Some of our East African partners and I quickly found ourselves from the asphalt to the north from the city of Isiolo in the Rift Valley in Zentral -kenia.
The landscape in part of Kenya Rift Valley. Photo loan: Laissa Malih
The landscape may seem strong, empty, without human activity, but when we looked deeper, there are many pastoralists. A little boy follows a large herd of goats who moves them for his family.
The young Samburu warrior moves her herd over the landscape. Photo loan: Laissa Malih
Numerous large camels compete along an empty river bed, the first with a cowbell, all navigated by a man who runs under the shadow of a series of high acacia trees.
Camels are a valuable herd in East Africa. Photo loan: Laissa Malih
Tiny villages of pastoralist families who tie together together populate small enclaves from the country, remote from large city populations. Soon, as soon as you know what you have to look for, you can see the whole country fully used and well cared for by the experts who did this during the generations.
Pastorist villages populate the landscape of East Africa. Photo loan: Laissa Malih
While the cattle move over terrain, cut plants to help them get stronger when they graze. Huft to the ground as they go, sometimes dig to Essen, and of course the fertilizer who is left behind while grazing.
Pastoralists perform easily and live in balance with the country. Not a single thing is wasted.
A young samburu boy with his cattle. Photo loan: Laissa Malih
A young samburu boy with his cattle. Photo loan: Laissa Malih
Samburu Warriors take out cattle one after the other for weeks or months, since the strategic mobility of the pastoralists and their cattle is important for the regeneration of the landscape. In addition, move from a pasture area to the next when you follow the rains. You wear a stick and/or a spear, a small wooden headrest to sleep and maybe a pumpkin to milk a cow for some food while navigating through the herd.
They only take what the earth offers and nothing more. Pastoralists who are semi-nomadic often move, follow the cycles of rain patterns and literally live from the country.
This is the definition of resilience and it was lived before the word existed.
Governments of several East African countries may want to push pastoralists from the country to create space for development, or external actors want to take the country for “nature conservation”, but our partners are the real conservationists.
Finally our small team rolls into the tiny village of South Horr, on the eastern flank of Mount Nyiro, the holy mountain of the Samburu people in this region of Kenya.
Mountains of North Kenia, in which Mount Nyiro is located. Photo loan: Laissa Malih
The cool evening air sits outside in the village under a papaya tree and is thick with the sounds of grilling, the occasional hundred in the distance and steamed conversations from a distance. The darker it gets, the calmer the village.
Karin Sepeika, program manager of Rasimali Sacco of Indigener Movement for Peace Tax and Conflict Transformation (Effects), speaks to a reporter near Rasimali Sacco. Impact is one of the seven partners of the Home Planet Fund in East Africa. It begins to explain how important the local communities are with which they work because they are the experts. The reporter asks her about carbon loans, as this represents the latest threat from exploitation in pastoralist communities.
Our partners in Kenya follow up to 500 kilograms of carbon per hectare every year. To put this in the right perspective, every person in our body contains about eight kilograms of carbon. Together with other African pastoralists, our partners have the carbon equivalent of every person on earth one after the other.
Young Samburu Warrior with his cattle. Photo loan: Laissa Malih
Samburu Warriors harvest fresh grass for young calves. Photo loan: Laissa Malih
Impact works with pastoralists on many fronts – sure that they are paid fairly in the carbon trading markets, that there is transparency, that everyone understands what is happening around the rural residents who are paid for CO2 crutches, and that this is done in a good way. Carbon loans are certificates that are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and there is an entire financial market for the purchase and sale of CO2 credits. It is now absolutely necessary that pastoralists know how to act in projects from the carbon offset and know the guidelines and regulations for these projects in relation to these projects and their potential financial advantages so that they are not used by large companies that enter the carbon market in East Africa.
Danson Ledaany, a paralegal that works for Impact, is quiet to listen to the nearby, if there are questions.
A blessing ceremony takes place near the modest guest house in which we live. The Samburu men in the village are preparing for one of their young men's transition rites. A man calls out a long blessing, speaks quickly and steadily of a part. The rest of the men drives the blessing rhythmically with a simultaneous and stak -catic “NKAI” sting in a rhythm that corresponds to that of a heartbeat.
Another village of the pastoralists in the North Central Kenia. Photo loan: Laissa Malih
The next morning the birds are thick and constant. It is possible to identify at least 20 different ways before getting out of bed.
Goats, children laugh and scream. A dog barks. People wake up and start talking. A tap. There are no motors to be heard.
All of these are signs of a healthy ecosystem – such as the community that lives together and with the country, is also intact.
This is how it feels and sounds to be embedded in an intact indigenous culture. It is alive, alive and strong. The existence of the Samburu pastoralists comes from and exists with the country, and the country is therefore satisfied.
This is what our partners supports at Impact, all pastoralists – Maasai, Samburu, Borana, Rendile and Turkana.
And that's why we support them.
We are all for the earth.
Teaser Image Credit: Left Malih