trees on a large organized scale and pay for it

Then employ female villagers to do it on an expanding basis and pay them for upkeep so they can support their families.

See 2004 Nobel-Prize winner's work.

Repeat. Better yet, hire her as a consultant.

[DulceDecorum]

2. I wish it were that easy.

Wangari Mathai does not need any money and everyone around there knows about planting trees. But what is one to do with all the tourists? And how is one to cook without firewood?

Lake Nakuru is a soda lake. The water is highly saline to start off with and as the lake dries up it becoomes even more salty and those pollutants are not helping matters any.

But Lake Nakuru is part of a complex interconnected undergound water system and that particular part of the Great Rift Valley is on shaky ground.
http://www.eastandard.net/archives/cl/hm_news/news.php?articleid=12200

In 1951 there were tremors in that area
and Lake Nakuru is said to have dried up for about two years following this.

That tsunami is probably going to mess things up big time.

[cvoogt]

3. yeah, protect tourism at all costs ..

as if that is the only reason to take care of the environment. If barring tourists would save the lake, they should do it, but of course they have to make a living. So to pay for the planting of trees or other lake-saving activities, raise prices for tourists. Most of them wouldn't notice or mind the increase in price anyway, and if it's explained what they higher costs are for they may actually be happy to pay it. If it gets sold as eco-tourism, people will buy into it. Take Costa Rica as an example.