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11 December 2008

Court case

On 11th July 2008 the High court (in Malindi) issued an injunction against the Tana Integrated Sugar Project. 

To download a copy of the Malindi High Court orders, please click on the links below:

Tana court orders, page 1 (application/pdf, 548.7 kB, info)
Tana court orders, page 2 (application/pdf, 555.5 kB, info)
Tana court orders, page 3 (application/pdf, 646.2 kB, info)

After a judicial mix up, the Chief Justice determined that the case will be heard at the High Court in Malindi.  A hearing for the court case is scheduled for 9th February 2009.

Advocacy

The Climate Ark online petition has now finished.  In total, 4,767 people from 96 countries sent 191,578 protest emails to the Kenya government and other recipients. Thank you to all that participated in the petition.

Ramsar COP 10: The Tana Delta was mentioned at Ramsar COP 10, even though it is not yet listed as a Ramsar site.  Under draft resolution X13 on the status of Ramsar sites the COP recommended that the Kenya government provide the Secretary General with further information concerning any changes to proposals for major conversion of the Tana delta for sugar production.

See resolution X13 for more details.

AEWA MOP 4: The Delta was also mentioned at AEWA MOP 4 that took place in Madagascar in September 08.  BirdLife recommended it as a task for the Standing Committee to look at the situation in the Delta.

Publicity

Tana film

The filming phase of the Tana Delta documentary is over and now Dr. Adrian Seymour is editing.  Unfortunately, Mumias, TARDA and NEMA declined our invitations for interviews. However, the Nature Kenya and KWS Directors, and the Dean of the Environment faculty at the Kenyatta university gave us excellent interviews.  K24, a local TV station has agreed to air the film once it is finished. We also plan to show it widely in the Delta, using mobile units.  Nature Kenya will provide copies of the DVD to partners who would wish to publicize it further. Already NABU (BirdLife in Germany), and the RSPB office in Ireland have requested for the DVD.  The film will also be available online.

The film is kindly funded by the RSPB, the biodiversity films project (coordinated by Dr. David Harper), Schweizer Vogelschutz SVS/BirdLife Schweiz (Swiss BirdLife partner), DOF (BirdLife in Denmark).IUCN and the EU.

5th December 2008

At their annual general meeting, shareholders of Mumias Sugar Co. disowned plans to grow sugarcane in the Tana Delta, terming it as a poor mode of investing.  This is additional ammunition for our campaign.  The shareholders will be even more disenchanted when we release the documentary on Tana scheduled for mid January.  During filming interviews with farmers from Mumias showed gross waste by the company in delayed harvesting of cane.  In Busia, there is more than 15,000 hectares of sugarcane some of which has not been harvested in more than 3 years and the people are begging for a sugar factory.

Financial support

The campaign to save the Tana River Delta is kindly supported by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (BirdLife in UK), Schweizer Vogelschutz SVS/BirdLife Schweiz (Swiss BirdLife partner) and DOF (BirdLife in Denmark).

Thank you for your support

The media has maintained an interest in the Tana Delta sugar project.  To view recent publicity please click here.

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