World heritage sites are among key biodiversity areas that are under growing threat in Kenya.
The world’s largest conservation partnership organisation warns that mining and agricultural expansion remain the major threats.
“Across
Africa, key sites including world heritage sites, zero extinction sites, and ramsar sites – some of which are
protected areas – face serious threats from damaging development,”BirdLife International said.
Between 2015
and 2025, Africa lost about 29.6 million hectares of forest, while over
30 per cent of its grasslands face severe degradation.
BirdLife
International marked 15 years of its African Site Casework on Emerging Threats
Taskforce (ASCET), a continent-wide initiative of BirdLife Partner
organizations which aims at saving sites facing threats from damaging developments.
BirdLife
is the world’s largest conservation partnership with over 10 million members
and supporters, and over 123 national partners worldwide (27 in Africa).
The
partnership strives to conserve birds, their habitats, and global biodiversity,
working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural re
The
African Site Casework on Emerging Threats Taskforce (ASCET) has helped safeguarded
35 major sites from damaging developments since 2010.
The
2025 Global Wetlands Outlook Report shows that the world has lost about 22 per
cent of wetlands since the 1970s, with some of the steepest declines happening
in Africa.
Since
its establishment in 2010, ASCET has stopped or slowed down damaging threat at more
than 35 sites in Africa, covering 79,889 square kilometres, approximately the size of
Sierra Leone.
BirdLife International’s policy and communications coordinator for Africa Ken Mwathe said socio-economic development is an imperative for residents.
“However,
development that threatens Africa’s iconic and natural places is inherently
destructive and must be challenged,” he said.
Mwathe
said over the past 15 years, BirdLife Africa Partners working through ASCET,
have harnessed the Power of Many to champion sustainable development: growth
that balances human progress with the urgent need to protect Africa’s last wild
places, which serve as crucial biodiversity refuges, water
Regional
Director for Africa, BirdLife International Kariuki Ndang’ang’a, said protecting
sites is not a one-time event.
“It
takes deliberate planning and collaboration amongst partners, local
communities, and government agencies. ASCET in its 15 years has demonstrated
that consistency, focused leadership and simplified workflows play a key role in
achieving success.”
ASCET
coordinates action through providing a platform for raising partner advocacy, information
exchange, and flexible financial support for emergency site action.
Over
the past 15 years, the forum has evolved from a reactive site casework unit to
an early warning unit that tackles threats.
ASCET
now provides flexible financial support for early-stage threats- based
surveillance and rapid emergency site interventions.
This
has enhanced capability, enabling timely responses to emerging conservation
threats, thus helping safeguard critical ecosystems and biodiversity before threats strike.
ASCET has been instrumental in tracking the roll-out of KBAs and KBA-National Coordination
Groups (NCGs) in Africa.
NCGs
enhance coordination of KBAs conservation efforts at the national level by bringing
together government and non-state actors.
Currently,
there are 15 NCGs established across the continent, including in Uganda, the Republic of Congo, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, Liberia,
Madagascar, Ghana, Guinea, Gabon, Egypt, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
and Sierra Leone.
ASCET
has also been instrumental in shaping policy by engaging with various
Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) in addition to regional, national
and subnational policy frameworks.
Central
to ASCET’s success has been engagement of local communities living alongside these
protected and ecologically sensitive sites. Hundreds of stakeholders, including community
members and local authorities’ officials, in various countries, have been
trained in advocacy efforts.
ASCET
has raised awareness about its work through various platforms, with more than
10 million people reached through Social Media platforms, TV, Radio shows, and
on-the-ground advocacy initiatives.
BirdLife
International said it together with Nature Kenya helps protect the Yala Swamp, Kenya’s
largest swamp in 2025 after securing the revocation of a title deed allocated
to a private developer for 7,249 hectares of the swamp, among other threatened sites
in various countries.
